Brief Story Line
Set in the dystopian future, the US society was divided into the wealthy living on the side of the well established cities while majority lived at the slum side. Ben Richards (Glen Powell - Twisters 2024, Chad Powers TV series etc) had been out of job and had to rely financially on his wife Sheila (Jayme Lawson - Sinners, Genius TV series etc) who worked at a night club. But when their infant daughter was sick and in need of medication, Ben decided to audition for any programs from the FreeVee network that would offer cash rewards.
Unexpectedly, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin -Weapons, Sicario: Day of the Soldado etc) the producer of most successful but dangerous show Running Man was interested in Ben's physical ability and past that he tried to enlist him. Despite his wife's disapproval, Ben decided to join the show where he had to survive for 30 days from the chase of the Hunters led by Evan (Lee Pace - Bodies Bodies Bodies, Pushing Daisies TV series etc) and the civilians who would get rewards if they report or kill the Runners.
So would Ben be able to survive and reunite with his family with everything against him? You could find out in this film.
End of Brief Story Line
When I read a bit about this movie, I found out that it was actually a remake of 1987 film of the same title with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role as Ben Richards. To my surprise, I had no recollection of the movie at all, so either I never saw it in the cinema or it was not that successful or popular to make me see it in cable TV or streaming service till now. Anyway, I was actually pretty excited to see this since the premise was interesting and it looked quite suspenseful. And it certainly delivered in term of the intensity, although it was not the kind that was full of explosive action but.
Now I do not want to go in too deep on the social issue of the large gap of the society in here (I'll let the more established critics to handle those), but I did admire the way the director show the distinct difference. My wife and I spot it immediately when we saw Ben walking around the streets where he lived and entered the other side. I think it was pretty clever of the director Edgar Wright (famous for his stylish action of directing in Baby Driver, Last Night in Soho and few others), to show this part. However, for a movie set in dystopian, it did not look too clear. I guess he chose not to make the future to be too far ahead, cause everything seemed to be set in the present (except of course for the deadly reality show, but the rest were already available). Nevertheless, I like the action sequence here, especially the ones where Ben was trying to evade capture by the Hunters.
As the leading man, I thought Glen Powell did a pretty good job. He had proven himself more than capable of doing so in other movies, while I thought Josh Brolin was perfect as the dirty producer Dan Killian. During the opening scenes, I noticed so many names credited that made me wonder if they were playing very important characters. Turned out though they were mostly in support roles. The most notable additional cast were Colman Domingo (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Fear the Walking Dead TV series etc) as the host of Running Man Bobby T, William H. Macy (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Jurassic Park III etc) as Molie who provided assistance to Ben (though I think he did not get enough intro), Daniel Ezra (All American TV series etc) and Michael Cera (Barbie etc) as Bradley and Elton respectively who decided to assist Ben during his run, Katy O'Brian (Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania etc) as another contestant Jenni and Emilia Jones (Locke & Key TV series etc) as Amelia the civilian who was caught in the crosshair of the show. There were plenty others in more minor capacity but I did not notice the appearance of Arnold's picture in one of the scenes which my wife somehow caught a glimpse.
The movie itself had a long duration of 133 minutes which was understandable as it had to cover the background story, the running and the conclusion. In case you are not aware, this film was a second adaptation of the 1982 novel with same title by the famous Stephen King. My wife noted the mentioning of Maine which was like King's favorite state, while I also caught the city Derry as one of the location. The first adaptation was the Schwarzenegger 1987 version that was not too well received, but it was seen as quite amazing prediction of the 2017 then where a lot of them actually became a reality. I read that Stephen King praised this remake, even though critics seemed to be a bit mixed. By the time I post this, the weekend box office performance was not too awesome and it remained to be seen if it would be a success, considering it had a rather high production budget of > 100 Million USD.
Overall to me and my wife, this was an entertaining movie. It did not have complicated story and the game show was well done. The special effects were pretty good and even if the action was not overly spectacular, they were still quite enjoyable. Only thing I was not too happy was the sound effects in our studio which felt muffled/dampened. I also felt the dystopian future not clearly shown in here, though it was not a major factor that lessen the entertainment value. So if you are looking for an interesting dystopian action thriller film with quite strong moral message based on the amazing work of Stephen King, then I think you would enjoy this one. But if you want to see a full explosive nonstop action with distinct dystopian setting (cyberpunk), then this might not exactly be your favorite. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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