The Reel Rejects - We Just Saw THE RUNNING MAN… And We’re Conflicted

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Starting point is 00:01:42 And then I get intimidated by people who are taller when I'm filming with them and it's noticeable and I get uncomfortable when someone's shorter than me. So you only want to film people your exact height. John is the only one I could film with that or standing. It's a real problem in my life. It's the real secret gang. Citizens of the Rejagnation, we just got out of watching. Edgar writes

Starting point is 00:02:01 The Running Man Not a remake It's an adaptation of the Stephen King book Although it does feel like it's a splice The impression that I got from this movie Is that he likes the original Running Man movie with Schwarzenegger And he likes the book

Starting point is 00:02:14 And he wanted to do A hybrid of both Now we got some thoughts We like chatted for a tiny bit Full Disclosure Like 30 seconds beforehand And it's gonna be a bit of a conversation today

Starting point is 00:02:30 you guys can leave a like on this video, we would greatly appreciate that. Coy, how would you describe the plot of this movie? The plot. The plot, Kay. I've learned this the hard way. It seems right away. Totally a journey. It is a movie wherein Glenn Powell plays a man who is desperate to save his family

Starting point is 00:02:47 and he lives in a dystopian world where health care, money, and all things control are handled by the rich, very unlike our world where we are all able to survive without having to sacrifice our humanity. So he has to join this game in order to raise enough money to save his daughter and to get his wife and family out of the slums. And in joining this game, it is a risk of his life. And he must survive for 30 days in order to make it to the point where he gets paid and gets to rejoin his family. So it's all for his family. That's actually a really great succinct version of that.

Starting point is 00:03:20 And if you guys saw the 1980s running man movie, it'll have you think that they go into some type of gladiator-like game. And then they're in this like closed off city. I did not realize that this world would be the whole world and that every citizen gets to be a participant in it, which should theoretically raise the stakes of this movie and make it 10 times more intense and exciting. So that's a conversation to go into. But Coy, let me go to you first on this.

Starting point is 00:03:48 What were your expectations before watching this movie and what is your first feelings when walking out? Like, what would you describe? So expectation is I'm a big one. Powell fan. I think he is the next Tom Cruise. I think he's very much in line to be a huge movie star. And this is a big tent pull movie star role. But it's very counter programming to Arnold Schwarzenegger and that role. Like that performance is very much an Arnold performance full of zingers and one-liners, but also like the intensity. So coming in, I was like, how is Glenn Powell

Starting point is 00:04:18 going to play a very different take? Is it going to be more like the book? Is it going to be more like an Edgar Wright performance? Because the other element that was really excited to me is Edgar Wright is one of those directors that has this panash. He's got this energy, he's got this flavor, he's got this visual flare. So I couldn't quite imagine how all of that was going to blend together, plus the great supporting cast. I'm a big fan of everyone that's in this film, big brolin guy. But what my thought was before I'd seen the film was the original is a prophetic bit of commentary on the present. The original is talking about reality TV and the abuse of surveillance and a dystopian future of even greater wealth inequality than the 80s, all the things that are

Starting point is 00:04:54 today. And when you add that up, I was like, how are they going to do it? Is it going to be Edgar right, using his visual style to make it farcical? Is it going to be more satirical because of us acknowledging around the TV, all those things? And it does do those things, but I think one of its shortcomings is that it is so similar to the world we live in, it's not able to feel like the extreme that it does in the 80s. I think we might live in a world too similar for it to feel satirical, so the tone gets muddied because of that.

Starting point is 00:05:25 And it's kind of crazy when you say that, because this movie does a lot of, lot of video manipulation, things that you would see in movies from years ago. And now with what AI is today, they have these sequences that happen in there that to me were kind of the most freaky because I had those moments during it going, wow, just a few years ago, if they had these kind of plot element weaved in throughout, because it's kind of throughout the whole movie where they manipulate footage of what Glenn Powell is saying, what other people are doing, like direct actions and stuff. Just a few years ago, be like, what a bunch of bullshit. But now I watch it.

Starting point is 00:05:58 I'm like, this could actually happen right now to this day. Yeah. So there's a lot of this commentary that I enjoyed seeing on screen, which at times I find kind of conflicting, I would find it with those like Disney movies like Mary Poppins returns where they're like CEO and pursuing wealth is bad or something like that. Is that so? Paramount made this movie that is talking about wealth inequality and taking advantage of the poor. And so it's, you know, my mind.

