The second Stephen King adaptation under the Richard Bachman pen name to arrive this year presents a vastly different kind of dystopian hellscape, one where the country is in the grip of both an authoritarian state and vapid bombast. Director Edgar Wright, along with Scott Pilgrim vs the World screenwriter Michael Bacall, adheres more faithfully to King’s The Running Man than the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle. Yet Wright quickly proves far too upbeat and optimistic for the material, yielding a brisk actioner that ultimately pulls its punches.
In a far more futuristic vision of 2025, the country has become a totalitarian empire that keeps a steadfast grip on citizens through their screens. Reality TV is bigger than ever, but it’s also far deadlier, too. Enter Ben Richards (Glen Powell), a desperate father and husband with an anger problem who finds himself as a contestant on America’s popular but high-stakes “The Running Man,” where participants must survive 30 days while evading professional hunters and fans eager to engage. It’s the type of rigged series with impossible rules and odds, masterminded by a nefarious producer, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), but Ben is far more disgruntled than your average player.
L-r, Katy O’Brian, Colman Domingo, Glen Powell and Martin Herlihy star in Paramount Pictures’ “THE RUNNING MAN.”
The Running Man takes its cue from its showy namesake, edited with hyper-stylized, pulpy flair that transforms Ben’s life into a gritty but no less flashy game show. It’s a grim reality filtered through artifice, as Wright’s more upbeat and playful instincts clash with the action and violence, dampening the impact. It makes for a visually engaging entry point in this dystopian hellscape, made more effective by Wright’s breakneck pacing, but it quickly becomes apparent that there’s not much happening beneath the surface.
Ben Richards is presented as an everyman with an above-average level of rage, but Powell’s action prowess and star power quickly position the reluctant icon of rebellion as a far more formidable problem than Killian or his cronies, led by a masked Lee Pace, ever anticipated. The script seems so determined to create a simple “us vs. them” scenario that focuses almost entirely on the protagonist, which means that each character encountered amounts to nothing more than fleeting archetypal cogs in the totalitarian machine. That even includes Ben’s wife, Sheila (Jayme Lawson, Sinners), a character that we barely meet and lacks chemistry with the film’s lead, yet is constantly dangled as the motivating carrot. This becomes a fatal flaw by the film’s baffling climax and through the closing moments, where Wright erases any scathing critique about the state of the world through left-field optimism and unearned sentimentality.
Michael Cera stars in Paramount Pictures’ “The Running Man.”
Scott Pilgrim star Michael Cera heralds in the film’s flashiest and most entertaining set piece that perfectly marries Wright’s comedic leanings with deranged violence that teases a far better film. The Running Man offers slickly polished and propulsive action that delivers on surface-level entertainment, but it quickly unravels with contradicting, superficial messaging and tonal clashes. Wright tees up scathing critiques only to sweep them aside for cheery splatstick in a way that almost entirely scrubs this adaptation of stakes, poignancy, and the dystopian themes of King’s source novel. It makes for a mostly toothless adaptation that bizarrely opts for empty escapism fun.
The Running Man springs into theaters on November 14, 2025.
The post ‘The Running Man’ Review – Edgar Wright Sprints Through Stephen King Adaptation with Slick Action appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
