The Runner (2015): This is a Movie [Joey’s Review]
THE RUNNER is such a bland, boring film that I’m struggling to figure out what to write. It’s not a bad film, but it’s certainly not a good film. It follows a kind of biopic structure, seemingly for no reason. This film is filled with things that happen, and yet none of them seem particularly important. He’s just talking to people, and going places, all to some ostensible end result.
It’s a problem we saw in a similar way for LORD OF WAR; in both cases, the movie tries to go too big and tell too much of a story. There are too many events it wants to cover and too many places it wants to be, and instead of doing an effective job telling any of them, it winds up doing a disservice to all of them.
This movie could work if it decided to focus on any one of its 5 or 6 storylines. Instead, we don’t really get to see any fleshed out to any meaningful extent. Couple that with the fact that a lot of this movie pretty much rips off House of Cards (and just about every other political thriller) and you wind up with a movie that isn’t good or bad, but just simply exists. This is a movie, and it is a thing you can watch. There are some parts that are enjoyable, and some parts that are not.
As we wind down Phase One of #CageClub, we knew that we’d be entering less-than-favorable waters, considering most of Cage’s last decade has been filled with straight-to-DVD releases. With only one movie left before we’re caught up (for now, anyway), I can only hope there’s a little bit of gas left in Cage’s tank to surge past the finish line. We’ll find out soon enough!
How can I watch it? It’s on Netflix.
What’s up next? #CageClub: Phase One ends with a genre Cage hasn’t touched in a while: the horror film PAY THE GHOST!