Starting point is 00:06:27 network had to kind of be like, never mind, forget studio, let's just go with filmmaker vision here for a second. And I had a lot of high hopes for this movie because I think Edgar Wright is one of the best filmmakers working today. You know, like I can't think of an Edgar Wright movie that I don't actually like. I feel like he's great. And every time I rewatch one of his movies, I feel like they get stronger every single time. So I'm kind of hoping I have a similar experience with this. I do feel like what I was saying at the top of this with the inspirations, of loving the 1980s movie and then loving the book

Starting point is 00:07:02 because I imagine the book it's a lot more harrowing and bleak because that was kind of the surprise experience to me when you watch the trailer for this which I've only seen like a couple of times it pitches it like it's a traditional Ecorite movie that's going to be this like kinetic, funny, wild, kind of zany

Starting point is 00:07:16 out of this world experience but the movie's surprisingly a lot darker than in tone and mood and a lot more scenes than I expected it to be. At the same time, it is implementing this humor. And my overall takeaway, if I were to sum it up, was I didn't find it as funny as I thought it was trying to be. I didn't find it as intense as I thought it was trying to be. Nor did I find it as thought provoking as I thought it was a strange experience for me because I'm like, I technically like everything I'm

Starting point is 00:07:51 seeing. It looks good. Coleman Domingo is having fun. Everyone's having fun. Everyone's having fun. Glenn Powell, there was something kind of refreshing to me in today's world, honestly, about seeing, I'm, I'm someone who struggles with a lot of anger problems. Like, I do my best to prime myself before I come on camera when you guys usually see me. I'm, but I'm usually like in a state of being flooded and stress and I get a lot of friends, like, coy see me like, I get very, I have anger issues. So there's something kind of refreshing about seeing a guy who struggles this much with rage and being able to have that catharsis for it. And in today's world where any type of masculinity can feel toxic we talk a lot about that yeah it was kind of cool to see that

Starting point is 00:08:31 even if i didn't fully believe glenbell sometimes and i was like i like see did yeah and so he's one of those per four kind of like arnold where even if i don't fully believe you i always enjoy watching you so i had i hadn't i enjoyed myself from beginning to end but i weirdly didn't feel as much as i wanted to at the end of day it's got to be a feeling experience it's got to be emotional experience So while visuals are cool, while it's, I feel like I actually could have used a bit of the Edgar Wright punch up so that way the tone of it could have been a little bit more fluid. But then again, we talked to some other people afterwards. They average person really enjoyed it. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:09:09 And I agree with you. We're not sitting next to each other. No, no. We were rows apart. Greg was in fancy reserve seats. I was tucked away. He was with the bums. I was up there.

Starting point is 00:09:19 He was with the 99% trying to survive like Lynn Powell. I was trying to Richard Liz. but my experience of my prep for the film was wanting that visual panache and all that energy that Edgar Wright brings but as a commentary on how farcical the reality show would have to be for the running man and that's what I feel like never really hit

Starting point is 00:09:39 was the in-movie reality of the running man and the in-movie reality of the dystopian future were too similar and at no point did I actually feel the themes and horrors of the world because it always was undercutting it with either humor or being so satirical that there wasn't actually horrors. And then in a film that is a commentary

Starting point is 00:09:58 on the audience's intelligence, on the world at large as intelligence, there's a lot to say about surveillance and social media and reality TV and all the things that I love about the original but thought it might be too real for today. It became really difficult because the movie is always like,

Starting point is 00:10:13 hey, you're actually a clever person. You understand what we're trying to say. But then it'll do like movie things. And the movie things aren't this movie's fault, but in a movie where something has to happen that 100 events lead to one, actual objective, you have to suspend this belief pretty hard. But the movie is equally saying, like, look how smart you are. You understand what's going on. But also, you're going

Starting point is 00:10:33 to buy this crazy thing that would actually never happen. But also, you have to believe this crazy thing is happening for us, for the movie to work. Like, when someone gets attacked in a one in a million circumstance, and then the next scene is about the fakeness of reality TV, it undercuts the severity of the horror. Yeah, because they talk about some very real things. And there's some very real consequences, especially when you're going more into like the lower class areas and things that sound like a very possible future that we could have. This is some very touchy subjects, technically, and yet they'll have these moments like you're talking about that seem to undermine the...

Starting point is 00:11:07 And it's weird because I feel like Edgar Reich is probably the kind of filmmaker who could actually handle both, and I like a movie that is able to do both. I guess there was just something not here that didn't feel as entirely special as I was kind of hoping for. It's very much a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down situation, but I felt like it was too much sugar. I needed more medicine. And at the same time, there was this pacing problem that I actually had with it, where it's called The Running Man. And every time I felt like we should be ramping up, we never really

Starting point is 00:11:35 were ramping up. Each act ramps up. So by the time you're like getting into the third act, it's hard to ramp further. Like, it has a roller coaster emotion and that doesn't quite work for the story being told. Yeah. It doesn't crescendo. It kind of always bunny rabbits. Yeah. You know, and it's interesting because it seems to, embrace its 80s vibe. I heard someone at one point, there was like a specific line of dialogue that happens in a very serious moment,

Starting point is 00:12:01 but I guess it's going for that 80s action movie cheese with this one female character. Do you know what I'm talking about? She's this woman who's in the car. Oh, yes. She says, she states her motivation. Yeah. And I heard someone like rose behind us go,

Starting point is 00:12:17 what? It literally is. What's your motivation? Deliver it. Yeah. And that's a weird choice. And that's when I, that's when I'd really hit me like, okay, there must be something off with this tone because there's a version where that line could totally work, even in a commentary heavy movie. Yeah. But if some random person, a few rows behind this is kind of exclaiming the what.

