Review of The Running Man (1987) by Alden P — 14 Feb 2014

I'll be back is too right. And he's back in this loosely adapted film version of book of the same name by Stephen King. This is one of the few Schwarzenegger films I had not seen before now. I never even knew this existed until I saw it in a film store while searching for a few good films to buy to watch at home. I looked at it and thought 'Well, it's Schwarzenegger so it has to be good', but listen to me, just because the king of muscle is in a film doesn't make it good. I learned that watching 'The Running Man', a film that's bad at best, and when it is bad at best, then we must have a pretty bad movie on our hands. Now for my review of 'The Running Man'.

Released during Schwarzenegger's golden decade, 'The Running Man' follows Ben Richards (Played by Arnold Schwarzenegger), a man wrongly accused of murdering over a thousand innocent civilians. Sent to prison but escaping, he attracts the attention of the famous Damon Killian (Played by real life Family Feud host, Richard Dawson) the television host of the extremely popular reality show 'The Running Man' in which a convict is sent into an arena against a handful of men in a battle to the death. Killian forces Richards and his companions into competing in the game with only one choice kill or be killed.

While the concept of 'The Running Man' is pretty fresh considering the time period the film was released, it just wasn't justified from book to film. In all fairness I felt the concept could have been executed better then it was. Director 'Paul Michael Glaser' handled the film as a simple popcorn movie instead of turning the solid concept into a smart film that sends out a message on the subject of today's world, being that there is too much violence in the stuff we see. What he makes is a poorly constructed, cheesy picture that down tones the message for more brainless action.

The characters in the film are very thinly written. When we come into view of Ben Richards, we get the typical tough guy convicted of a crime he didn't commit, a guy who easily kicks butt, kissing women, and slaying bad guys, he is as thin and un-original a lead character as it comes. His two buddies from the prison are as thin as he himself; being on the trip simply as damsel's in distress as well as distractions so ol' Arney doesn't get chopped off while in the arena, instead taking his place. Amber Mendez (Played by Maria Alonso), plays out the typical lover in distress, adding nothing new to the film, and not much of an interesting tale, she's mostly just there to panic, bicker with Arney, scream, and repeat that whole process over and over again. The stalkers in the film sent into the arena one by one to kill Arnold off are very one dimensional villain figures. Big, Strong, and Stupid guys that do little but steal ten minutes of screen time each, doing nothing to kill the characters in the arena until they themselves are eventually killed off by Arnold. The only truly interesting character of the film is the villainous television host, Damon Killian. He was new, eccentric, sure of himself, and pretty lively, he was a fun character two this dimwitted character, giving off a few tricks off the sleeve.

Cast wise, we get a few decent cast members. 'Arnold Schwarzenegger' does what he always does, kicks butt, and takes names, as well as punch out one liners at rapid fire speed, he simply accomplishes what he's expected to do, without much effort, he is average as always acting wise, and fits the character well enough. While most of the rest of the cast file in as average, we do get one exception in that of real television host 'Richard Dawson'. 'Richard Dawson' plays it realistically and lively enough to entertain, and actually can be said to play a solid villain, without the muscle. You can tell he's having fun in one of his sole film appearances, giving off a particularly interesting performance making him stand out more than that of the leads.

The script is the typical actioner type. Filled to the brim with a plentiful supply of one liners, and cheese galore, we get a below average script, that skips on the meatier parts of the book for a boney film. Its cringworthy how effective less the script makes the film.

The editing is pretty bad. The action shots are put together one blow at a time, with us viewers having to pick up the pieces of that fight, and glue them together for them to make even a bit of sense.

The film fails to pick of speed and tension. The film goes by at a record speed, but fails to slow down and build up some tension; nothing is exciting about this film. The fight scenes lack energy and real urgency, and us viewers are left watching them thinking 'Wow, those bad guys could seriously kill Arnold if they wanted to but instead they stumble about like total buffoons with two eyes shut waiting to be bashed on the head by Arnold'. It's just the fact that Arnold never get's beat upon himself and the stakes are never raised very high at all.

The film is extremely cheesy, with that dialogue referencing Arnold's previous acting work, as well as the basic simple action based language. And most of the sets are unrealistically built and ugly including the Subzero zone which I found in particularly lame and basic without any added touch. The set in which Damon Killian hosts the show inside, is sparkly and dazzling however. The costumes are also pretty lame, especially, the Dynamo costume which was so cheesy, and not well designed. The running suits worn by Arnold and Co are also pretty average and lacking in originality and design.

All and All, 'The Running Man' is your average dumb action film with no brains. The concept is great but not well executed in this overly cheesy dosage of Arnold Schwarzenegger fighting people. D 2/2/14.

P.S: If you don't in particular care for the film, just skip to the parts with 'Richard Dawson', I sure wish I did.