The Running Man

Rating:
Summary: Dawson's Cheek (Almost) Saves Film
Review: If you like 80's action movies at their cheesiest, "The Running Man" stands head and gorgonzola above the rest. Spandex outfits, neon sets, and a Harold Faltermeyer score--all it needed was an E.G. Daily cameo. Other than the nostalgia appeal of its "Miami Vice" view of the future, though, the movie is pretty awful.
One clue to the movie's awfulness is the sole screen credit to Steven De Souza, who gives lie to the "too many cooks" theory of screenwriting; solo scripts by De Souza (Commando, Street Fighter) are always worse than scripts in which he shares credit with others (48 HRS, Die Hard 1 and 2). The bad Schwarzenegger puns are in abundance, and the rest of the dialogue is never as clever as De Souza seems to think it is.
But "The Running Man" does have one thing going for it, and it's not Arnold--it's Richard Dawson, who has a grand time sending up his "Family Feud" image as a smarmy game-show host whose charm is even less than skin-deep. Dawson, no stranger to mediocrity (he was, after all, a regular on "Hogan's Heroes), knows he's not doing Shakespeare, but he seems to be having the time of his life. If the rest of the film had risen to the standard of his performance, "The Running Man" might be more than a generic 80's shoot-em-up.

Rating:
Summary: A piece of trivial junk
Review: I might have been able to give this movie 2 stars given that there are a few good action scenes in this movie that made it mildly entertaining at times, in reality I would like to give it zero. I cannot understand how this movie has been able to get some of the glowing reviews it has. Perhaps this is just because I read the book before seeing the movie, and had heard it was actually a good adaptation of the book. I notice even the editorial review for this movie mentions it is one of the better adaptations to film. That is a laughable concept. A blank screen for 2 hours would be just as faithful. This movie too a book that had some social relevance, and parallels to our own society, and warped it into a simplistic, moronic action flick. All real empathy for the main character is gone with the story being changed so greatly. The only elements that remain the same appear to be a gameshow where people are hunted, the name of the host of the show, and the protagonist, Ben Richards. Don't even bother watching it, I want the time I lost watching this back, don't waste your time as well. Go read the book, people need to do that more often anyway, and see what this movie could be.
I've been called a movie snob in the past, but in a case like this, being snobbish seems like a very acceptable way of being.

Rating:
Summary: SSHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! it's SHOWTIME
Review: This is one of my two favorite Schwarzengger films off all time. The other is Total Recall. The Running Man was originally written Richard Bachman(Stephen King). The Running Man is a life or death game show where convicts can win pardons to achieve the freedom that they have been denied. Stalkers are what convicts have to overcome to have the slightest chance of survival. Media is controlling people's lives and the truth is unpopular in the year 2019. Ben Richards is a pilot who refuses to fire upon a crowd of 1500 rioters and is detained because of his noble choice. The rioters are fired upon anyway and the TV says that Richards killed the rioters without reason. Well, Richards escapes from his captors (with Weiss and Laughlin's help)who used a device around his neck which detonates when a prisoner is in an activated perimeter. Richards then goes to his brother's apartment where he finds Amber Mendez, a musician who recognizes Richards from the news. He forces her against her will to accompany him to the airport so he can get out of the country. Stupidly enough, she turns him in and that is when he is forced to become the next contestant on "The Running Man" because if he does not participate then his buddies will take his place. He agrees and is sent to the Game-Zone, a place in disarray because of a earthquake that occurred in 1997. Richards faces Sub-Zero, Buzzsaw, Dynamo, and then Fireball(in that exact order). Richards and Mendez then find Mick(played by Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac)who is the leader of the organization trying to broadcast the truth to the people and overcome the corrupt media and more specifically Killian, the scumbag host of The Running Man. Ben Richards is an Amazingly charismatic character who is suprisingly well played by Arnold. Compared to his other violent action films, Arnold really slips into this juicy role rather well. This was my favorite movie when I was a kid growing up. It is up there with the best of Post-Apocalyptic 80's action films. The music score by Harold Faltermeyer is AMAZINGLY CAPTIVATING. SCHWARZENEGGER TURNS IN A GREAT PERFORMANCE AS AN INNOCENT MAN PUSHED TO THE EDGE WITH NOTHING TO LOSE AND EVERYTHING TO GAIN! I WILL ALWAYS LOVE THIS FILM!

