Watch Night of the Running Man For Free

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

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.

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.

I don't really understand some of the review comments stated in some of the other postings. There are three comments that I would dispute. First, one posting stated that Andrew McCarthy didn't limp or seem to be in any pain at many points in the movie...He must be confused and wasn't watching the same movie that I was watching. Andrew McCarthy wonderfully acted his part and used the proper props and movements of a person who had been severely injured. Even when he finally wore boots, they had to be cut up the side so his swollen feet could fit into them. Secondly a snide remark was made saying that McCarthy and Gunn had a romantic encounter in front of a fireplace in LA in the summer. I don't know how this viewer knew it was summer; everyone in the film (except for the nurses uniforms) wore long sleeves and carried or wore a jacket just as McCarthy did. I didn't know that people in LA wore sweaters over their shirts, jackets, and long sleeves in LA in the summer - this doesn't sound practical so it is reasonable for me to assume that that comment should also be discounted. And finally, one viewer called "Andrew McCarthy the king of bad movies"...I happen to be a big Andrew McCarthy fan...I think he is a great actor and enjoy his movies. He can't help the fact that some viewers are too unintelligent to know what is going on in the movie as has been discussed above and then refer to it as a "bad movie".If you haven't seen the movie, it is good, entertaining, contains solid acting, and McCarthy's specialty - making love to a woman that most of you need to view as a "how to" video - if you have the attention span to keep your eyes on the movie for that length of time.

I saw this movie probably 2 or 3 years ago on cable and have to say that I enjoyed it. The movie begins with a Las Vegas cab driver finding a briefcase stuffed full of money. He thinks he's got it good until he realizes that a relentless hitman is after him and will stop at nothing to recover the money and dispose of McCarthy. Good action scenes and scenery.