The Running Man (2025)

I am always excited for any new Edgar Wright movie, and when I heard that he was remaking The Running Man, with a starring role for Glen Powell, I was intrigued to see how he would approach the material. For as much as I enjoy the Arnold action flick, the source material (a novella by Stephen King, published under his Richard Bachman pseudonym) was a much darker and more cynical piece of work. Wright, for all of his good points, doesn't necessarily seem capable of dark and cynical.

And it turns out that he isn't. This IS a bleaker film than the original, and there are a number of moments here that show Wright trying to add an edge that has been absent from his past features, but he still can't help aiming for a message that is ultimately a positive one, taking the ending of the novella as a starting point for a slightly different direction that should actually please both fans of the story and fans of films that don't ruin your whole week.

Powell plays Ben Richards, a man with a strong moral code and a bit of a temper, which has made things a bit problematic when it comes to his relationship with exploitative employers. Desperate to get the medicine that his daughter needs, Ben heads along to a TV studio to sign up for one of the many shows that offer cash prizes. He's happy to try most of them, except The Running Man, which sees contestants being hunted, until almost inevitably trapped and killed. Unfortunately, his attitude and capabilities make him a perfect choice for The Running Man. It's time to start running.

Powell is great in the lead role, far removed from Arnold, of course, but physically capable and suitably charismatic. He's grim and determined, but able to start having fun when he starts to figure out the best way to play the game. Colman Domingo is great value as the flamboyant host, Bobby T, Josh Brolin is enjoyably slick and shark-like in the role of Dan Killian, the head manipulator who creates the perfect storylines for viewers to lap up, and Emilia Jones turns up in time to play a pivotal role in the third act. There's also room for fun little turns from Katy O'Brian, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, and an enjoyably manic pairing of Michael Cera and Sandra Dickinson (featured in the most memorable sequence in the film).

It's been interesting to watch Wright's career as he has stepped further away from the Cornetto trilogy that proved to be so enduringly popular. I think he's maintained a remarkable consistency throughout a varied selection of treats, although I know some people have stopped being impressed by his particular style. Another attempt to show he can do more than just gags and homages, The Running Man works well, for the most part, although it's jarring on the few occasions when you do notice the standard "Wright-isms" (e.g. a Y/why gag, the foreshadowing, soundtrack choices, etc.) in the mix. 

Having also worked on the screenplay with Michael Bacall, there's great care taken here to present a vision of a horribly depressing future that doesn't feel too far removed from the here and now without leaving viewers depressed at the thought of it all looming up to ruin our lives.

For as bleak and as brutal as this can be, it's also a lot of fun. Some purists may balk at that idea, considering how things play out in the Bachman book, but it's a perfectly-blended end result that proves why Wright was a great choice to bring us another interpretation of the tale. It's just a shame that he didn't hire Harold Faltermeyer to deliver another fine electronic score, which would have been the best thing to carry over from the older film. 

8/10

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Cat Person (2023)

Starting with a quote from Margaret Atwood about how men fear that women will laugh at them while women fear that men will kill them, Cat Person is a film about dating, sex, and the different ways in which situations can be viewed, depending on your gender and whether or not you are wearing rose-tinted glasses of romanticism. 

Emilia Jones is Margot, a young woman who ends up developing a relationship with Robert (Nicholas Braun). Robert is older, and seems a bit brusque at times, but he’s intriguing and good company in text message form. He also claims to have a cat, which is a good sign. Everything is turned upside-down when things don’t go very well on a date though, leading Margot to start questioning everything she has gone through, helped in changing her perspective by her friend, Taylor (Geraldine Viswanathan).

Based on a short piece of writing by Kristen Roupenian, Cat People is a film that could have gone in any number of different directions, from twisted rom-com to intense thriller, or even outright horror. The fact that it jumps nimbly between elements of so many different genres is testament to the fantastic script from Michelle Ashford and the direction from Susanna Fogel. While both of these women have quite varied and lengthy careers, there’s not much in their respective filmographies that rivals this, as far as I’m concerned, because what you get here is a thought-provoking look at the minefield of modern dating, as well as the smallest glimpse into the mindset of a woman struggling to enjoy relative normality while dealing with the stress and fears that men don’t have to consider. Brilliantly, however, there are also one or two moments that show issues very specific to men who are wary of being mistaken or misinterpreted.

