Why so much hype?

This is How Movies Should Be Made

A Brilliant Conflict

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I love B grades, especially ones like this that surprise me, and this is exactly what 'Night Of The Running Man' does, and it doesn't stop for anything. We've got one slick thriller, and Scott Glenn here is bloody scary, an underestimated character of evil, a professional hit-man, void of remorse or emotion (watch one lovemaking scene that sickly shocks). Andrew McCarthy who does well here, plays a loser cab driver, who like he says, gambler that he is, has the worst run of luck possible. Fleeing the scene of a crime, his previous passenger run down, after stealing a suitcase full of money, the kind of moolah that can get you dead (and remember we're in Vegas here) leaves it behind in McCarthy's cab. Here's McCarthy's plan: Take off from Vegas with the money, leaving his little trailer park home, for some greener pasture, but Glenn is hot on his heals, making this a dangerous and scary thriller/adventure. No doubt the trademark scene is the torture one, where John Glover as a sleazy old friend of Glenns, pretty much puts a stop plug on MCcarthy's plans, who gives his feet a bathing that he'll never forget. No surprise, this movie was directed by Mark Lester, who knows how to put magic into movies. NOTRM is pretty much a scene by scene movie, but it has pace, and for the viewer is scary fun, where you wouldn't want be in McCarthy's shoes, where psychopathic hit man Glenn's intensity is the winning formula in making this movie, as thrilling as it is, where it's neatly wraps up. The whole business of the story has a slick and wonderfully nifty feel, and Glenn here, is one of the screen's true evils you'll see in a while.

Rarely, almost never, does a botched costume tell you everything you have to know about a movie but in this self-described "low budget" film, one of the lead's costumes in fact is a warning signal. The so-called "professional ", "best there is" hit man (played by Scott Glen) is saddled, pun intended, with an ill-fitting suit that he wears throughout most of the movie. I've worked on low budget films in my career but when a director or producer saves money, not by serving pizza for meals instead of catering thefilm, but stints on the leading man's suit, then you know you are in trouble. The suit looks like it came out of the bargain floor, discounted, one-size-fits-all, section of some low price emporium. It fits him like a glove; an oversized glove on a small person, let's say. Once a thing like this starts a movie then something as simple as the Scott Glen character acting "hired gun cool" becomes an item that causes smiles, if not laughter. (I must also mention the need for thescreenwriter to try and imitate the atrocious dialogue Tarantino has inflicted on movies and have the hit man, about to practice his trade, "talk" about it to the victim. Isn't it possible that these folks, in real life, just ........do it......and move on to their home life?

At one point a friend said to me that Andrew McCarthy is one of the kings of Bad movies. Ok, ok, "Weekend at Bernies" or some of the others may be ok, but they are not very memorable and would be on few top 100 or 1000 lists.Anyway, Night of the Running Man, brings this idea of McCarthyism into the 90's (1994), and once again it rings true.The concept of the movie is ok: $1 mil in the taxi, a killer is after you, and you run. But, alas it is really simplified. Scott Glen, plays the killer without morals, so much so, that we know something is up come ending time. There are also little type goofs, like McCarthy's feet are burned so badly that he is supposed to be bedridden for 2 or so weeks, yet in 2 days, he is walking without any limps.Also, "night " is a bit of a mis-nomer as the movie takes place over days. Oh well, what else do you expect?Other thrillers are better, but you may like this.Viewed on tape, Rating = 4

I've always liked the work of actress Kim Lankford, who starred on the prime-time serial Knots Landing for the first 4 years as Ginger Ward. Therefore, I was pleased to see her turn up for a few minutes playing a waitress who covers for Andrew McCarthy (playing a cab driver on the run from the mob) in "Night of the Running Man." Lankford made the most of her screentime and brought some warmth and humanity to a drab direct-to-video actioner. Therefore, (spoiler coming up ahead, folks), I was thoroughly disgusted with the scene where mob hitman Scott Glenn dangles Lankford's terrified character from high up on a Dam in order to coax McCarthy's whereabouts from her, then drops her to her death. I'm not politically correct by any stretch of the imagination, but I've seen more sensitivity shown towards women in the cinema of Dario Argento, Brian DePalma, and Jess Franco. This was offensive, pointless, disgusting and despicable--and shame on Scott Glenn for participating in such a mean film!