Night of the Running Man

Ah, another somewhat bizarre crime film that few people have heard about and, as of March in 2006, still is not available on DVD. It is one of the fastest-moving films I've seen.

Usually, I like to see at least one good person in the film but this is an exception but this is a notch above the average low-life affair because of the performances of Scott Glenn and John Glover. They play cold-blooded professional killers who act polite, have impressive vocabularies, dress with class, keep their cool, don't get loud and obnoxious....but are brutally sadistic. Both are also fascinating to watch with Glenn having the bigger role as the main hired killer and Glover as his friend in another city.

I might be overrating this a bit because the last 45 minutes is a stretch, a real stretch, beginning with the entrance of a beautiful nurse who unrealistically gets involved with Andrew McCarthy, a guy on the run from these killers. That just wouldn't happen, but it does keep the story going strong.

There are some memorable scenes in this movie and some of them not too pleasant, so be forewarned: a woman dangled from the top of Hoover Dam and McCarthy being tortured with his feet scalded. Tough to watch. There are two gratuitous sex scenes in here, too.

At any rate, for a no-name movie, it was surprisingly entertaining and I'd like to see it out on DVD before too long.

There's so many defects and so many qualities about "Night of the Running Man" that in the end all we get is a bad film that is quite good and a good film that is ridiculously bad. The idea is almost an encounter between "Collateral" and "No Country for Old Men" but without the same dynamism and quality of both films. Dialogs are poorly written and very very simplistic to the point of annoyance, and the situations are predictable, implausible and incredibly unrealistic. It's a very silly movie!

Poor Andrew McCarthy suffers hell after finding a suitcase full of money in his cab, left by one of his unusual passengers. It looks like the mob is trying to get back the money and they hired a dangerous hit-man (Scott Glenn) to find it. On one side there's Andrew running away from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City and then Los Angeles, and on the other side, Glenn's tactics to find this dumb guy, who seems to be getting really smart after this sudden lucky strike. The most obvious clichés of the world are used here again and again.

However, the great surprise of this movie are the villains and their methods of doing their job. Glenn is very effective as the scary guy who kills everybody on his way, the kind of guy who doesn't trust anybody. He's very terrifying. And there's another villain, played by John Glover, who is very scary and because of his torture methods that the film gets interesting (when he puts McCarthy's feet on boiling water to prevent him from running away). That scene alone worths the whole film.

But this movie cannot escape of its negative aspects. Fight scenes are badly executed; lots of laughable parts; the amazing fact of a guy who had his feet burned walking on crutches one day later after the incident (at least put him on a wheelchair when walking out of the hospital, then I would believe just a little); the presentation of both major characters are terrible, you don't even have time to relate or care for the hero, he's simply thrown on the screen and we "have" to like him.

Uninteresting as an action film or as a thriller, and a little bit funny as a drama, "Night of the Running Man" is good in making us wondering why good actors allow themselves to waste their talents in such a simplistic and dull project where their skills aren't well used. It's not a complete waste of time but when you think of the possibilities of doing better things on a boring day, you won't even feel guilty of missing this, even if you admire the people involved in this. 5/10

"Night of the Running Man" opens with a real "grabber" of an opening, as likable cab driver (Andrew McCarthy) unintentionally gets involved with a fare who has a bag of money stolen from the mob. When the bag guy is killed, McCarthy decides to run with the bag. Enter Scott Glenn as an arrogant "fixer', who is sent by the head boss (Wayne Newton) to retrieve the million dollars and eliminate the cab driver. Glenn is excellent as the somewhat paranoid, darkly sadistic, methodical hunter. Along the way, John Glover becomes a colorful accomplice of Glenn's. This film has excellent character development, a compelling story, a sympathetic hero, and is unpredictable. Highly recommended. - MERK

Mark L. Lester's Night Of The Running Man, not to be confused with the Schwarzenegger classic of a similar moniker, is a mean spirited little urban thriller with Scott Glenn in one of his primo amped up psychopath roles. In the spirit of Scorsese's After Hours, a hapless cab driver (Andrew Mcarthy) finds himself being hunted through the Las Vegas nightscape after one of his fates is murdered right in front of him, but not before leaving behind a suitcase full of millions. The hot man called in to pursue the funds is David Eckert (Glenn), a sociopathic monster with a heavy artillery, bent on retrieving the case and killing as many people along the way. One is reminded of the cult flick Judgment Night as the poor cabbie is forced to run all willy billy through the urban hustle, constantly evading Glenn's lunatic presence. Further villainy is provided, albeit of the more hammy variety, by a scene stealing John Glover as an associate of Eckert's who also casts his net to catch McCarthy, his scenes are so arch and bizarre that they almost swerve the thing into slapstick comedy territory. You can do way worse in budget B movie land, and this one clearly seeks to entertain with it's broad characteristics and blatantly trashy tone. Plus, Glenn is, quite literally, killer good.

Fading brat-packer Andrew McCarthy is a Vegas cab driver who finds himself subjected to that hoary old plot device of finding a briefcase stuffed with money in the back of his cab. The problem is its stolen from the mob, who engage ruthless hitman Scott Glen to recover it. A laid-back performance from Glenn is the main reason to watch this generic thriller, which goes in some unexpected directions - thanks mostly to stupid decisions made by both McCarthy and Glenn.