Review of The Running Man (1987) by Nathan N — 26 Mar 2009

Perhaps my all-time favorite "guilty pleasure" film, I hardly feel guilty at all for liking it! It's easier to like if you haven't read the King/Bachman book as it throws just about all of the book out the window, but still keeps some of the core concepts and makes them into something else, that, while different, is wildly entertaining and still manages to be innovative! There are inspired casting jobs galore (Richard Dawson's game show host, Jesse Ventura's past-his-prime extreme athlete, Mick Fleetwood's aging outlaw songwriter turned activist).

What's amazing is here we have what should have been a typical brainless AH-nold romp that is in fact quite clever, brainy and even insightful. It is all the more clever for how timely it is; predating reality TV by over a decade and American Gladiators by 2-3 years (that's the really impressive thing as the film turns the book's man on the run from unseen hunters concept and changes it to man on the run from gimmicky pro-wrestler-like hunters in a TV studio).

Really the only things about this movie that even make it a 'guilty' pleasure at all are Arnold himself (pretty much all Arnold movies except Total Recall and Terminator 2 are guilty pleasures) and the scene where overweight hunter Dynamo, in his unflattering tightie whities, tries to rape the heroine.

All around, this movie is still a total blast over 20 years later. If you like it, trust me, spring for the 2-disc special edition that isn't available through NF. It can be had cheap (sometimes new for just $7.

50 or so) and the documentaries on it are very good; especially as they just go even further towards showing off that this is in fact an intelligent movie disguised as a brainless romp.