Review of The Running Man (1987) by Eric H — 14 Jan 2014

I really enjoyed the Stephen King or Richard Bachman novel The Running Man, but seeing as it was an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie I expected it to deviate far from the actual plotline and be just another action vehicle for him.

Director Paul Michael Glaser is too dedicated to the commercial and satirical elements in the story that he forgets the important role that the dystopian future plays in the story, so it's mostly just a glamourised science fiction thriller with the only major dystopian elements being the dark lighting. And since this isn't strongly atmospheric at all, all it turns into is something difficult for viewers to actually see. Very rarely is lighting this annoying, but The Running Man matches G.I. Jane as being annoying on the basis of the poor lighting.

Plus, the actual gameshow of The Running Man is way too commoditised. In the novel it took place in the open world with no limits, while in the film it's in a gameshow styled series of rooms with different themes. This keeps the scale of the story ridiculously small and removes all intensity from the story.

And the script is so basic and far from the text that the only memorable moment is the fact that Steven E. de Souza managed to write in the line "I'll Be Back" for Arnold Schwarzenegger which essentially is one of the reasons he was obviously put in the lead role.

The Running man just isn't written well and is directed no better. The problem is that as well as deviating extremely far from the source material, The Running Man isn't intense, is too small scaled and is largely bereft of entertainment value. The pacing is dull and the characters aren't worth caring about because obviously Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't going to die or anything, and so it's even predictable.

Even the action is insufficient and boring as well as being somewhat sporadically placed into the story.

And as the author himself stated, Arnold Schwarzenegger is the first furthest thing from appropriate for the character of Benjamin Richards, since he's supposed I he an everyman fighting for his family when in the film he's a former mercenary trying to get out of a prison sentence. Even the one-liners he is iconic for are written poorly and feel way too forced, even though Arnold Schwarzenegger tries his hardest.

All The Running Man takes from its story is the title and main character, while the technical qualities of the film itself borrows the props and costumes from Megaforce and a production design like Blade Runner combined with a plot like Logan's Run. This all sounds cool, but director Paul Michael Glaser manages to f*ck it up.

The only real benefit of The Running Man is Richard Dawson's performance as Killian which is convincing and screen snatching.

But really, Paul Michael Glaser turned The Running Man into a noisy and boring adaptation of the text which had few of the characters or the good qualities that are necessary. It even lacks cheap fun or sufficient nostalgia, so it's a big disappointment.