To the credit of the 1987 version of The Running Man, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, it knew exactly what it was doing. Yes, it was supposed to be satirical and have some commentary on the state of entertainment and exploitation. However, that wasn’t its main function. Its main function was to be big, dumb, action-packed, and a lot of fun. For all its flaws, it was definitely fun. 2025’s The Running Man seems to have slightly higher ambitions. Make no mistake, it still very much wants to be a dumb action movie, but it has layers. It’s a shame that most of those layers aren’t very good.

Sticking much more closely to Stephen King’s story this time, The Running Man (2025) is about Ben Richards (Glen Powell). Richards is an angry man who the world has cheated and tossed aside, and when his daughter gets sick, he sees no choice but to join the most dangerous contest in the world, The Running Man. For thirty days he has to evade the entire country trying to kill him on live television, not to mention a specialized team of hunters, all for the chance to win a billion dollars.

Director Edgar Wright seems like exactly the right person for this kind of material. His films are usually over-the-top blasts with just enough social commentary to be relevant. That’s exactly what a movie like this ought to be. Bafflingly, though, Wright can’t seem to commit to the bit. For every thrilling chase or fiery explosion, there’s a scene that grinds the action to a halt so that one of the characters can moralize at Ben. It’s enough to give you whiplash. There’s nothing wrong with having a message in your action movie, but it should never come at the cost of momentum.

Powell is, mercifully, pretty good as Richards. He doesn’t have all that much to do except run and be snarky, but he pulls that off about as well as you could ask. My biggest complaint with him is that the movie constantly describes him as angry, and I just do not get unbridled rage from Glen Powell. He’s good, but it’s still a weird casting choice.

Those issues might have been forgivable had the movie stuck the landing. It doesn’t. The ending is one of the biggest duds of the year, completely silly and nonsensical. It is everything wrong with the movie, compacted into twenty minutes of confusion and pointlessness. Some movies have endings that save them. The Running Man’s almost dooms it.

There is still enough good in the film to be a decent watch, however. It is thrilling at times, and Powell is an insanely likable lead whether he’s miscast or not. Yet, this feels like an unnecessary misstep for Wright, who is a beloved and talented director. He was handed a film that should have played to all of his strengths, yet fumbled so much of it. The Running Man isn’t awful, but it isn’t exactly killing it either.