My Cultural Diet

I’ve been an unabashed Edgar Wright fan for years now thanks to titles like Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, and Spaced. His brand of meta humor combined with a unique visual style has been total catnip for me. Thus it pains me to say that his take on The Running Man is an incoherent mess from start to finish. Wright tries to mix bleak dystopian humor, commentary about the media’s controlling effects on our society, and over-the-top violence, but the resulting film is a slog that beats you over the head with its supposedly satirical points until you decide to hate watch it simply so you can say you weren’t defeated by its inanity. Glen Powell, God bless him, certainly gives it his all as the down-on-his-luck schmuck who agrees to participate in an ultra-violent TV gameshow to provide for his family. However, his too-handsome features are just a constant reminder that you’re watching a Hollywood movie that thinks it’s more subversive than it actually is. And yes, I remember that the original Running Man starred Arnold Schwarzenegger of all people, but that film leaned heavily into camp — something that’s sorely lacking from Wright’s film.

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