Rating:
Summary: Cheesy Now But Still Entertaining
Review: A great sci-fi flick with toned down 80's effects by today's standards, but the storyline and characters are what makes this worth watching. That and of course Arnold's great lines like "He had to split"..."Wanna lift?"

Rating:
Summary: A tribute to the excelent Jesse Ventura...
Review: Reasons to buy this film...
1- Jesse Ventura has his own, 'no pain..no gain...workout show'
2- Jesse Ventura has a bunch of boxes on him as his 'stalker'
suit, which he says 'i dont need this cr@p!'...he's right you know....
3- That black guy from alien is in it as one of Arnie's 'friends'
he plays such a convincing role and it is touching when he
dies.
4- Arnie is in it.
5- Killion is the ultimate game show host.

Reasons why not to buy this film...
1- Bill Duke isnt in it.

Rating:
Summary: Pure fun from start to finish!
Review: "Running Man" is based on a story by Richard Bachman, a.k.a. Stephen King writing under pseudonym.

It takes place in the near future, where everything is run by the media and the government. Kind of like right now. In the future, there isn't much selection on television. All there is is "The Running Man"--hosted by Damon Killian (Richard Dawson, host of "Family Fortune" in real life)--a show that features convicts, or "runners" being chased by madmen, or "stalkers." It's a bit like a futuristic gladiator sport. No one ever, ever wins the show. But Schwarzenegger has yet to play. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Ben Richards, also known as The Butcher of Bakersfield, for firing upon a crowd of humans in a food strike. Only one problem. He's been framed--he never shot anyone. After Arnie escapes from jail, Damon Killian wants his hands on him for the show--so they hunt him down and bring him in. Damon offers Ben a deal--if he goes on the show, he'll let his friends from jail go free. But if he doesn't...he puts his friends on. So Richards agrees to play the game, only to find that Damon has put his friends-from-jail in the show anyway. Right before being launched in the arena, Ben Richards says to Damon, "Hey, Damon. I'll be back." There is a pause. "Only in a rerun," Damon says. Yeah, right.

This movie is about as action-packed and adrenaline-punched an action movie you're going to see in a while. We see an excuse for Schwarzenegger being thrown into an arena with killers, where he must use his brains, strategy, and most of all muscles, to kill the stalkers. But the thing is, the excuse for throwing Schwarzenegger in the arena is a good one. They didn't completely ignore the plot; they don't even throw him in the arena until at least a half hour into the film. They set up the plot first, which is nice.

Arnold proves his acting talent is not just in his muscles once again. Too many people make fun of Schwarzenegger's acting skills, but to tell you the truth, I prefer him over Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone any day. Bruce and Sly are mumblers, in my opinion. Anyway, I like Arnold in this movie, because unlike in "The Terminator" where he is an indestructible cyborg, he is a vincible human with emotions in this film. We see a different side to Schwarzenegger, and it's pretty nice.

Richard Dawson is surprisingly good as Damon. I love his charisma on screen. Of course he's good at playing a gameshow host--he himself was one--but he also has a very good acting talent. Check out the scene where he offers Arnold a deal for going on the show. Look how smug he is in that scene, and how well he delivers his lines. He envelops his character very well. An underrated actor if ever I saw one. He comes off slightly creepy and slightly likable.

This movie is good fun no matter how you slice and dice it. I've often noticed it has a bit of a weird vibe to it, but then I realized that's just the sci-fi/futuristic vibe of the film. I've felt it before when watching sci-fi films. There's something about them. When I watch a film, or a certain genre, I get different vibes. Sci-fi gives me a weird vibe that is undescribable. This film gives that vibe to me. It sounds weird, but I think a lot of people get "vibes" and don't realize it.

I recently viewed this movie twice in less than a day; once at night and once in the morning. It just goes to show how easy it is to watch. It is strictly a fun, action film with lots of imagination and charisma. Easy to watch with a high re-watch factor.

What would you rather do with 90 minutes of your life on a Friday night than watch Arnold Schwarzenegger get to knock some skulls together in a gladiator arena? Exactly.

