THE RUNNING MAN : Tuesday 18th November 2025

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE RUNNING MAN' this week at my local multiplex cinema, and this American dystopian action thriller film is Co-Written for the screen, Co-Produced and Directed by Edgar Wright, and is based on the 1982 novel written by Stephen King under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. It is also the second big screen adaptation following the 1987 film of the same name that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Directed by Paul Michael Glaser. Edgar Wright's previous feature film output takes in his feature debut with 1995's 'A Fistful of Fingers' and then 'Shaun of the Dead' in 2004, 'Hot Fuzz' in 2007, 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World' in 2010, 'The World's End' in 2013, 'Baby Driver' in 2017, and 'Last Night in Soho' in 2021. The film was released here in Australia, the UK and the US last week, cost US$110M to produce, has so far grossed US$31M and has garnered mixed critical acclaim.

In the near future, the USA is a dystopian authoritarian state ruled over by a major media Network, where the majority of the population live in poverty with little access to even basic healthcare. The Network appease people with their trashy, violent reality and game shows through their FreeVee TV's, which are literally everywhere. The Network's most popular show is 'The Running Man', where three 'Runners' are selected from literally hundreds of other wannabes, and can win US$1B if they survive for thirty days while the Network's 'Hunters', led by the mysterious Evan McCone (Lee Pace), and ordinary citizens try to hunt and kill them, by any means possible. Given US$1K and a twelve-hour headstart, Runners are required to film themselves for ten minutes every day and post in their recoded message which is then played on air the next day, or else they'll forfeit the contest. 

Ben Richards (Glen Powell), is a blue-collar worker living in the slums of Co-Op city, is unable to afford influenza medicine for his two year old daughter, Cathy, after being fired from several of his former jobs for insubordination and is blacklisted. Over his wife, Sheila's (Jayme Lawson), objections, Ben tries out for the Network and following exhaustive physical and mental testing is selected for 'The Running Man'. 

Ben agrees to participate when Executive Producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), who can be very persuasive, offers him an advance for Cathy's medication and a safe house for his family. As the show begins with great fanfare, Ben acquires fake IDs and two disguises - one as an Executive Manager and the other as a Priest, from his associate Molie (William H. Macy). Ben travels to New York, where he watches live coverage on his TV from his hotel room where is is holed up as Runner Tim Jansky (Martin Herlihy) is found seemingly flaunting the rules and is gunned down in the street and killed by the Hunters.

He then flees to Boston and hides out at a hostel, but is soon afterwards located by the Hunters. An intense firefight ensues, which leads to an explosion that takes out the entire hostel block and kills eight network soldiers. Ben escapes through a sewer and is found and sheltered by Bradley Throckmorton (Daniel Ezra) and his family. Bradley, an anti-network activist, teaches Ben about the network's propaganda and deceit, which Ben relays in his next recording. Instead, the Network replaces him with a foul-mouthed deepfake, resulting in Ben being kicked out of the house by Bradley's mother. Bradley then directs Ben to a fellow activist in Derry, Maine, where he says he'll be safe. 

During his journey, he learns that second runner Jenni Laughlin (Katy O'Brian) has been killed having narrowly escaped from a casino in a pink convertible car but then crashing it into a barn whereupon she was torched by two flamethrower wielding young kids. Ben is now the sole remaining runner, and he has earned the support of the poor and working-class who plaster the slogan 'Ben Lives' on walls and placards, almost everywhere. On the fourteenth day, Ben arrives at the home of Bradley's friend, Elton Parrakis (Michael Cera), who believes Ben's survival can help fuel a rebellion against the Network. Elton gives Ben a map to a bunker built by his late father, where he can survive the full thirty days, even though its designed to sustain a life for three years. 

