Welcome to this special edition where I’ve got my friend and site contributor, Ted Saydalavong, joining me to review the same film. Since Ted has read Stephen King’s book and watched the 1987 movie, we have different expectations and reactions to it. Did we end up with two totally different takes on the film? Well, keep reading to find out.

TED’s Review:

I first saw the original Running Man (1987) back when I was in grade school. Being that I’m a big fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger, I had to see all his films. The Running Man wasn’t a huge success at the box office, but it grew to become a well-known cult classic throughout the years. I was also a big fan of Stephen King, but I didn’t know that the film was based on a King novel. I later found out that King wrote the book under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. Curious to know how the book is compared to the film, I decided to give it a read. I was surprised that the book was nothing like Arnold’s film. I read it a couple of times, and to this day, it’s still one of my favorite King novels. I wanted to see a faithful adaptation for a long time, and I was excited when Edgar Wright announced that he was making the new version of The Running Man.

While it didn’t really specify the time, this version of the film took place in the year 2025, but in King’s novel universe. Society has been divided into two groups, the rich and the poor; there is no middle class in this universe. Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is struggling to provide his wife, Sheila (Jayme Lawson), with financial support, and his baby is sick, unable to receive the proper care in the slums of the big city. He also has anger issues, and it’s one of the reasons why he is struggling to find work. With his wife working long shifts to keep them afloat financially and him unable to find any work, Ben decides to enter a popular game show called The Running Man.

If he wins the grand prize, he could move his family out of the slum and get proper medical treatment for his child. With his strong physical skills, Ben impresses the man in charge of the game show, Killian (Josh Brolin). He was also introduced to game show host Bobby T (a scene-stealing Colman Domingo). The rule of the game is simple: if Ben can stay alive for 30 days, he wins $1 billion in new money. This wasn’t mentioned in the movie, but in the novel, two new money systems were created. One for the poor and one for the rich. So basically, if Ben wins the grand prize, he automatically becomes part of the rich society. Once the game starts, Ben must stay alive and elude the hunters led by McCone (Lee Pace).

The screenplay is credited to Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright, who also directed the film. Bacall and Wright stay very faithful to King’s novel. They accurately created a world that I envisioned when I read the book. So, a big shout-out to Production Designer Marcus Rowland. Unfortunately, that’s the only positive thing I have to say about the movie. While I appreciate the faithfulness to the source material, the story was kind of a dud. The movie was surprisingly dull.

I didn’t see any witty direction from Wright, and the action scenes lacked creativity. He tried to please too many people here. While he stays truer to the book, he also throws in silly humor that didn’t land, and other elements from the 80s film to make fans of that film happy. I wish he had chosen a tone for this movie and stuck with it. The book was dark, gritty, and bleak, and I wanted to see that version. Also, I was not happy that he and Bacall changed the ending from the book.

As for the performances, I thought the casting of Powell was a perfect choice. He fits the description of what King wrote in the novel. The character is supposed to be a regular person, so he doesn’t have the superhuman abilities like other action heroes, so he relied on his wits and help from other people to survive. I thought Powell was fine here. I don’t think this film will make him a superstar, though. I like Brolin’s over-the-top performance as the main baddie. He’s your typical greedy corporate executive. Lee Pace didn’t have much to do here until the final showdown between him and Ben in the climactic fight. In the book, King didn’t focus much on the game show host, but I’m glad they expanded the role, and I enjoyed Domingo as the over-the-top host.

Maybe I had way too big expectations for this movie since I’ve been waiting for a long time to see King’s version hitting the big screen. But this version was a letdown, and I believe it came out 2 decades late. While reality TV shows are still airing on TV, social media has taken over pop culture, and I thought Wright would take advantage of that and make a movie that’s more relevant to our current reality.

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RUTH’s Review:

This is the second dystopian film based on Stephen King’s book this year, after The Long Walk, that gets adapted to the big screen. Unlike Ted, I haven’t read the book nor seen the original 1987 version, so I can’t really compare them in this review. I did learn that Edgar Wright‘s version sticks much closer to King’s book, while still focusing on a guy who enters a violent game show for prize money.

