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With: Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, Colman Domingo, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, Emilia Jones, William H. Macy, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Katy O'Brian, Karl Glusman, Martin Herlihy, Sean Hayes, David Zayas, Sandra Dickinson, George Carroll, Simon Haines, Debi Mazar
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Written by: Michael Bacall, Edgar Wright, based on a novel by Stephen King
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Directed by: Edgar Wright
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MPAA Rating: R for strong violence, some gore, and language
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Running Time: 133
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Date: 11/14/2025
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Jog Days
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
This is one of the rare occasions in which a remake easily outguns its predecessor. The 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger The Running Man is still fairly well-loved, but it is not, by any stretch, a good movie. This one is. Directed by Edgar Wright, the new The Running Man is fast, furious, and funny. It's an entertaining popcorn movie that never loses sight of its savage satire.
Glen Powell takes over the role of Ben Richards, who has been fired after trying to save his co-workers, and is now blacklisted. It's a futuristic dystopia, not too far away from our current present. Ben's daughter has the flu, and he and his wife (Jayme Lawson) can't afford medication. Desperate, Ben tries to get himself on a game show on the government-controlled network called FreeVee. He ends up qualifying for the network's most popular show, the deadly reality game show of the title. He tries disguises and laying low to hide from the five "hunters" that are after him, but nothing works. He receives aid from a few helpful folks (William H. Macy, Daniel Ezra, Michael Cera) before realizing that the only way to stay ahead of the hunters is to stop running.
Emilia Jones plays his "hostage" during this final stretch. The movie hits close to home with its depiction of the hateful, hurtful qualities of disinformation, as the network spins lies about Ben and his family and manipulates videos to make it look like he's a horrible villain. For a Wright film, it does feel surprisingly more like muscle than brains — it lacks the particular self-knowing zaniness of his other films — but it's still very satisfying, a smart blockbuster. Josh Brolin, with ultra-white teeth, plays the sinister boss of the network. And Colman Domingo takes over in the Richard Dawson role as the show's smarmy host.
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