The Runner

source: The Runner

The Runner is not the typical mystery thriller or clumsy action movie Nicolas Cage has been known for these past few years. This is a much deeper take on political drama as well as private ups and downs of a man's life. The cumulative acting prowess succeeds in presenting an appealing drama, but its varying interweaving subplots might be too cumbersome to fully develop. Story revolves around the incident of oil spill, then proceeds towards its aftermath as Senator Pryce (Nicolas Cage) is plagued by series of scandals. It's a compelling subject as a backdrop against the private life of the Senator, as it displays the man in front of public eyes along with his more honest thoughts and apprehensions. Nicolas Cage has his finer performance in years, this is far more in-depth and intimate dive on a character than practically his half dozen previous roles of cheap action hero or investigator. It's the way he puts on the flaws that make the politician character more identifiable. The supporting characters perform excellently as well, providing different aspects of relationship that Pryce must compensate or struggle with. The actors, despite having different screen time, present interesting subplots. However, this also hampers the pace as not every tangled story angle wrap up nicely. It's almost like a politician who promises too many things, some of them might be delivered, the rest could just be awkwardly shoehorned in. It's commendable to showcase multiple aspect of the drama, even displaying the man's vices, yet the transition between these subplots is sometimes jarring. It may have several flaws, but The Runner is a decent absorbing drama and also a step up on Nicolas Cage's slumping resume.

The Runner starring Nicolas Cage. While The Runner is just another mundane campaign trailblazer, Nicolas Cage still has some gas left in the tank. When the film bad, it's hard to watch. But because Cage is almost able to save The Runner completely on his own – despite the help of Peter Fonda, Connie Nielsen, and Sarah Paulson, we're able to walk away with a glimmer of hope for future Nic Cage features. Unfortunately, that's about the only thing we can remain stoked about once Stark's character dissection comes to an end. The film stables for a while and is predictable for this case of a film. It is more seen as a slow paced political drama, underneath its release which was limited then went straight to video through some places. There are reasons for this. However, do not expect nothing more than a typical run of the mill drama.

An embarrassing video threatens the career of an idealistic Louisiana congressman who dreams of running for the Senate. After all, the video features him having a little bit of cheeky cheeky with a fishermans wife. But what makes this video the final twist of the knife, is the fact that the congressman is vying to his people to help fishermen and others who's careers are threatened by the 2010 BP oil spillage..... It's that age old problem isn't it? No matter how many people you try to help, no matter how much help you provide and how much you live up to your promises,someone's always got a bit of dirt on you, and your family. And it doesn't help that your dad had a similar problem when he was a congressmen.... The film is literally a mix of Erin Brockovich meets one of those dodgy erotic thrillers that your dad used to rent from the video shop and keep at the back of the TV, and not as good that concept sounds. Cage reins his performance in for the most part of the film, which is always a negative, because all us true Cage fans love us a bit of mental, shouty Cage, so we still have evidence for the non-believers that there is some redeeming factors his films. So the film isn't terrible, it's quite interesting from the point of the actual story, but the narrative was done to death in the nineties, a sex scandal ruins someone's career. Whoop-De-Doo. If this was made in the nineties in the wake of David Mellor or Paddy Ashdown, and used a different environmental disaster as a backdrop, it would have been something of a success, and would have most definitely starred Michael Douglas. So it's a strange change of course for Cage, it's not a film you'd expect him to be in, but you have to pay your huge bills Nic don't you? Halfway through the film, Peter Fonda turns up and steals everything everybody does from then whenever he's on screen, and I've been waiting for this reunion since Ghost Rider. So the film consists of Cage talking importantly on stage, Cage talking importantly on TV. Scandal!!! A slap from Nielsen, Fonda, slight redemption, and then scouting along in civvies talking to the fisherman. So all in all, it's not a terrible movie, as said before it has a message, and some interesting facts, but for true Cage fans, it's like watching paint dry.