The Running Man

Hunger Games: Catching Billionaires.

This is the third Stephen King film adaptation of the year, and the second one where someone has to walk or run away from death. Too much? Let’s break it down. The Running Man is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, which has already been adapted once before. This time we get a modern version with a lot of visual effects and Glen Powell as the Bruce Willis of a new generation.

The story follows Ben Richards, who lives in the futuristic “New America” and is so desperate for money for his family and his sick daughter that he ends up on one of many TV shows built on a simple idea: “Win some money” or “Die live on air for the entertainment of the audience”. He lands on the most brutal of them all, The Running Man, where the participant has to hide for 30 days from hunters (and literally the whole country) trying to kill him. If you survive the 30 days, you win one billion dollars.

The premise of the film is not something super original. The first thought, of course, is that this is yet another Hunger Games situation, exactly like The Long Walk that came out recently. Obviously, the books came out long before that, and most likely the Hunger Games were based on King’s ideas. Still, what we get here is a second project in a row with almost the same idea.

Does The Running Man have enough originality to stand out and carry some cultural weight? In short, no. Then again, there should not be much expectation from this film in the first place. It is a completely simple, straightforward movie for a one-time watch, in the evening at the cinema, with friends or with a crowd loudly rustling their popcorn and nachos.

It is a very obvious story about the top one percent of the rich, about a revolutionary guy thrown into his own kind of Survivor, about rich people being bad, ratings always winning, how propaganda works, and how only this working-class Batman can save everyone, get revenge, and give hope. Nothing special, though sometimes even such simple things are worth repeating a few times a year.

Glen Powell as Ben Richards is playing, who would you think, Glen Powell. Josh Brolin is perfectly adequate in his role. Colman Domingo is eccentric and slightly over the top, and Michael Cera plays something close to what Benicio Del Toro did in One Battle After Another. He is the cast member I would highlight here. Everything else is bright, simple, very straightforward, a film that does not really justify its right to exist but at least is not offensive in its message and does not try to act smarter than it is.

6/10