3/10
Road movie-ish action thriller
6 September 2010
Pay TV movie channels seem to be on a recession with the rest of the world and the schedules have lately been filled with rather unknown movies with somewhat known actors, this movie being a prime example. I don't actually mind and I try to catch as many of them as new movies aren't often any better.

Every geek who grew up in the 80's knows Andrew McCarthy (who was not in The Breakfast Club btw, as another reviewer said), Scott Glenn is even today in every other movie and the director had a couple of hits in the 80's, so somewhat promising setup.

The plot itself is pretty good in all it's simplicity, you have a hit-man chasing a cab driver who took the opportunity to get rich with money which is not his. The chase is on and the scenery changes with a rather nice pace.

What doesn't really work, is the leading man McCarthy. I'd say he's just too weary and pathetic and you don't really get a hold of his character. The movie could've benefited from someone a bit more gutsy and charismatic as the lead. At times it feels as if McCarthy and Scott Glenn are in two separate movies, McCarthy in a low budget TV movie and Glenn doing a real movie.

As of writing this, I realised it's not even that old a movie. It kind of feels like a movie that was made in the 80's, but it's post-Pulp Fiction afterall. The movie probably just surfaced too late, it might've been more successful in the 80's when you didn't expect thrillers to be bigger than life with a lot of twists and turns. Night of the Running Man is very straightforward stuff.
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