As he tries to leave early one morning, Ben is alerted by Elton's aged mother Victoria (Sandra Dickinson) who recognises Ben from her ardent watching of his TV programme and wants to alert the Network. He successfully averts her from doing so, but Elton alerts them anyway and within under five minutes the property is swarming with Hunters. However, Elton has booby trapped the entire house and successfully dispatches many of them. Ben and Elton escape in a buggy filled with explosives, but McCone kills Elton with a single shot to the head from a helicopter above, and another Hunter confronts Ben on a bridge. Driving towards each other at speed, Ben crashes the buggy into the Hunter which erupts in a ball of flame, while he escapes by jumping into the river below.

Traveling north as per the map provided by Elton, Ben discovers that the location of the bunker has been covered over by a new housing development still under construction. Ben is later caught on surveillance but escapes using the car of upperclass woman Amelia Williams (Emilia Jones), taking her hostage. Amelia initially believes the propaganda about the Hunters being there to safeguard her kind from Ben's violent unruly kind, until she witnesses on her in-car TV screen how the show's content differs from reality. They travel to an airfield guarded by McCone and the Network, where Killian instructs McCone to let them pass. Ben commandeers a plane on the pretext that he is wearing a suicide vest of Black Irish high explosive that would incinerate everyone within a half mile radius. and he want's it to take him and Amelia across the border into Canada. On the flight, Killian calls Ben to offer him a contract for his own network show and to become Hunter 6. When Ben refuses, Killian shows footage of McCone and the Hunters murdering Sheila and Cathy, which is played on the show to give him the audience's sympathy.

Ben realises the flight crew are McCone's remaining Hunters and fights them in the cockpit eventually killing them. When he fights McCone, he learns that the latter is a former runner who survived 29 days during the show's first season, having taken Killian's deal. After a violent fight, Ben kills McCone and gives a parachute to Amelia so she can escape. Killian again offers Ben his own show and a chance to speak on live TV, but Ben refuses again and tries to convince viewers to turn off their FreeVee. The Network redirects the plane to their headquarters and runs a deepfake of Ben threatening to crash into the building. The plane is shot down by a missile before it hits the building. Ben survives the attack by escaping in the plane's auto-eject pod, and later reunites with Sheila and his daughter, whose deaths were faked by Killian.

Sometime later, Amelia recovers the plane's black box flight recorder and leaks the uncensored recordings to the public. This turns public opinion against the Network and ultimately leads to a rebellion. As the next season of The Running Man begins, host Bobby Thompson (Colman Domingo) senses the hostility in the audience and quits on the spot after leading the show for twenty years, leaving Killian to very reluctantly take over as host - to which he lasts less than a minute after the a riot breaks out among the audience. Running to get away, Killian looses his way during the audience frenzy and crashes through a screen backdrop onto the main stage. Lying flat on the ground watching the melee unfolding before him, Ben emerges from the crowd, and points McCoon's gun (inscribed with word 'Destiny' in block capitals) at him. Counting down 5-4-3-2-1 and Action, Ben shoots Killian, whom he had sworn at their very first meeting that he would fuck him over.

My two other movie buddies and I came away from 'The Running Man' having enjoyed Edgar Wright's apparently more faithful adaptation of the Stephen King novel, and praising Glen Powell's performance as the put-upon but nonetheless undefeated Ben Richards. This movie has something to say about out of control corporate capitalism, society's insatiable appetite for in your face and outlandish media offerings, and the great divide that exists between the wealthy and those living on or below the poverty line. Throw into the mix a good dose of well executed action sequences, a strong supporting cast, a fast paced thrill ride that will not leave you wanting, and the charm and charisma of the film's leading man, and you have a movie that is well worth the price of cinema entry, and is an improvement on the 1987 original. 

'The Running Man' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

BLOOD FATHER : Wednesday 21st September 2016.

