The Runaways

Audience Reviews

View More

Albus M Mar 25, 2019 Provocative if not very effective, and more neurotic than erotic, the movie is built on performances to match those of the band, though just like their music, there's more style, shock, and spectacle than artistic merit---but maybe that's just rock 'n roll. See more

Ron L Feb 6, 2019 So a few individual girls growing up in the Seventies wanted to emulate Suzi Quatro and David Bowie and wound up falling in with record producer Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon). The rest, as they say, is history. The Runaways were a famous all-female rock group filled with strong personalities made even stronger by the fact they were all so young upon uniting. Unfortunately, I kept seeing Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning instead of Joan Jett and Cherie Currie. I've seen better acting from these women, both before and after "The Runaways"; acting that involved me in their performances, acting that made me forget I was watching actresses and immersed me completely in the characters they were playing. I'm not entirely sure what went wrong on this occasion. All I know for sure is, they both could have taken lessons from Shannon who is ever the consummate professional and disappears into his role of Fowley with ease. If I had to use a single word to describe this film, it would be perfunctory. It hits all the appropriate notes, but there's no technique. It's just another sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll biopic in a long line of similar movies. Director Floria Sigismondi has obviously seen better docudramas and tries to duplicate what she saw in them without fully understanding what made the original concepts work so well. The most interesting part is Currie's breakdown and Jett's subsequent coming into her own, but it's handled so ineffectively I felt like I was watching a television movie-of-the-week. There's nothing really surprising here. There's nothing really inventive here. It's a been there, done that, seen it all before kind of film. The Runaways had some powerful songs during the Seventies and they deserved a powerful motion picture to showcase their legacy. "The Runaways" comes as close to being cookie cutter filmmaking as I've ever seen. Perhaps in more experienced hands, this movie could have etched out a place in my memory as deep as the songs "Cherry Bomb" and "Queens of Noise" did. As it stands, I'm forgetting the film almost as fast as I watched it, which is probably a blessing. See more

Poe S Jan 11, 2017 A straightforward biopic of the runaways, and that's what makes it succeed. The cast is top notch, I got nervous when I saw Kristen Stewart was in the cast, but she was actually a great choice for Joan Jett. Like with a lot of movies I've seen that have a lot of music in them, this is a film you don't want to end. Yes, it's short. Yes, it's less in-depth than it probably should be. Yes, every famous Joan Jett song is in here except I hate myself for loving you, which even if you don't like rock music, you can relate to in so many different ways. I know I can. With a great cast and even better music, this is a film you can't turn down. It may even be better than rock of ages, which is saying something. See more

Albus W Aug 7, 2011 Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning are outstanding by presenting Rock n' Roll history on screen.

Kylo S Sep 14, 2010 Cute, but just kind of fades at the end

Albus M Sep 6, 2010 If your familiar with the 70's and how life was, you'll most certainly enjoy watching all that use to be during that rock and roll era in this straight to DVD true life story. However, anything other than that won't be much to applaud to. The performances weren't that bad, perhaps certain scenes should have been redone unless they were redone over again then there wasn't much else that could be overdone. See more

Read all reviews

The Runaways

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING