Review of The Running Man (1987) by Phil P — 01 Sep 2012

'Running Man' is an odd film, there's moments of brilliance but unfortunately they're followed by dull, cheesy and cringe worthy scenes.

Based on the Stephen King book of the same name, 'Running Man' is set in the year 2025 where criminals are put in a game show to 'win' their freedom. It's a fairly convincing world.

Schwarzenegger delivers a decent performance and the story is nicely paced with his character being framed for killing civilians. The films works in stages much like a game show with him being framed, breaking out of jail, putting into the game show and then defeating each of the show bosses. It's nice if a bit formulaic.

It's a nicely made film overall, but the moments of cringing and occasionally flat dialogue coupled with cheesy one liners that I don't mind but are used far to often mean it's a film on verge of something good but falls sadly into mediocrity. Also the ending is terrible ugh.