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'Night of the Running Man' is not much more than your average direct to video release. The production values are standard, the music or direction isn't anything special, the only thing that actually stands out is the performance by Scott Glenn (Silence of the Lambs). That and the torture scene.

The Breakfast Club's Andrew McCarthy plays a Las Vegas cabbie, who discovers a million dollars of cash stashed in her cab. It turns out to be stolen mob money, and he finds that a hired hit man (Glenn) is after the money- and him.

You could do a lot worse than to rent this, and a lot better, but considering the miniscule budget the producers had to work with, it is a pretty good actioner, even deserving of a limited theatrical run. Nothing special.

5.5/10

"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

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.

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

About once a year I check to see if this flick is scheduled for release on DVD. It still isn't (Jan 05).

I only have about 30 titles that I own on DVD, but I would definitely purchase this one. It has some very memorable scenes (yes, some are quite graphic and gruesome, but I wouldn't call it "gratuitous" violence). I'd say it is a decent production in every way, but for some reason it seems to be treated as a very obscure movie.

Actually, I had to go to a movie buff message board to find the title, which I had forgotten. But it didn't take much of a description for a true movie buff to recognize what movie this is!!!