Rating:
Summary: Captain Freedom to Wardrobe... Captain Freedom to Wardrobe..
Review: The Running Man is a film based on a surprisingly good short story by Stephen King. King's tale, a sort of beefed-up '1984', has a man on the run not only from the law, but from a repressive society at large. It's gritty, gruesome, and so different from the film as to be nearly unrecognizable.

The film itself is quite good, although it should be noted from the onset that it has a lot of truly agonizing mid-1980s styles and mannerisms. Some seem almost farcical, such as the earrings and female hairstyles, but if you can look beyond them you'll likely enjoy this film. In a nutshell, good ol' Arnie plays a cop (really a special police trooper) who refuses to fire on unarmed food rioters and is arrested. Society has been transformed into a totalitarian nightmare where the masses are controlled through the media and spoon-fed various gameshows such as 'Climbing for Dollars' where people try to avoid attack dogs and earn cash prizes, and of course the most popular, the Running Man. The Running Man itself is a gameshow in which fugitives are released into 200 square blocks (the "game zone") of burnt out LA and then chased around by stalkers as a live studio audience watches. You can probably see where this is going.

Long story short, of course Arnie and his buddies end up in The Running Man show and are chased around by some colorful and entertaining stalkers. The film does a fairly good job of playing around with the underlying social commentaries of facism and media control (Robocop actually does a better job, and there are similar tongue-in-cheek remarks made in Starship Troopers). Stalkers are picked to chase our heroes by housewives who like them "big and cuddly," audience members are chosen a la The Price is Right to win extra prizes including "The Running Man Home Version" board game, and as Arnie smashes, bludgeons, mauls, and one-liners his way through the various stalkers sent to kill him, he gradually wins over the crowd, and manages to roll back the media control gripping the masses.

The film isn't nearly as gritty as the novel, and often seems downright cartoonish, with stalkers effectively interchangeable with modern professional wrestlers (in a few cases literally, such as Jesse "Captain Freedom" Ventura, who does a hilarious turn as a retired champion tapped to do away with vexatious Ahnold and who refuses to wear pastic robot armor for the home audience). All in all the film is a guilty pleasure with its endlessly entertaining one-liners and is about on par with Total Recall for its production values. As Arnold pictures go, I think it loses out to classics such as Conan the Barbarian or Predator, but still deserves a place in your DVD library.

Rating:
Summary: Great music score!
Review: Conspiracy, Arnold, Action, perfect recipe for a perfect movie. You won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Poor movie adaptation
Review: I suppose if it were its own movie, then The Running Man wouldn't be so bad. As its own movie, it would be somewhat cheesy, and not very memorable, still, I wouldn't have much of a problem with it. I suppose I still don't. Its just a lame movie, and certainly not worth buying.

I honestly do not know how they managed to say that it was based on the book by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman. This movie was absolutely NOTHING like the book was. It wasn't just the ending, where the book had the tragic ending (although perhaps in some ways a victory for Ben Richards), whereas the movie just HAD to have that classic hollywood ending. EVERYTHING was changed. In fact, the only common elements between the book and the movie was Ben Richards as the protagonist and there is a character named Killian, and he is on some kind of show. Even the rules of the show change from book to movie. In the book, he must run throughout the country and avoid being killed, whereas in the movie he fights on stage against a bunch of cheeser wrestling-type combatants with lame toys. It was almost humorous, though certainly not something I would take seriously.

If you have a few hours to kill and are really curious about the movie, then go ahead and watch the movie. You might even enjoy it. Who knows? But in my opinion, I'd have to say that the book was definitely better. This is, unfortunately, the case with most of Stephen King's material, but is probably the most accurately said in the case of "The Running Man".

Rating:
Summary: For the idea of this story read the book
Review: This movie is a typical Arnold 80's flick. Bad acting, loads of action, and God awful one-liners that you have to crack a smile at. This film does do a major injustice to the story that was original written by Rich Bachman/Stephen King. The book was far more a better story to be told. Ben Richards was no wrongly convicted criminal but a desperate man trying to save his family, a sick and dying child and a wife who sells who body so the family can have money. The story goes way more into the corruption of the government and Ben Richards adventure is breathtaking while Arnold's Ben is just boring and predictable. If you are interested in this idea for a story don't waste time with the film, it shouldn't even use the same title as the book because they are only two things that both have. A main character named Ben Richards and a corrupt government controlled gameshow that kills the contestants. Read the book, skip the movie.