Directed by Michelle Schumacher — Screenplay by Carolyn Carpenter & Michelle Schumacher.
Michelle Schumacher’s You Can’t Run Forever is a film about a mysterious and sociopathic biker (played by J.K. Simmons) on a murderous rampage, who decides to take his frustrations out on a random family who he meets on the road. When the family’s teenage daughter runs into the woods in an attempt to escape him, the sociopath leaves his bike and hunts her through the woodland wilderness.
Like is probably the case for most people, I was lured into watching this movie because I saw J.K. Simmons’ face on the poster and in the trailers. In the marketing, it looked like a B-movie, which I thought could be entertaining enough and possibly even a great B-movie surprise. To be honest and upfront, that was just not the case. You Can’t Run Forever is not a hidden gem, rather it is a relatively shoddy flick.
This is a shame because I was hoping to really love and champion this unique family production, as Simmons’ wife, Michelle Schumacher, is the director; his brother-in-law, Randle, produced it; his son, Joe, composed the score; and his daughter, Olivia, even appears in a small role. That opportunity to do something as a family explains why J.K. Simmons decided to take part in this (and you can’t really blame him, as it’s a good opportunity for everyone involved to work together on a project). Unfortunately, it just isn’t very good.
Yes, J.K. Simmons is predictably good and entertaining in the lead antagonist role, which allows him to go into full Michael Douglas in Falling Down or Russell Crowe in Unhinged mode. But most of everything around him is generic, bland, or poorly executed, with the tone being a notable misstep as it sometimes reads as unintentionally funny (and because Schumacher fails to set the menacing and nasty B-movie tone — possibly in the vein of Eden Lake — that would’ve gotten the most out of Simmons’ performance). Furthermore, Simmons just runs circles around every other actor in the film, who, it must be said, are given a relatively low-grade script to work with. Almost every time the film cuts away from the action surrounding Simmons’ character and his hunt in the woods, the film loses momentum and its grip on you.
There are a lot of unintentionally funny missteps made in this one like characters doing odd things, lines being spoken unnaturally (or commenting on things in an unnatural order), or things being done in ways that make the film feel really small. But, at the same time, I don’t want to be too harsh on something that was clearly just meant to be an opportunity to work as a family and get a good experience to learn from, which I think is very nice. Oh, and I should also say that I thought Joe Simmons’ score was competently made for the genre it is in, even though it isn’t a flashy one.
So, yeah, there are some things that I think are competent-enough about the film, despite some massive issues related to tone, pace (it feels much longer than it is), acting (though J.K. Simmons is perfectly fine in this, everyone around him struggles mightily to get anywhere close to the performance he is delivering), and writing. That said, I think some people would still get a kick out of this because of it being a blatant B-movie in a lightweight (and sometimes trashy) but popular thriller subgenre.
4 out of 10
– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
