"I wasn't bored with the pulse thumping action on display and with the likeable lead in Powell, it was a fun and thrilling watch"

The Running Man is the latest cinematic offering from Edgar Wright and true to form, it is an excellent, entertaining ride from start to finish, with excellent characters to root for and a stellar soundtrack, albeit a bit uneven with its tone at times.

Based on the novel of the same name by the incredible Stephen King (first published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982), this adaptation is touted to be closer to the book, than the 1987 version made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger and other than the name and the game show premise with doctored video footage there aren’t many one liners or over the top kills, this is a brutal cat and mouse, statewide game of hide and seek, that sees Ben Richards and his fellow Runners hunted down by the Network’s Hunters led by Evan McCone (Lee Pace).

So we are introduced to Ben Richards (Glen Powell), a down on his luck construction worker who was fired from his job for seemingly doing the right thing in a totalitarian, future set America that is ruled by corporations and owned by big tech conglomerates, desperate to save his sick daughter, he is convinced to join the game by the ruthless and charismatic Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) and quickly becomes a fan favourite.

The deadly game sees the 3 Runners try to survive for 30 days whilst being hunted by The Hunters as well as every citizen who is looking to cash in, think of it as Gladiatorial sport from Ancient Greece, Network Executive Dan Killian says as much in the film.

The casting is excellent, leading the picture is the aforementioned Glen Powell as Ben Richards, his fellow Runners are Katy O’Brien as Laughlin and Martin Herlihy as Jansky. Powell has been on quite the tear recently, with solid performances, here, he gets to further show his range as an action star. Colman Domingo stands out as Bobby T. the enigmatic host of The Running Man, howeer there isn’t enough of him and similarly Sean Hayes is reduced to nothing more than a cameo. However, it was wonderful seeing Emilia Jones shine as Amelia Williams, an unwilling ally of Powell’s Richards who reluctantly joins his side and providing a lot of help to Richards was Michael Cera as Conspiracy junkie Elton.

The Running Man has some clear things to say about the current political climate in the world, some may think that it over indulges with these allegories, but as it was written in the book so maybe it’s a coincidence? Who knows, I haven’t read the book. All I know is, is that it is eerily scary how similar a future written about in 1982 is to today’s world.

All in all, I had fun with this version of The Running Man, I wasn’t bored with the pulse thumping action on display and with the likeable lead in Powell, it was a fun and thrilling watch. I don’t think it needs a sequel, some films are better off as one offs and I think The Running Man is one such film.