Now, I love me a good 80's sci-fi action movie, and Arnold was in some of the very best in that genre: Terminator, Predator, and Total Recall (technically 90's but it's got 80's written all over it.)
The Running Man is not a good movie. It is not even a decent movie. Everything about it except for maybe Richard Dawson's part screams "half-assed." The sets, costumes, and sound are all perfect examples of the worst kinds of 80's trends in design, fashion, and music. Neon lights, synths, garish spandex suits in shiny solid colors, and so on. It looks cheap and ugly all around.
There are many people on this site who seem to think this movie is a classic. I don't get it. Like I said, I have no bias against Arnold or this genre, and I love plenty of 80's movies. But this movie has nothing going for it-not even a single passable one liner for Arnie. Early on, when he kills the (one of many) buffoonish "stalker" called Sub-Zero (a large Japanese man who skates around with a lethal hockey stick), he yells to the camera, "Sub Zero-now Plain Zero!"
I can't imagine anyone laughing at that. The line should have been rejected as idiotic before whoever came up with it even put it down on paper. And yet, of the 10 or so one liners that follow, it only goes downhill from there. Truly an abysmal screenplay on all fronts.
And then there is the additional fact that this film is a total insult to its source material. "Very, very loosely based" on Stephen King's novel sounds about right, to the point where the two have only a title and the main character's name in common.
The Running Man is not a good movie. It is not even a decent movie. Everything about it except for maybe Richard Dawson's part screams "half-assed." The sets, costumes, and sound are all perfect examples of the worst kinds of 80's trends in design, fashion, and music. Neon lights, synths, garish spandex suits in shiny solid colors, and so on. It looks cheap and ugly all around.
There are many people on this site who seem to think this movie is a classic. I don't get it. Like I said, I have no bias against Arnold or this genre, and I love plenty of 80's movies. But this movie has nothing going for it-not even a single passable one liner for Arnie. Early on, when he kills the (one of many) buffoonish "stalker" called Sub-Zero (a large Japanese man who skates around with a lethal hockey stick), he yells to the camera, "Sub Zero-now Plain Zero!"
I can't imagine anyone laughing at that. The line should have been rejected as idiotic before whoever came up with it even put it down on paper. And yet, of the 10 or so one liners that follow, it only goes downhill from there. Truly an abysmal screenplay on all fronts.
And then there is the additional fact that this film is a total insult to its source material. "Very, very loosely based" on Stephen King's novel sounds about right, to the point where the two have only a title and the main character's name in common.
