39
Metascore
14 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 67Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyEntertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyThe Runner is a well-meaning character study with an admirably cynical ending, but it’s too cold to ever fully draw you in.
- The Runner, while painfully low-budget and a little patchy, is an interesting look at how sausage is made.
- 50The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerThe A.V. ClubJesse HassengerThere’s no revenge, no murder, and no kidnapping. It’s a low-budget New Orleans Cage movie with some dignity. It would be a pleasure to report that The Runner is also good, but this slim if mildly compelling film lands somewhere between character sketch and morality tale.
- 40VarietyScott FoundasVarietyScott FoundasThe Runner doesn’t lack for drama, but the characters are so thinly and predictably drawn, and the movie’s supposed insights into the art of political compromise so banal, that nothing catches fire.
- 40Village VoiceNick SchagerVillage VoiceNick SchagerThe film tackles its issues with a furrowed-brow solemnity that eventually spills into outright sluggishness.
- 40Los Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenLos Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenThe plodding film goes awfully heavy on script exposition and all too light on character depth, leaving Cage and company — including a smartly cast Peter Fonda as his been-there, done-that alcoholic dad — to come up with their own complexity.
- 38Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreWriter-director Austin Stark’s film crams a lot into 90 minutes, leaving no room for grace notes, little time for the heart that this truncated story cries out for.
- 30The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerThe New York TimesNeil GenzlingerAll of the characters here are underwritten, and Mr. Cage and most of the other actors don’t seem to be putting much effort into them.
- 25New York PostKyle SmithNew York PostKyle SmithIn The Runner, the latest Nicolas Cage film to roll off his one-man assembly line of shoddy cinema, the star looks almost as tired of acting as I am of watching his acting.