My money’s on Glen Powell.
“The Running Man” is the movie “Jackpot” thought it was going to be but wasn’t. I’m still aggravated that it was a hit on Amazon Prime Video, when it featured so many hateful characters and hostility in order to qualify it as a comedy. “The Running Man,” which is Edgar Wright’s version of Stephen King’s book and the second film version after the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, makes smarter choices for its choice of entertainment.
The 1987 movie took place in 2017, while the book takes place in 2025. It’s now 2025 in our world, and while we don’t have flying monitors, we do have problems with our economy, entertainment value, and corruption. I was just enjoying “Code 3” and “Good Fortune” for their commentary on the economy, which couldn’t be more honest or consistent. This new version must take place somewhere further in the future, but still follows the same rules of “The Running Man” gameshow, in which lowlife people and criminals compete in a 30 day race against assassins assigned to murder them.
Glen Powell plays a jobless family man named Ben Richards, who has been fired from various jobs, and tries to find a new one to take care of his sick baby girl, while his wife (Jayme Lawson) is pulling double or triple shifts. He even uses her to prevent him from hurting the ones who refuse to give him another chance or a new job, while they think he’s using her a guilt trip trick. His only recourse is to audition for “The Running Man” gameshow, which he passes with flying colors thanks to his past, which might remind some people about how Dev Patel” was the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” winner for answering questions with his past in “Slumdog Millionaire.”
The producer of the show Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) sees potential in him, while the host Bobby Thompson (Colman Domingo) follows his boss’ order to make the contestants into bad people. There are three contestants per event (two of them are played by Katy O’Brien and Martin Helihy), and when the first two are down, the last one would be lucky enough to make it at 10 days on the run. Ben has some people on the inside who want to help him or are reluctant to do so, played by the likes of William H. Macy, Michael Cera, and Daniel Ezra.
This new “Running Man” should have a little more character development, but there are those worthy of your time, like the main hero played with surliness by Powell, the main villain played with charisma by Brolin, one of his assassins who is played by Lee Pace, and Cera with a house that Kevin McCallister would praise. Both Wright and co-writer Michael Bacall take King’s story and in their version, they use it to represent our society, and how there are those willing to fight back. And they also allow some wickedly funny and smart behaviors to bring out the energy and style.
While I got a painful headache with “Jackpot,” I was at the edge of my seat of “The Running Man,” and rooting for Powell’s character, who has better judgment than how his society would discriminate against him. There are good reasons for why anyone would audition to compete, and there are wrong reasons for why the behind the scenes would make them victims. And I’m pretty sure they have A.I. making the contestants look like bad people. And it’s all entertaining through Wright’s direction, and this is his first time behind the camera since “Last Night in Soho.”
The 1987 version had Schwarzenegger wrongfully convicted as a murderer, while this one has Powell having anger issues. I’m surprised they didn’t get Happy Gilmore to enter in the game.