You Can't Run Forever movie review (2024)

Shes constantly losing the tonal grip on this story, directing scenes with a flat lack of energy that leaves Simmons lost in a movie that has no idea what to do with him. The film really gets started when Wade encounters Eddie (Allen Leech) and his stepdaughter Miranda (Isabelle Anaya), killing the former and sending the young woman into the woods to survive. While Mirandas very pregnant mother Jenny (Fernanda Urrejola) panics at home, and the inept local cops bumble their way through the investigation of what appear to be the first murders in their areathe best bit in the film involves an incompetent deputy reading a manual about how to handle a crime sceneWade hunts Miranda through the woods. Its another variation on The Most Dangerous Game. And yet its not really. Schumacher and cowriter Carolyn Carpenter dont really even trust their predator vs. prey concept, constantly bursting any rising tension by cutting back to a worried Jenny or the officers trying to figure out who is terrorizing their small town. And when flashbacks vaguely try to give Wade a loose motive for what hes doing, the whole thing falls apart even further. This kind of movie only works with a ruthless, motiveless killer who pushes a victim into discovering their inner strength. But that kind of direct one on one thriller requires trust in both performers and collaborators like editors and cinematographers who can make the setting into a threatening backdrop. Tbsolutely zero tension in You Cant Run Forever. It all feels like a lark, a project that would completely dissolve if not for the Oscar winner at its center. About that Oscar winnerthere is some perverted glee in watching a performer who is so far above everything else around him. The ruthlessness in his eyes, a twisted smile when he knows hes in charge, a true sense of dangerthats all there in Simmons choices. And yet none of his scene partners rise to meet what hes trying to do, creating a weird professional/amateur dynamic thats like watching mediocre athletes try to keep up with an allstar.