Everyone loves Nicolas Cage the bug-eyed lunatic. Nicolas Cage the serious actor, that's a tougher sell.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 2, 2015

The Runner never approaches the keen insight and social satire of political films such as The Candidate, Primary Colors or Bulworth.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 27, 2015

Stark repeatedly squanders the decent supporting cast, revealing scant backstory that would enhance the often vague character motivation on display.

| Aug 7, 2015

These plot elements, and the actors, have all the makings of a truly juicy and thought-provoking political melodrama. So it's dispiriting to see filmmaker Stark create such a weird, jagged hash out of them.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 7, 2015

Cage's performance is as fuzzy as his character's sense of bearings.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 6, 2015

A hollow, listless political drama that could have been a contender.

| Aug 6, 2015

This brand of political soap opera is being done better on television by shows like "Scandal," where this story would be little more than a secondary plotline.

| Aug 6, 2015

The Runner is a well-meaning character study with an admirably cynical ending, but it's too cold to ever fully draw you in.

| Original Score: B- | Aug 6, 2015

Most of the time, the movie just lies flat.

| Aug 6, 2015

It might could have been something dark and delicious, but the amateur direction, plodding plot progression, and sappy score doom this one to the crummy side of the awesomely bifurcated Cage Collection.

| Original Score: 0/5 | Aug 6, 2015

Stark's turgid approach feels both pompous and cold, and the film never connects emotionally.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 6, 2015

This slim if mildly compelling film lands somewhere between character sketch and morality tale.

| Original Score: C | Aug 6, 2015

A slow-burning political drama that never heats up enough to draw the viewer completely in.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 6, 2015

In "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.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Aug 5, 2015

"The Runner," while painfully low-budget and a little patchy, is an interesting look at how sausage is made.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 5, 2015

The film tackles its issues with a furrowed-brow solemnity that eventually spills into outright sluggishness.

| Aug 4, 2015

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 ...

| Aug 4, 2015