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The Running Man

The Running Man

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $13.48
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Running Man- okay action movie but not one of Arnold's best
Review: This was an okay movie. I liked it okay. But it wasn't something I would watch over and over again. It is a good future movie. But I think it sucks how everything happens. The way the movie begins with Arnold getting set up for a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison for a year and a half. Then forced to go on an evil sadistic gameshow. I think that was too much abuse to Arnold's character. Trying to make an innocent man look like one of the most dangerous men in the world. A psycho who kills innocent people for no reason. Too much happened to him to make me glad I'm not him. He fought four tough guys: Sub-Zero, Buzzsaw, Dynamo, and Fireball. They seemed like real tough guys almost impossible to beat. Especially Sub-Zero. The way he knocked Arnold unconscious at first sight and the blck guy had to nearly do all the work. Buzzsaw seemed a little difficult at first but was taken out when Arnold used his own chainsaw against him by cutting hs balls with it. Dynamo didn't seem to hard. He just had that electric shock tht killed the nerdy guy. Arnold took him out like he was a piece of cake. But he didn't die and was seen roaming later in the film. Arnold's girl helper killed him by shooting a pipe and showering water sprinkles all over his elctronic armor. Fireball was pretty tough, but not as much as Sub-Zero. He had that massive flame thrower. I thought he would be a scary opponent if fighting him in real life. Buzzsaw and Dynamo seemed like Bebop and Rocksteady from TMNT. Two stupid super villains. But Sub-Zero and Fireball seemed like two tough guys if you weren't careful, you're a dead man. Arnold as Ben Richards, THE RUNNING MAN. Riding in a chopper of anti-hero cops. He was being ordered to draw fire uon innocent civilins, but resisted and said "The hell with you!" They all knocked him out and followed the command. The videos installed on camera were sabotaged and framed Ben Richards for murders he didn't commit. He sure went through embarrassment and humiliation as the evil gameshow host put him on the show and showed the forged video. But in the end the (...) gameshow host was taught a lesson when the true video was shown and the audience learned he was lying. I'm glad Arnold killed him the way he did. Great Movie. But not Arnold's best.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not great but worth watching
Review: I have yet to see a movie with more naive and silly plot than this one. The story is so foolish you would not believe. The plot has too many holes. I would say the whole story line is a big, big hole. The actions and fights were not far from being substandard. But I still would give a credit to it. "The Running Man" was a great and a very original show to watch. The stalkers were real monsters; they looked and acted like killer machines. The most terrific stalker was definitely "Subzero". The picture quality of this DVD, by the way, is poor.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is definitely not a just another GAMESHOW!!!!!!!!
Review: Shwarzenegger is at his best in "The Running Man". I loved the action sequences that take place in this movie. It is blatantly clear that Maria Conchita Alonso is definitely not the best actress in the world but, Arnie is still the man that's the important thing. I would have to say that the movie as a whole is fantastic though.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good but far under the book
Review: The film is interesting in as mush as it shows what America could become if it were to be a fascist state. Absolute segregation between three groups of people : the rich and happy business area, the poor and half-starving working class or unemployed area, and the camps for those who refuse this order and are not executed. It would also mean total control from and through television : it would dictate truth (by distorting real facts), it would be the only center of entertainment, it would aim at going beyond all limits to go back to the famous circus games and gladiators of the Romans, and it would finally mean constant police and military control and surveillance. The running man is a game on TV. It becomes something new when a cop who was framed after refusing to shoot on an unarmed crowd is brought to the arena, with his friends, to fight against the supertechnological champions of the state. What's more, when he wins, what we call today virtual reality changes things and makes him lose on the screen. But he comes back and it is hell and the film ends well, on the screen, with a big kiss. The film hence is pessimistic in the idea that such a fascistic future is possible for America, for the world, but it has a happy ending, and that is the main difference with the book which is not by Stephen King, but by Richard Bachman. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Makes " The Fifth Element" look like " American Gladiators".
Review: a Flawed film but hey! you gotta admitt that it's a lot of fun kind of movie.

Rent it if you a fan of " 5th Element".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I'll be Back, only in a re-run.
Review: Funny, exciting and amazingily fun movie, set in the future about a Ex-Con ( Arnold Schwartzenger) who was framed for murder and he joins in a deadly game show that almost kills him. if you like this movie i would recommend these similar films: The Fifth Element, The Matrix, Total Recall, Commando, Blade Runner, Heavy Metal, Akira, and Army of Darkness.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Downright ridiculous, but strangely addictive
Review: This movie vastly cheered me up when I had the strange combination of utterly futile daytime jobs but an excellent night time job in the Australian Army.

This might not be a terrific movie from several points of view - the violence is quite graphic and horrid at times, but being a grown up, I didn't get too upset about that.

The main characters are quite funny. The game show host is like a satanic vesion of Hughie Green, Arnold is himself, and the "stalkers" are so completely crazy you think, my gosh, whatever I'm up to now can't posibly be so bad as this.

I am intrigued by the fact that this movie appears as very much a family and friends production. Almost all of Arnolds friends are present, including the irreplacable Jesse Ventura. All the other big fellas have very strong mid - German accents and chances are they all trained together a few years ago.