Although everyone onscreen is excellent (and both leads now have a sizeable sample of superb onscreen work to explore, in films and TV), both Jones and Braun complement one another beautifully, the former often aiming to please and stay composed while the latter emphasises the clumsy and abrupt nature of his character in almost every scene. Viswanathan may seem a bit overly cautious and cynical at times, but she’s right to be that way, and viewers go into the finale of the film, a finale that will lose some viewers, armed with that knowledge.

Often keeping viewers locked in to Margot’s POV, the style of the film is one of heightened realism. It may not be an exact replication, but this is how the world can look as seen by a young woman taking a chance on developing a relationship with a stranger. It’s intense at times, and I am sure any woman you mentioned that to would roll their eyes and say “duh”.

Will this get through to the “not all men” people who keep missing the bigger picture whenever another news story breaks or another set of shocking statistics is revealed? I don’t know. I hope so, but I just don’t know. Much like one or two other movies released in the past year though, this at least serves as an opening for an important conversation that everyone should be part of. That’s more than some films do.

8/10

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Prime Time: What We Did On Our Holiday (2014)

Holidays, as much as we fantasize about them in our minds, don’t always go to plan. They can actually be very stressful, especially when you are wrangling various family members, and especially when you aren’t heading off to sun-kissed tropical climes. And visiting family, including a very ill father who may not see beyond his next upcoming birthday, while pretending that you and your wife haven’t separated and are struggling to behave in a way that doesn’t negatively impact on the children? That probably wouldn’t be a nice and relaxing holiday. It is the holiday that viewers see depicted here though.

Rosamund Pike is Abi, David Tennant is Doug, and the two are taking their three children up to Scotland to visit Doug’s father, Gordie (Billy Connolly). Gordie has terminal cancer, with not long left until he reaches his expiration date, so Abi and Doug try to put on a united front, despite going through divorce proceedings. This united front will also require the help of their children, Lottie (Emilia Jones), Mickey (Bobby Smalldridge), and Jess (Harriet Turnbull). Other characters populate the screen, including Doug’s brother, Gavin (Ben Miller), and his sister-in-law, Margaret (Amelia Bulmore), but the focus stays on the antics of the children, eventually left in the care of their grandfather, and the bickering between Abi and Doug. It isn’t long until some messy stuff hits the fan.

Co-directed and co-written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, What We Did On Our Holidays is very much in line with other work they have delivered over the years, most often on the small screen. These two men have decades of experience, and they help themselves by casting familiar adults with an equal amount of experience in front of the camera. If you like any of the cast members here then you’re going to enjoy this, to some degree, and you may be relieved to hear that the child actors are all more than up to the task of being amusing and entertaining without becoming too annoying.

It cannot help feeling like a TV movie though, as opposed to something that could stand tall as a theatrical feature. The small scale of the story, the familiar faces most recognisable from their TV work, the tone and pacing of the whole thing. It’s not bad, and it certainly doesn’t feel as if it was made by people lacking skill or resources, but it’s not inherently filmic. Not to me anyway.

The children get to shine, especially in their scenes alongside a typically cheeky and anarchic Connolly, Tennant and Pike work well together, Miller and Bulmore are entertainingly uptight throughout, and I will always welcome screentime for the likes of Celia Imrie and Annette Crosbie. Nobody is doing their best work, but they all add extra value to the project.

You get a fair few decent laughs, some entertaining characters, and some pleasant views of the Scottish countryside. If that sounds like enough to keep you happy, and you may already be swayed if you are a fan of Tennant, Pike, or Connolly, then I recommend this. Unlikely to become a firm favourite, but it’s a decent enough little film with a big heart.

6/10

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CODA (2021)

Coda is a word that probably means something musically to people who know the definition of it. Or you think of it as an extra button on the end of a tale. Even before I knew what the word actually meant, I occasionally popped into a music shop in Edinburgh named Coda. It was ridiculously expensive, and the first time I had seen any import CDs for sale (which explained a fair few of the high prices). None of that is really relevant here, where CODA is used to signify Child Of Deaf Adults, but it also provides a very satisfying extra layer to everything onscreen.

Emilia Jones plays Ruby, the child of deaf adults at the centre of this narrative. Her life is already busier than most, and she carries a great responsibility on her shoulders, spending a fair bit of time around her schoolday hours helping her family with their fishing business. Ruby can translate for them, speaking to others who cannot read ASL, and she wants to help them get better rewarded for their hard work. Ruby also has a talent for singing, and one teacher offers to help her get good enough to audition for a music college, but it’s hard to stay focused on a pathway that will take her further away from parents who may never be able to recognise her gift.

