the audience applauded

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

A lot of fun.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Good fun from the 1980's. Schwarzenegger is the best action man. He kicks ass in every film. The film had a interesting plot about a Television Game Show that involves survival against a gang of psychotic killers. The villains are memorable. The good guys in the film are well crafted, I cared about the characters. The soundtrack of the film is awesome. That ending song Restless Heart is one of my all favourite songs. The action scenes in The Running Man are fun and entertaining to watch. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys films like this.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is at his ass-kicking, quipping best in this superior sci-fi action spectacular. It's the "future", and police officer Ben Richards (Arnold) is framed for a massacre of rioters. After busting out of prison, he's ultimately caught again, and is made to participate in the nations' most popular competition show, "The Running Man". Hosted by the extremely smarmy Damon Killian (Richard Dawson, incredibly well cast), it offers convicted criminals their own chance at freedom - IF they can evade the executioners who dress in colorful costumes and who are referred to as "Stalkers"."The Running Man" offers a fair bit of food for thought. Now that we've actually reached the year in which this movie takes place, it makes us think about the world we live in, and where we're possibly headed. Much like "Network" 11 years before it, "The Running Man" became a prophetic movie, depicting the advent of so-called "reality television" in our society. And it also makes us think about how the media may be constantly manipulating information before we ever get to see it.Not that "The Running Man" is all substance and no style, of course. It's also a tried and true Arnold vehicle, in which he gets to strut his stuff and offer up a one-liner every time he overcomes an antagonist. "Here is Sub Zero. Now, *Plain* Zero!" The lighting, the sets, and the costumes are a delight to behold, in this portrayal of a Dystopian future where the unruly lower class are held in check by being delivered the lurid thrills of this "game show". Harold Faltermeyers' music is catchy, as it always is. There is some potent violence, although the squeamish should know that the gore doesn't really get all that hard for them to handle.Arnold is supported by a pretty eclectic mix of performers: Maria Conchita Alonso as his feisty leading lady, Yaphet Kotto and Marvin J. McIntyre as his prison associates, Jim Brown, Jesse Ventura, Erland Van Lidth (whose final film this was), Bernard Gus Rethwisch, and Professor Toru Tanaka as assorted "Stalkers", and musicians Mick Fleetwood and Dweezil Zappa. Familiar faces in small roles include Sven-Ole Thorsen, Edward Bunker, Kurt Fuller, Ken Lerner, Dey Young, Thomas Rosales Jr., and Lin Shaye. Although designed as an Arnold vehicle, it's Dawson that really makes "The Running Man" come to life.A very fun movie that, if anything, looks better today than it did when it first came out.(Loosely) based on a novel by Richard Bachman (a.k.a. Stephen King)."Killian, I'll be back!" "Only in a rerun."Eight out of 10.

A camp, incredibly cheesy and dated '80s movie with Schwarzenegger, yet it's still a lot more fun than RAW DEAL. If you wanted one film that epitomised the cheesiness of the '80s then this would be a good film to look at. Although the title is taken from a Stephen King story (writing under his usual Richard Bachman pseudonym), this film actually succeeds in ripping off Joe D'Amato's ENDGAME and other Italian post-apocalyptic movies; it's not often that American films rip off their Italian counterparts so this makes an exception.In this particular futuristic world, class is divided by those who work for the government and those who don't (and live lives of grime in the streets below). Into this world comes Arnie, who is betrayed by his employers and thrown into a prison camp. Prisoners have a metal necklace which explodes if they try to escape, leading to a cool exploding head scene a la SCANNERS. Obviously the makers of FORTRESS liked this idea as they used a similar one in their film, except the explosive was in the stomach instead of the neck. Of course, being the hulking muscular bloke that he is, Arnie does manage to escape before being unfortunately recaptured on an airport runway. Here, after a slow start, the fun begins.The incredibly slimy Richard Dawson plays Killian, a megalomaniac game show host who wants Arnie for his show. Arnie is forced into submission, thrown into the pit with a couple of his fellow escapees, and must battle a string of amusingly-named and even more amusingly-attired villains. Eventually, he beats the system, exposes the truth, infiltrates the television show and wipes out all of the bad guys in time for a cheesy happy ending. What more could you want? A little intelligence perhaps? Nope, sorry, you've come to the wrong place. This is out-and-out dumb entertainment. Sure, there is the occasional glimpse of intelligence (I liked the idea of previous "winners" who supposedly went to live in Hawaii, but whose corpses are found rotting in an underground room) but for the majority of it, this film just consists of out-and-out action.Schwarzenegger here indulges in his cheap, predictable one-liners (as in COMMANDO) which I still manage to get a kick out of. Maria Cochita Alonso is the female lead and lends some Latin spirit to the proceedings, with her agreeably-tough female fighter not having to get rescued too often by Arnie. Old hand Yaphet Kotto stars as Arnie's pal, and while it's sad to see him in a tight bodysuit, his presence nonetheless manages to upgrade the film a little. I've never seen him looking so out of place though. However, it is the cast who make up the bad guys who are of the most interest. Aside from Dawson's slimy game show host, we have blaxploitation star Jim Brown as "Fireball", who ends up igniting himself; Professor Toru Tanaka as "Subzero", who gets strangled with barbed wire, Gus Rethwisch going way over the top as "Buzzsaw", who gets sliced in two between the legs (ouch!) and finally Jesse Ventura (who's now gone political, believe it or not) as "Captain Freedom", who isn't really an adversary but who just stands around being annoying.The action scenes pass the time, but lack finesse. It's just a case of "point the camera and shoot", although Arnie fighting is always good for a chuckle. I thought the ending to be a bit lacklustre too, but that may be down to budget constraints. One thing I did like was the set design, which convincingly creates a grime-strewn future world full of crumbling buildings, decaying rubbish and the like. At least it looks good. THE RUNNING MAN is definitely worth watching to see what kind of films they made in the '80s, but the Italian films that inspired this are even funnier AND more cheesy, if that's even possible.

This is a movie with a message, and the message is: this is not a good movie. It's very badly written. The acting is awful. It isn't even well lit, making you long for an earlier era when that was kind of a minimum."The Running Man" keeps hitting you over the head letting you know it's set in the future, and it's a bad future. But it never feels like anyone who knew or cared about science-fiction or action had a thing to do with it. It does feel like, some people with way more money than sense decided you didn't need to know anything about making movies to make one. And if they knew anyone with knowledge about how to make a good one, they went way out of their way not to ask them about it.It doesn't even work as a piece of lowly exploitation, unless a few shots of Maria Conchita-Alonso in form-fitting Lycra are enough to make you blush. I was stunned to recall critics of this era said Arnold Schwarzeneger was not a good actor, since his performance is the only thing that makes this tolerable to watch for even a second. Richard Dawson's attempts to portray a malevolent game-show host are something that should have been left on the cutting-room floor of "Family Feud."Lacking any type of momentum, the movie makes attempts to whip up emotion in the viewer, attempts which work out as ludicrously failed as everything else.Not helping anything either is the fact that fashion has moved on, and people do not usually appear covered in Lycra nowadays, as they do in "Running Man." And for that, at least, I feel grateful.