The part that Jesse plays is very funny and quite self effacing. He allows the game show host to humiliate him on several occasions and the character development for Cap. Freedom as a rather ageing crazy who is seriously beginning to doubt his current worth... this is part of the rather silly aspect of the whole affair. You can't be too upset by any of it. Ventura has a tremendous capacity for comedy and I'm surprised he hasn't explored this more.

There are many very distinguished members of the cast, such as Mick Fleet (from Fleetwood Mac), and even Dweezil Zappa, son of Frank, who got just one real line out of the whole movie - but what a line! And I bet his dad was so damn proud, I can just see them both just killing themselves laughing over the whole thing.

But, sadly, it is violent and sometimes quite crude. It has more nastiness than was really necessary, but in those days probably - I'm speculating - probably someone from on high required this.

Since this movie cheered me up, I have a fondness for it that is probably out of proportion to it's real worth.

Characters that could have ben developed more - the rather camp hairdressor that gets in the way of Captain Freedom and almost anyone else - the innocent floorcleaner - Dweezil and Mick, the old lady... several others too.

As far as I know, this also contains the first "I'll be back". So there.

Best Quotes EVER -

"Get him outa here (refering to Ventura as Cap. Freedom).... Whats wrong, steroids make you deaf? Get him out!"

Also

"Get me the justice department. Yeah. Entertainments division..."

And

"It's showtime!"

While the movie is violent, the nice thing is that it shows very clearly the difference between courage and cowardice, self sacrifice and sadism by proxy (...?)

In this way it actually a rather good illustration of (somewhat splintered) light in darkness.

[I also want to say that the existing chat shows in which guests are hurt and humiliated are well onto the way of this. I don't want to see either in real life.]

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: I agree with an earlier review
Review: I agree with an earlier reviewer: Arnold should have tickled the spanish chick's feet when she was tied up and barefoot. What's her name, Maria Chiquita Banana or something?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst adaptation to a Steven King novel I have EVER seen!
Review: Did they even bother to read the book before writing the script, or did they just make it up as they went along? About the only thing that this movie has in common with the book it is supposedly based upon besides the protagonist being named Ben Richards is there is a character named Killian who is the host to this deadly gameshow that audiences nationwide seem to absolutely love. I suppose the first half-hour was okay; although they should have stuck with the original storyline even there as well, which, of course, they didn't. And once they actually got Richards into the gameshow, the movie got so ridiculously stupid it was pathetic. Basically, he spent the rest of the movie fighting alongside a group of losers against one over-blown idiot in tights with a dangerous toy/stage prop after the next on some stupid looking stage, instead of unleashing Richards free as a fugitive and seeing how long he would last like they did in the book. They didn't just alter the storyline a little bit for this one, nor diminish it slightly--instead, ...[strayed] as far as they possibly can from the original storyline and still be able to say it was based on a novel by Richard Bachman. This horrible piece of trash made a complete and total mockery of Steven King's novel and I strongly urge all of you reading this to not even bother with it and just stick with the book instead. Or, if you must see it for yourself, just rent it...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: King Must Really Dread This One.....
Review: Somebody walks over to me and says, "What do you like better: the movie or the book?"

I look at the person for a moment and think. Finally I reply, "The movie." It's true. I normally see the movie before even realizing that there was a book about it. Therefor I don't read the book because I saw the movie.

Well, I seemed to have made a switch with this one. I read "The Running Man", one of my favorite Stephen King novels, than about a week later, I saw the movie. I watched the whole thing, (surprisingly), before standing up and walking out of the room disgusted. The movie is completely different than the book. It's like taking a classic movie like "Jaws" and taking out the shark and the boat. What do you have left? Something that doesn't add up into a movie...same thing with "The Running Man".

I loved the book; I finished it in two days because of that fact. But the movie has very few of the same characters. Granted I know that books must be shortened to be a movie, but almost everything was taken out. And the characters that did remain were nothing like the ones in the book! I'll give you one more example: For those of you who have seen "The Patriot", think about having Mel Gibson become the bad guy and Tavington the good guy. It just doesn't work! That's basically what happens in "The Running Man".

I know that I may sound like I'm completely making this movie sound terrible...for those of you who are reading thinking, "Oh my God, this movie must be awful!", I am glad. This movie is just that. Some might say it's wonderful or breathtaking...I can argue different. (It would earn 3 stars if I hadn't read the book, though.) So if you want to see this movie but have read the novel...stop! Don't take another step towards the video store or the televison. If you haven't read the book, I suggest that you read it...it's much more worth it than seeing the movie, I guarantee you that.

But if you really want to see it, go ahead and do so. I'm not trying to force anybody to take my opinion before seeing it themselves, but don't start getting mad at me if you do watch it and don't like it. Thanks for reading...

WARNING: THE FILM YOU ARE CONSIDERING BUYING IS CONSIDERED HIGHLY ANNOYING AND INACCURATE. PLEASE STEP AWAY AND TAKE GREAT CAUTION BEFORE EVER CONSIDERING FURTHER VIEWING OF THIS FILM. IF YOU HAVE SEEN IT AND ENJOYED IT, I DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO SAY: BUT YOU'RE PROBABLY ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO ENJOYED 'THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT 2: THE BOOK OF SHADOWS'.


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