It's good to see Mel Gibson back in a leading role in the recently released 'BLOOD FATHER', and for the first time since 2012's 'Get The Gringo' which he also Co-Wrote and Co-Produced and which whilst hardly a Box Office sensation was a welcome return to form for the former Hollywood A-List Actor, Writer, Producer and Director who had fallen from grace since 'Apocalypto' in 2006. Now in 2016, Gibson is back and playing a bad-ass grindhouse rescue and revenge type in this Jean-Francois Richet Directed film based on the book of the same name by Peter Craig. Gibson has received much praise for his role in this B-Grade movie that for the Actor seeking to make his comeback might be seen as a case of art imitating life. Watch out too for Mel's return to Directing duty with WWII drama 'Hacksaw Ridge' due in November this year. 'Blood Father' had its world premier at this years Cannes Film Festival in May, and was released Stateside in early August, before its Australian release on 1st September.

Mel's character John Link is a Vietnam War Veteran, an ex-convict out on parole and a former alcoholic still sharing the love at regular AA meetings and trying to live off the grid in the outback desert so as not to draw any unnecessary attention to himself with the local authorities. He lives in a beat up caravan trailer on the edge of a hicksville community eeking out a living as a tattoo artist, whilst under the watchful eye of his sponsor and parole officer Kirby (William H. Macy) whom he seems to have a pretty solid relationship with based on mutual respect, and an understanding of their fractured lives that have brought them both to this point.

Essentially we join Link celebrating two years of being off the booze and ably supported by his friend Kirby. Link is fighting plenty of inner demons, one of which is having lost all contact with his sixteen year old daughter Lydia (Erin Moriarty) who has got tied up with all manner of low life nasty criminal types down Mexico way. Her boyfriend manages 'stash houses' for the local drug cartel, and discovers that some residents renting one such stash house have stolen a stash of cash hidden in the walls of a remote rental property. This boyfriend, Jonah (Diego Luna) who has designs on becoming a drug kingpin rocks up to his stash house with every intention of making the residents pay for their misdemeanours, with Lydia and his entourage in tow. Jonah orders Lydia to shoot and kill the woman of the house to prove her love for him, but Lydia can't bring herself to commit the act, despite having just snorted a nose full of cocaine. In the ensuing melee, Lydia turns the gun on Jonah and shoots him in the neck accidentally, and promptly bolts out the door, believing her boyfriend to now be dead.

As a result she goes on the run from both the local police and the drug cartel with only her estranged Dad to turn to. Out of desperation she calls her Dad, asking for a loan of $2,000 in cash so that she can make a fresh start and lie low until the heat subsides. John is surprised to hear from her after such a prolonged period of absence and the two agree to meet in Santa Monica, where John will pick up his daughter and bring her back to his trailer in the desert where he hopes they will reconnect and make up for lost time. In doing so he under estimates her drug induced and alcohol fuelled state, and the fact that her boyfriends posse will be hot on her trail seeking retribution. The two get reacquainted over a few days, before one night Jonah's posse arrives looking for Lydia and make a damn nuisance of themselves that results in John's trailer getting shot to pieces and overturned. However, Kirby and his own trailer park posse arrive to save John and Lydia from certain death, allowing the two to go on the run before the local Police arrive.

And so the two hit the road to evade the Police and those pesky drug cartel types aided by some they come up against and hindered by others. John is reasonably well connected and we learn that he served prison time to cover the misdeeds of Preacher (Michael Parks) who is a former friend. The passing of time and the fact that Preacher is now living in a near state of poverty provides a different motivation for Preacher and his wife Cherise (Dale Dickey) who know that there is a $30,000 reward on Lydia's head and they are both on the run from the law. John feels that he is owed something for remaining silent while in prison all those years. Escaping from gun point at the hands of Preacher and his wife, John and Lydia make their getaway on John's old Harley-Davidson Softail, which Preacher had been minding all this time. On the highway John and Lydia are pursued by two motorcycle riding hitmen, who are both subsequently killed.

