2025 has been an interesting year for Richard Bachma—I mean King. With both The Long Walk and The Running Man coming out the same year. These titles offer a different, more dystopian side of King. While The Long Walk received its first adaptation this year, The Running Man previously had one in the 80s, the decade the book came out. The new version of The Running Man as a result would have to adapt the dystopian outlook from the 80s to become a contemporary film set within the same year the novel had taken place. Enter Edgar Wright’s The Running Man.
Full disclosure: I have never read or seen any version of The Running Man prior to this. This review will mostly evaluate the film compared to Edgar Wright’s previous films and elements found within the film. I have been a fan of Edgar Wright’s work for as long as I can remember, passed down from my Dad who was a fan of his popular series Spaced, I was quickly absorbed within his transition to film. Hot Fuzz, Shaun of The Dead remain favourites of mine in how they not only tackled genre, but had a smart and intelligent satire to go along with it.
The Running Man I felt should have been a slam dunk because of this, but my issues with the film stem from the pacing and structure of the film itself.
The opening feels a bit too rushed, and it takes a bit for Glen Powell (Ben Richards) to click for me within the film, which he does. But the rushed opening makes him feel like he’s in a different movie than everyone else.
A big negative for me with this film is that the connection the audience has with his family begins in the moment of a crisis, trying quickly to get Ben Richards into the (at this point) famous fictional game show, The Running Man. We do not really see much of his wife, Sheila Richards (Jayme Lawson). A lot of her role is expository, showing the stakes of The Running Man and how much the family is struggling. Her job is hinted at but never shown, and she’s in the film too briefly for the audience to get a strong connection. This becomes a problem when she’s the driving force for why Ben Richards does what he does. Their ailing kid you do feel for, but the child is too young to do any heavy lifting for the stakes of the film.
The film also struggles to update past the 80s and often uses dialogue found within the novel that tick out as a piece of contemporary cinema. Shows still use ratings, the aesthetic is still the 80s so whenever something that feels modern is added in, you can see the steams in which it has been placed. For instance, there’s a parody of The Kardashians and a self-driving car that looks like a Tesla. Having not read the novel, it didn’t matter a lot for me when the film feels a product of the 80s because it’s tied to both the original film and the novel of the same name. So whenever it deviates, it is hard not to notice.
As for the performances, there are many to love, Colman Domingo as the host of The Running Man steals the show for me in such a powerful and over the top performance that just works. You can see he’s having a lot of fun in this role and delivers the performance with a lot of authority and authenticity.
Josh Brolin as the show’s producer, Dan Killian, works incredibly well, blurring the line between studio exec and a cog in a totalitarian government.
And finally, a special shoutout to Brampton’s own Michael Cera for playing a doomsday preparer that lands every line of levity that he brings within the film. You end up missing him when he’s not on-screen.
The cinematography of Chung Chung-hoon, at this point Edgar Wright’s new go-to cinematographer, remains incredibly solid. Known for Oldboy, It, Last Night in Soho, Chung helps Edgar Wright retain his stylistic flourishes while creating a hybrid aesthetic that aims to poke fun at the 80s and take a jab at how serial modern films look today. This pairing continues to work well, and there were many moments within this film that had me freeze from excitement for the quality of visuals delivered. The action sequences are clear and fluid, and the visual gags are on point.
The music of the film is closer to Edgar Wright films like Baby Driver and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The film uses quite a bit of needle drops that work well within the film, even though sometimes they don’t feel spaced out enough. Some of them have appeared in a few films this year, so it becomes a bit less effective. I can’t fault this as it’s not the film’s fault, but I did appreciate how some song choices harkened back to the 80s, continually nodding to how stilted this future is. The entertainment industry has largely been frozen in time for a number of years.
The Running Man is fun, however, there are a few elements that put this at odds with the type of dystopian film it’s trying to be. Maybe it’s the fact that this is coming from a big studio or a time when the plot of the film feels more and more realistic. Or it could be that trying to make the Running Man feel as a film from this time puts it at odds with its 80s origin.
The film feels fun, and maybe to its detriment. Perhaps ending the film on a high note dampers the impact of a film like this and the many messages it has inherited about government and entertainment as a whole. You will leave the film reminded of why you loved Edgar Wright in the first place, but miss his contributions with Simon Pegg on genre and satire. He might at this point be the missing link that keeps Wright just short of greatness.
Watch the trailer right here.
All images via Paramount Pictures.
Directed by Edgar Wright
Screenplay by Michael Bacall, Edgar Wright, from the novel by Stephen King
Produced by Simon Kinberg, Nira Park, Edgar Wright
Starring Glen Powell, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, Emilia Jones, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Sean Hayes, Colman Domingo, Josh Brolin, Katy O’Brian, Martin Herlihy
Premiere Date: November 5, 2025
Running Time: 133 minutes
Cinema from the Spectrum 
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