“Hunt! Him! Down!”

Justin’s rating: It ain’t plain zero!

Justin’s review: Stephen King showed great prescience of our upcoming obsession with savage reality TV when he published The Running Man in 1982. This modern take on Roman bloodsports wasn’t unique — see Deathsport or Death Race 2000 from the ’70s — but it was edgy for the time and had an amazing hook. Perfect for a movie, really, which is why at least two future US state governors starred in a movie adaptation of it in 1987.

Yeah, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Running Man caused a worldwide cheese shortage that year, but it became iconic in its own right. Nobody really wanted to take a shot at a sequel or remake for decades to come… until 2025 rolled around, and a desperate Hollywood said, “What the hey.”

(Plus, and this is wild, the original Running Man novel was set in 2025, which must’ve sounded so futuristic in 1982. So that worked out pretty well.)

Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is a desperate man in a desperate situation. Blacklisted from work in a dystopian future and worried sick about his ill daughter, he enters the most infamous game show in town — The Running Man. In the show, a handful of runners are set loose in the country and chased down by a team of specialized hunters as well as the rest of the civilian population. If the runners survive a month, they get a billion dollars. Simple.

There are a couple other rules, most notably that the runners have to film and mail in a tape of themselves every day, which keeps them from going completely off the grid into, say, the deep wilderness. They’re tethered to the very civilization that wants them dead.

The odds are vastly stacked against him, but Ben’s got the motivation and one ace in the hole — he’s got a stash of hot-headed crazy that he’s kept on a short leash in polite company. Now… now it might be time to let that doggy out to go running.

That’s the fun of this Edgar Wright flick, seeing Ben’s sheer anger and some street smarts go up against the Network with its smarmy attitudes and limitless resources. The country-ruling corporation thinks it has a potential star on its hands, but Ben simply wants to save his kid… and burn down the whole system if he’s got the time.

I like it when a movie lets you gradually get to know a character through an adventure rather than front-loading all of those traits and backstories. Ben is more complex than you’d first believe, and he’s definitely more than just a rage machine. He might even be a pretty nice guy at heart.

In that same vein, Edgar Wright gradually reveals this universe to us, and it is far more messed up than a generic Judge Dredd dystopia. The world-building here is phenomenal, with so many great details and environmental storytelling scattered about. It’s all very satirical (and not that subtle), but that doesn’t make it any less fun.

I was a little dismayed to see how many critics and viewers alike were pretty down on this movie. I thought it was terrific fun — not a masterpiece and perhaps a touch long, but it grabbed me from Minute One to the final credits. It’s a whole lot more interesting than The Hunger Games, that’s for sure, and it’s different enough from the ’80s version to justify a different take on the story. I think this has potential to grow into a nice cult film in a few more years… and I’d buy that for a New Dollar.

Intermission!

• “And this is you NOT angry?”
• Arnold’s on the $100 bill now! Nice nod there.
• Look at the fuzzy hamster!
• “You mention my daughter again, they don’t make glass thick enough to keep me from choking you out.”
• Cool jumpsuits, all color coded
• Viewer discretion advised
• “My robot puts my pants on one leg at a time.”
• Record. Report. Reward.
• “That’s the spirit!”
• Always a welcome sight to have William H. Macy show up
• “Those TVs don’t watch you back.”
• “Want my snack pack?”
• “Here I am, a grown-ass man playing hide-and-seek for money.”
• Chekov’s grenade
• “Y!”
• “How fast can you run, Richards?” “Faster every day.”
• TrunkCam is an interesting way to portray a chase
• “She thinks you’re a demon but she’s fairly deaf.”
• Derry, Maine — nice Stephen King reference
• “It’s you against the world, brother. Why not be both?”
• Michael Cera’s funhouse of fun!
• “You have successfully yielded. Nice!”
• “Welcome to the Running Man.”