The Running Man

Never managing to look more hi-tech or further on from 1987 than, well, Hi-tech trainers, this Arnie vehicle still runs it's bloody course without dropping many gears. A brainless, breathless thrill.

The one element in the movie that is not standard and that does have some energy is the TV show itself, with Dawson's performance as the egotistical, sleaze-bag host.

Dawson, though, burrows into his role with all the zeal of a perennial second banana recognizing the opportunity of a lifetime. It's the one naturalistic performance in this cartoonish film, carrying with it the implicit authority of years of firsthand experience shaped, perhaps, by some late-night introspection. [13 Nov 1987, p.B]

The film doesn't look good; it's as if the flat lighting and boring set of the TV show had infected everything else. And Big Arnie's quilted outfit makes him look like a duvet.

Format works only on a pure action level, with some exciting, but overly repetitious, roller-coaster style sequences of runners hurtling into the game through tunnels on futuristic sleds. Schwarzenegger sadistically dispatches the baddies, enunciating typical wisecrack remarks (many repeated from his previous films), but it’s all too easy, despite the casting of such powerful presences as Jim Brown and former wrestlers Jesse Ventura and Prof. Toru Tanaka.

You want to know if The Running Man is a good-time macho show, right? Stay at home and watch professional wrestling. Or Miami Vice (same director -- Paul Michael Glaser). Sure there's blood spattering and bullets riddling and Big Boys Banging Biceps. But through the dry-ice haze, Running Man is surprisingly boring.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest, The Running Man, is a septic tank of a movie. This atrocious futuristic drama forms a dumping ground for bad acting, derivative writing and stomach-churning violence. The movie stinks. [13 Nov 1987, p.D1]

Here's Sub ****... Plain Zero. 8/10, this film got everything it wanted to do, within its watch time, and just with a little more time, it could have been Magnificent. A true testament to the Arnold Cinematic Universe. I Highly Recommend this film if you enjoy Arnold, Simply ****, and the comical Satire action movie types made back in the 80's.

This is so very eighties and so much of a classic Arnold Schwarzenegger film. It is fun but it is not amazing. The acting is not great. The action has lots of explosions which is cool but looks dated and when there are no explosions the action is a little slow. It’s not as good as Demolition Man (1993) or Predator (1987) or Total Recall (1990). I actually think that a respectful remake could make an excellent film, fix the action, keep the fun and eighties. Overall fun mindless action that is enjoyable but far from outstanding.

From the 80s, in which films with Arnold S. were the daily bread, this one, set in a dystopian future, does not have the power of what he did best: Conan the Barbarian, Terminator, Predator. The most, the least works for a rainy afternoon.

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This is a tricky one to critique, because it's devastatingly stupid in every possible way, but that's also precisely what makes it such a silly, reckless good time. In many ways it's the prototypical Arnold Schwarzenegger action vehicle: tons of bad one-liners, genuinely awful action sets, a romantic subplot with zero chemistry and a retread sci-fi premise are only the most glaring notes on its loaded rap sheet. That he's backed by two of the genre's most notorious overactors in Jesse Ventura and Jim Brown only amplifies the insanity, while a carefree, pun-loaded screenplay is all too happy to let the inmates run wild. Former Family Feud host Richard Dawson is noteworthy as the conniving silver age comic book villain behind the whole mess, a role he clearly loved playing. Mind-numbingly simple and eye-poppingly profane, it's the best bad movie you'll see all month.