In this version, Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is just a poor working man really needing a job after getting blacklisted by every company for chatting with a union rep about the dangerous radiation at his job. His baby daughter’s down with the flu, but he and his wife can’t scrape together enough cash for medicine. Meanwhile, there are all these ads for the game show “The Running Man” that promise a whopping $1 billion New Dollars (with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s face on the $100 bill as a nod). Out of sheer desperation, Ben has to go against his wife’s wishes and enter the brutal reality game show, fully aware it might cost him his life.

Unlike being confined to an arena, this version lets the contestants, called runners, roam freely around the globe, while the ‘hunters’ tasked with taking them out are hot on their trail. Similar to John Wick, Ben not only has to dodge bullets from these armed thugs working for the network, but he also has to be cautious of regular folks who might want to cash in by reporting him or even more money for actually taking out the contestants.

It’s interesting that Wright, who’s famous for his fast-paced, energetic action comedies like the “Cornetto Trilogy,” Scott Pilgrim, and Baby Driver, wants to dive into a story that’s brutally bleak with a hopeless and tragic conclusion. While I wouldn’t say this version is an action comedy, the tone is at times lighthearted, peppered with funny moments, sometimes even a bit cartoonish (the part with Michael Cera really gets the audience laughing). The segments featuring the rebel video creator Bradley, aka Apostle (Daniel Ezra), seem disjointed and pull me out of the story rather than enhancing it.

It’s as if Wright wanted to please the audience who loves the darker vision of King’s novel without wanting to completely alienate those who love the campiness of the 80s version. Perhaps there’s a bit of studio meddling, which is ironic considering the subject matter of unchecked corporate power, against making the film overly bleak or nihilistic. The script by Wright and Michael Bacall is uneven, devoid of subtlety, and gets overly verbose (too much mansplaining) in the third act when Amelia (Emilia Jones) shows up.

Powell fits the role of the main character well, although he seems more annoyed, like he’s having a rough day, rather than someone who’s genuinely furious and crushed by the system. One could argue that Ben has a short fuse and is impulsive, hence his decision to join the game despite his initial refusal. Thankfully, there aren’t any cheesy one-liners, but the scene where he escapes from the goons with just a towel around his waist gives off more of a comedic adventure vibe than that of a dire and brutal dystopian thriller. Even the disguise Ben puts on early on is so goofy, it feels like a droll reference to Powell’s role in Hit Man.

I know that Hollywood is really pushing Powell to be the next action hero, perhaps taking on Tom Cruise’s mantle (who often gets a mention every time Powell is interviewed). He’s certainly got that unique combo of being a likable everyman but also a strapping heroic figure, but I’m not sure he’s as charismatic as people think. I’m more impressed by Josh Brolin, who’s freakishly good as the villain Dan Killian. He relishes playing bad guys. Killian is a conniving, manipulative megalomaniac with grand vision, basically Thanos in human form. Colman Domingo is the perfect showman as the flashy, flamboyant game show host, while poor Lee Pace is practically wasted as the masked lead hunter McCone.

What stands out is the meticulous production design by Marcus Rowland. The ominous corporate setting is vividly depicted here. Rowland’s design provides a stark contrast between the grim, impoverished neighborhood inhabited by the less fortunate and the polished, fortified metropolis where the affluent ‘haves’ dwell. The layout of Co-Op City reminds me a bit of the grimy environment depicted in AppleTV’s dystopian sci-fi series, SILO. Chung-hoon Chung’s cinematography feels futuristic yet still down-to-earth, without relying too heavily on the bright neon lights and high-contrast visuals one often associates with Blade Runner. Steven Price, who created the amazing score for Gravity, composed the music here, but it’s not particularly memorable, so it’s not really one of his standout pieces.

Ultimately, The Running Man is a lively popcorn action flick that’s entertaining enough for a little over two hours, but ultimately forgettable. The vibrant energy of the first two acts diminishes by the third, all the way to its rushed, uncharacteristically hopeful ending. It feels like a missed opportunity for a biting social critique against extreme capitalism.

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Well, hope you enjoy our reviews! What did you think of the 2025 The Running Man?