The Runner

In The Runner, Nicolas Cage plays a Louisiana politician who has to deal with a sex scandal and other personal issues. His performance is appropriately subdued and introspective; he also uses a Southern accent fairly convincingly. This is as close to watching Cage play Frank Underwood as we will ever get. The supporting cast is good too.

The problems lie in the production value. It looks cheap, the supporting characters are underwritten, and the direction is just baffling. There are so many unnecessary closeups, shot after shot, and it's all flat - no visual flair whatsoever. It doesn't help that the pacing is sluggish, so there's no way for the movie to gather momentum. It starts off running in quicksand and never gets out. There are brief moments where you care about the characters and that's solely because of the actors.

It could have been an engaging character study if there was a liveliness to the filmmaking and some semblance of pace. As far as Nic Cage performances, this is definitely one of his better recent ones. But it's not worth sitting through this slog of a movie.

the problem with this picture in my opinion is Nicolas Cage !

don't get me wrong , I don't mean his performance but the audience has a problem with him , it's like : oh this movie starring Cage , just give it 1 star !

this movie is about characters and I always liked this kind of movies , the movie takes place in 2010 , first scenes shows the aftermath of BP oil spill accident... Cage is an idealistic congress man from Louisiana called Colin Price who aspires to be nominated for the senate , he was defending the rights of fishers whose works were damaged because of the accident , and suddenly his reputation was ruined by sexual scandal with a fisherman's wife ! His wife left him , he resigned from the congress but continued his charity works to support the fishermen... Cage was not bad , he delivers a good performance for his role..

Peter Fonda as Colin Price's father , he was very good written character and his performance was very good...

Connie Nielsen as Deborah Price was not special and not bad in the same time..

Sarah Paulson as Kate Haber , I liked her role in the second half of the movie

the problem with this picture is that when you have these elements and these characters you could have done much better scenario..

sorry for my bad English..

I have been avoiding this movie for years solely based on the IMDB rating.

I'm here to tell you it's a lie. How somebody could give this less than 6 or 7 is beyond me.

This movie is about courage and life's many realities.

It's rare Hollywood creates an honest movie, but this is one of them.

If you want a well acted movie, with great dialog and a boatload of honesty - watch this movie. You won't be disappointed.

Politicians are humans too. In case you were wondering or didn't know, this movie makes this clear. Though it does so, by using a lot of clichés. Still I take any decent role that Cage is putting out there and this certainly is one of them. While predictable and not as earnest as a recent politician who might be the front runner for the Democrats after President Obamas turn is over, the character portrayed by Nicolas Cage is charming, despite or maybe even because of his flaws and faults.

Having said that, there is a bit of sugar coating going on here (though not in the department of nudity, in case you were wondering), and it might feel a bit out of touch for some. Still the flow of the movie is nice and it works (mostly) ...

I always appreciate films that juxtapose important issues with a fictional human element. The Runner successfully did that, mixing a documentary insight into the BP oil spill's effects while also remaining a character study of a corrupt politician. This film came at the right time – the spill happened 5 years ago, and people have forgotten about the trauma it caused. I hope this film reminds people of the spill's lasting effects. Nicolas Cage is a mesmerizing actor, who has done a ton of crap lately, but here he displayed that he can still act. Similar to Joe, Cage strayed away from his typical madman role, playing a vulnerable and human version of Frank Underwood (House of Cards). There are a few other good character actors in this, especially Peter Fonda. The movie runs on the short side – it's definitely worth a watch.