A review of the new film “The Running Man”
I haven’t read the 1982 novel by Stephen King, on which this film is based, and I haven’t seen the 1987 movie version, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, but it was one of those evenings when I fancied some mindless entertainment and I found that big-time by viewing this 2025 adaptation on an IMAX screen.
The central idea – a mass entertainment television programme that brutalises its players for the enjoyment and escapism of the masses – reminded me of the 1975 film “Rollerball”, but the world it imagines (ironically the novel was set in the year of the release of this new version) is all too redolent of today’s America, a society controlled by media corporations in which surveillance is ubiquitous and inequality and greed are totally dominant.
The female roles are underwritten and the sharpest performances come from Josh Brolin and Colman Domingo in hugely manipulative roles. The eponymous hero, the blue-collar worker Ben Richards, is played by Glen Powell, a rising star who some are calling the new Tom Cruise. He is immensely watchable but, in a messy plot, it is far from clear how Ben has the skills to beat the system and inspire revolution, while the ending is morally nasty.
The film is co-written, produced, and directed by Edgar Wright who has done better work (think “Baby Driver”), but here has a bigger budget that he splashes on noisy action sequences while failing to provide a better script.