I have been let down by Nicolas Cage so many times in the last decade that I cannot trust anything he acts in. For every JOE there are a dozen LEFT BEHINDs. His latest film, THE RUNNER, would have immediately fallen off of my radar if not for the decent cast and timely political story. Set against the backdrop of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, also being made into a bigger production from Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg, THE RUNNER starts out looking like a political thriller before turning into an inspirational story.
In the aftermath of the BP oil spill, an idealistic but imperfect New Orleans politician (Nicolas Cage) finds his plans of restoration unraveling as his own life becomes contaminated with corruption, scandal and deceit.
THE RUNNER is directed and written by Austin Stark and co-stars American Horror Story’s Sarah Paulson, GLADIATOR’s Connie Nielsen, The Wire’s Wendell Pierce, Mad Men’s Bryan Batt and Peter Fonda. I am still not quite sure if this is just a misleading trailer as the production values do look fairly low, or if this could be a surprisingly decent turn from Cage. I am convinced that Cage would benefit greatly from taking a small screen role on a series like 24 or something on HBO. The guy is still very talented, he just needs to pick better projects.
THE RUNNER opens in theaters and om demand on August 7th.