Father and daughter then check into a local motel. John shaves off his beard and Lydia dyes her hair blond, while the news channels are full of reports of the two fugitives on the run. John visits an old contact in prison to gather information on Jonah and his family and cartel connections to check exactly what he is dealing with, while Lydia is to sit tight. However, Lydia receives a call from Kirby advising her that she is in imminent danger and make her way to a public place where she will be safe, such as a movie theatre. We subsequently learn that Kirby has been captured by Jonah's henchmen and is giving these instructions under duress. Lydia is called out of the movie theatre and confronted by Jonah - very much alive but sporting a gaping bullet wound in the neck, from her hand.

Lydia is taken captive and used as bait to entrap John with a rendezvous at some secluded spot in the desert off the highway. While John is speaking with Jonah over the phone receiving his set of meeting instructions, he hears the gunshots in the background dispensing with Kirby. Before making off for the meeting point now mightily pissed off, John returns to Preachers place to pick up some munitions that he knows are stashed away - a landmine and some hand grenades. He drives off to the agreed meeting place and parks his motor cycle in the path on the dirt track blocking the access of Jonah's SUV, and props up his bike using the landmine which becomes armed in the process. With John and Lydia is in the back of the Jonah's SUV awaiting certain death, two of the henchmen have to clear the Harley-Davidson out of the road. Needless to say, dislodging the landmine and KaBoom! two down three to go!

In the ensuing fracas inside the SUV John overpowers one of the henchmen, but Jonah escapes after an exchange of fire power having been shot. He limps off into the sunset, leaving a professional hitman to dispense with John and Lydia from an overlooking hill top. In the duel that follows, both John and the hitman shoot each other. The hitman dies instantly, and John falls besides the car to be comforted in his death throes by his daughter.

Soon afterwards, the Highway Patrol arrive en masse and pick up Jonah wandering aimlessly in the desert, although I have to say I am not sure who would have alerted the local Police, or how they would have known this shit was going down in some remote hidden away location in the desert! In the closing scenes Jonah is wearing a prison issue orange suit and is surrounded by Johns former prison mates who know that their friend died because of the new incarcerated inmate. We then fast forward a year, to find Lydia at that same AA meeting spot where her father attended stating she has been clean for a year now, and how she misses her Dad.

I enjoyed this simple yet well told story of revenge, retribution and family reconnection. Gibson is on fine form as the father figure given an unexpected second chance to make amends with his estranged daughter and prepared to go to any lengths to protect her so that she can make something of her life, and learn from his own mistakes. Featuring plenty of gun play, chase sequences, emotion and a grizzled world weary lead character dispensing his own brand of justice none of this is over the top for the sake of cheap thrills, but are shown in the context of a grounded father/daughter relationship prevailing at any cost. Catch it while you still can on limited release and give Mel Gibson a second chance - I don't think you'll be disappointed!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

ROOM : Monday 25th January 2016.

'ROOM' which I saw this week, is likely to be as much an emotional rollercoaster ride, a tear jerker and heart wrenching film as any you're likely to see this year that could easily be based on real life events,and is sure to leave its mark on your movie going memory long after the credits have rolled. Already doing very well around the awards circuit with 54 wins and another 98 nominations including four Oscar nominations pending for Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actress for Brie Larson who has already scooped the Golden Globe for her performance, this film is directed by Lenny Abrahamson and is based on the book of the same name by Emma Donoghue. 'Room' had its world wide premier at the Telluride Film Festival in early September last year and a limited US release in mid-October and reaches our shores this week. Made for just US$6M it has so far grossed US$9M and also stars Joan Allen, William H. Macy, and young Jacob Tremblay who is also receiving much awards attention as the young son to Brie Larson's mother character.

The story here centres around Joy Newsome (Brie Larson) known to her young five year old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) as Ma. Joy would be in her mid-twenties and we quickly learn that for the last seven years she has been held captive in a room that measures no more than three metres square. It is a squalid room and this is the world for Ma and young Jack who was fathered by Joy's captor known only as Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) who repeatedly visits her for sex whilst Jack sleeps in the wardrobe. The room has very basic fittings which the two must share - a bath, a sink, a table and two chairs, a bed, a television, and a rudimentary kitchenette. There are four solid walls and the roof with a skylight window which allows the only natural light in, but cannot be opened, and the room is sound proofed and it's only door is controlled by means of an electronic security keypad.