Starting point is 00:12:40 Yeah. All right. Okay. So I'm not alone. I'm not alone in this. You also came out and were like, oh, did you love that? And I feel like you and I were going to have that moment of like, I usually like everything. And I did like this. Yeah. It's a weird part.

Starting point is 00:12:51 It sounds like we're like, shit. Sounds like we fucking hated it when I'm like, no, I liked it. I liked it. It just put it in hit me as much as I wanted. I think we saw the potential, and that's always harder when you can see the potential of something, and you don't feel the emotion you want to feel from the potential. Yeah, and, you know, I think people might actually show up here, too, for the action scenes. And that's in there.

Starting point is 00:13:09 There's action scenes. There's technically good action. Again, you know, I just sound like a total sourpuss. If you look at, like, baby driver where he kind of, Oh, he's reinvented driving, you know. and like top like 10 fast and furious movies with the opening scene you know and here I'm like oh my god Edgar right on foot and a baby driver that ended on like him on foot this he's gonna be able to do something really different here with action scenes and I there's this like plane scene that's pretty

Starting point is 00:13:39 cool but there was never an action scene either that even even in just a pure entertainment level there's never an action scene that really fucking was like whoa that'll be that scene of the year and fucking did something you know yeah uh so yeah Lynn Powell's in great shape. He's in great shape. He's a good-looking guy. Good-looking guy. He's a good-looking guy.

Starting point is 00:13:56 He's a lot of fun. Rolling in there just like doing the villainy, doing the work. Michael Sarah, it's cool to see him play a different kind of role, too. Yeah. You know, normally when you expect Michael Sarah, he's kind of just shows up to be the Michael Sarahisms, but I actually didn't feel like he was doing any of that Michael Sarah-isms. I don't know her name, but she's quickly becoming one of those actresses to watch for me. She's the mayor and Batman.

Starting point is 00:14:19 She played his wife in this. Yeah. Uh, she's insanely, like, she's so captivating. Oh, she's the mayor, man. She's the mayor, beryl. But like every time she's on screen, Mel Riefe, she's the, she's the prison. She does the prison. Uh, no, she's the, she's this very important arc and heart of the film.

Starting point is 00:14:35 And if she didn't have so much gravitas and so much depth to her, then it wouldn't work at all. Yeah. So whenever she's on screen, it has to sell so much. And I was very impressed with that. Yeah. And there's, there's things they talk about with the way people have to survive in this type of life. style if you're not a 1%er. And I kept feeling

Starting point is 00:14:54 like this would probably hit harder if they actually showed it. Yeah. Especially when it comes to sexuality. Yeah. I think they highly shied away from those things that could immediately like icky, but it might have undercut the fun though, you know. Yeah, a few times they like dabbled and then they would sphere away. Yeah. And

Starting point is 00:15:10 you know, it's because like, yeah, I guess the conflict of wanting to be like the adaptation of a Stephen King book versus being like a cool movie that like so amosh, some of the 80s vibes was a bit at odds with itself. Overall, though, I mean, I imagine we're in the minority, but we just got to be honest about how we felt.

Starting point is 00:15:26 To my surprise, we are surprisingly on the same page. And I did not expect that. I enjoyed it. I would say it is, you know, a fun time, but it had the potential to be a really fun and important time. And I think the themes are more important than the fun. Yeah, we give like a 6.5 out of 10. I'm really close.

Starting point is 00:15:49 I think I'm about there, too. I was going to 6-6-7. Okay, yeah. So right shy of seven, like 6.7, I think, for me. But that's our thoughts. Do you want to run them to the comment boxes and start bitching at us? Yeah, you already have. Go do it.

Starting point is 00:16:00 What do you do it? Do it. Do it. If it was D.C., we would have recommended it. Obviously, if they made it, I'd be like, man. If James Gunn wrote this, so it would have been like, wow, what a perfect film. Why didn't Peter Safford produce this?

Starting point is 00:16:13 Otherwise, I'd be like, man, what a bitch? Yeah, but, mm-mm. Anyway, Paramount, I hope you buy Warner Brothers. And we'll see you guys soon. Jack nation.

The Reel Rejects - We Just Saw THE RUNNING MAN… And We’re Conflicted

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