Written and directed by Siân Heder, adapting the 2014 original film, La Famille Bélier, CODA is as enjoyable and moving as it is satisfying. You can plot out almost every major moment from the first scene, and I realised at the halfway point that I was waiting for the big moments to come that I knew would turn me all moist-eyed and wobbly-lipped. I needed the film to play out almost exactly as I expected it to, almost holding my breath in the run up to what I hoped would feel elating and cathartic.

Aside from Jones, who is excellent in her role, the central family unit is portrayed by deaf actors. Marlee Matlin, arguably the best-known cast member, is the mother, Jackie, and Troy Kotsur is the father, Frank, and the film features some great scenes that allow them to show how firmly in love, and lust, they remain. Daniel Durant is Ruby’s brother, Leo, adding extra friction, as siblings so often do, and his own path through life, quite settled and/or resigned to how things are, provides a nice contrast to Ruby’s longing to get away. Eugenio Derbez is very enjoyable as the teacher who untaps the potential of our lead, and everyone else onscreen convinces, whether playing carefree teens, hardy fishermen, or other work colleagues kept distant from the central family by their lack of ASL knowledge.

Although some may roll their eyes at movie awards, and there are always so many other contenders that aren’t even up for consideration during those campaign seasons, the fact that CODA won an Oscar for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (given to Kotsur) is, much like the film itself, as hugely satisfying. It’s a warm and witty crowd-pleaser, with a couple of unexpectedly bawdy moments that will prompt a guffaw out of anyone expecting something more serious and bleak, and I don’t have anything against that kind of film being rewarded when it is so well-handled. The fact that it also showcases some superb deaf actors without reducing them to characters identified only by their deafness is also a big plus.

Yes, you have to read subtitles. Or maybe you could learn ASL (seriously, we should all strive to learn at least a few basic words and phrases in ASL). If that puts you off giving this a watch then it’s your loss. CODA may not appeal to cynical viewers, but it’s an easy one to recommend to anyone willing to be made to laugh and cry in (almost) equal measure.

8/10

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Incident In A Ghostland AKA Ghostland (2018)

Although it often feels like a step up from his previous feature film (The Tall Man), Incident In A Ghostland once again shows that writer-director Pascal Laugier is a man who knows how to take some great ideas and squander them for the sake of some misguided attempts to wrongfoot viewers.

It's not long into Incident In A Ghostland when things get uncomfortable and nasty. A woman (Mylene Farmer) and her two daughters (Emilia Jones and Taylor Hickson) find themselves terrorised by a pair of vicious home invaders. As things build up, temporary relief from the onslaught comes when an adult incarnation of one of the girls (Crystal Reed) wakes up from a nightmare. She has suffered ever since that fateful night but at least it is all now behind her . . . or is the past about to catch up with her?

Jones/Reed and Hickson/Anastasia Phillips are both very good as, respectively, the younger and older incarnations of Beth and Vera, with the younger actresses having to put themselves through the wringer as their characters suffer through more and more violence. Farmer is also very good as the loving mother who wants to protect her daughters from harm, and both Rob Archer and Kevin Power do as well as can be expected while pigeonholed as the one-note psychos.

It's interesting that this movie begins with a quote about H. P. Lovecraft, for two reasons. First of all, the quote is one of the few moments of humour in the film. It's attributed to the main character played by Jones/Reed, summing up her literary aspirations and her main obsession. Second, it is in his fine essay, "Supernatural Horror In Literature", that I learned of the term conte cruel, a style of storytelling "in which the wrenching of the emotions is accomplished through dramatic tantalisations, frustrations, and gruesome physical horrors." Sound familiar? It's certainly something that Laugier is known for, with others giving it the modern label of torture porn.

Sadly, despite the humour and self-awareness shown by that opening quote, this is a movie that shows Laugier to be uninterested in anything other than pain and suffering, which becomes tiresome rather quickly, especially after scenes that hint at a much better tale to be told. We could have had a very smart and resonant film here. Early scenes show Reed being helpless, and even disbelieving, as her sister continues to suffer and be abused by unseen assailants. There are two possibilities in those moments, considering what we know at the time. Either an abuse survivor is so damaged by her experience that she cannot return to any state of normality, or someone is still being abused while the loved ones around her are unable to see it. Both of those ideas are intriguing, and both are immediately dropped as soon as Laugier can get back to simplistic moments of abuse and torture.

The film manages to avoid being a complete waste of time thanks to the scream-filled performances of the main actresses, some great production design, and the first 15-20 minutes. But everything else ensures that it also manages to be a crushing disappointment, especially if you were hoping for something with a bit of depth to it. Which actually puts it right on par with his previous feature.

4/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.