The Running Man

In a dystopian game show, Glen Powell must run for his life and survive for a month without being killed. At the end of a rainbow lies a huge pot of money which could drag his family out of poverty. Edgar Wright directs.

Where is the Edgar Wright in this though? The screenplay is a tonal mess, wanting to satirise the US but not going nearly hard enough and instead just pretty much telling it like it is. Oh we’re being watched all the time? Some people spend on a scarf what others earn in 2 months? Yeah I don’t know who’s laughing here that’s just the way it is right now.

It did have me for the 90 minutes or so though. Decent performances from Powell, Josh Brolin and Colman Domingo really help to set the scene and get you pumped for the actual contest. Yes there’s a little too much set up (and way too much exposition even mid-chase which kills the pace of the film), but by and large it all works.

Once we get going there’s some cool little ideas that unfold. It’s at its best when figuring out what to do and how to evade capture, and perhaps at its weakest when it’s just action sequences. This is a surprise given how good Baby Driver was, but for whatever reason this film isn’t allowed to stretch its legs creatively as much.

Where it starts to wobble is in its final third, where it becomes clear that there is no real vision for how to end the film. Perhaps it’s fitting that it ends on a plane that never lands.