For the first five years of his life Jack has been led to believe by his mother that the room is their world and nothing exists outside of it, and what they see on the television only exists in the television - it is not real. Joy, despite her surroundings, has tried to create an environment for Jack where he can still learn & grow, be stimulated and kept active, and lead a fulfilled life in his own beliefs which his Ma has instilled in him. All the while Joy suffers from her own depressions and malnutrition but remains eternally optimistic and upbeat for Jack's sake in the hope that one day they may be freed.

With this in mind and with the advent of Jacks fifth birthday Joy begins to sew the seeds in Jack that as he is growing up and becoming smarter so he needs to learn that in fact the world outside is real, and whilst they are 'inside' there is an 'outside' where there are trees, and animals, and other people. At first Jack dismisses this and rebels against his Ma in anger. In time he begins to ask questions about what he sees on television, which in turn opens up the dialogue to a possible escape plan but for which she needs Jacks support, understanding and cooperation, which for a five year old, who knows absolutely nothing of the real world other than a three by three meter shed, is a tall ask.

The plan involves Jack playing dead, having perished from the cold when Old Nick turns off the electricity supply during Winter. Ripped with 'grief' Joy rolls Jacks 'corpse' up in a carpet and explains to Old Nick that he was too late with the medication he was going to secure for Jack, and now he must dispose of the body. He agrees and hauls the rolled up carpet into the back of his pick-up truck at dusk. Inside Jack awaits until the third set of traffic lights and the car comes to a stop as instructed by his Ma, and then unrolls himself and jumps out of the truck and runs for the nearest passer by proclaiming that he is the son of Joy Newsome.

Mission accomplished, Jack is picked up confused, frightened and alone. The police are alerted who ask all the basic questions for which Jack has no answers, however, is taken in by the kind hearted and caring female police officer and through simple deduction descend on Old Nick's property where he is promptly arrested and never to be seen again, and Joy is freed and reunited with Jack.

What follows is Joy and Jacks integration back into society with the media frenzy that goes with such a case. After tests are run on both and a brief period of hospitalisation Joy is reunited with her parents Nancy (Joan Allen) and Robert (William H. Macy) who are now divorced. Nancy is remarried to Leo (Tom McCamus) who welcome them back to the family home for a period of readjustment, although Robert who now lives elsewhere cannot deal with Jack and is in denial that he is the product of his daughters captor and won't even look Jack in the eye because of it, much to the disgust of Joy.

Jack steadily learns to adjust to his new world, but Joy falls deeper into depression as the media frenzy continues and probing questions are asked about Jacks upbringing for the first five years of his life, his biological father and why she made the decisions she did despite her circumstances. As a result she overdoses, but is discovered in time by Jack who raises the alarm. He asks his grandmother to cut his hair for the first time in over five years in order that the off cut can be sent to his Ma in hospital to make her strong from his strong, having been told the story of Samson and the Lion and believing that strength comes from his long hair. Nancy agrees, in what is a truly touching scene.

With his Ma back home, and Jack finding a neighbourhood friend of his own, some sense of normality is starting to set in. Jacks says that sometimes he misses Room and would like to go back and so under police escort they visit the nearby house of Old Nick and the shed that was their world for seven years. Jack says of the now almost empty room that it is not the same with the door open, and so he says good bye to the individual fitments that remain and were not carted off as evidence, giving them both closure.

This is a story of survival, fortitude and optimism amongst the most isolated and hopeless circumstances. It is a harrowing tale of fear and redemption that is uplifting and rewarding in the final analysis and will warm the heart, but it will not be for everyone. A compelling story, well told and kudos to Director Abrahamson who eeks out two fine performances but perhaps most notably that of young Jacob Tremblay who puts in a turn that is nuanced, believable and worthy of the recognition he is getting for someone so young.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-