Sam Panico The Running Man was a troubled production, with original director Andrew Davis (Under Siege, The Fugitive) being replaced a week into filming by former Starsky and Hutch actor, Paul Michael Glaser (he's gone back to acting, but not before giving us the magic that is Kazaam). In his book, Total Recall, Arnold wrote that this was a horrible decision, as the director "shot the movie like it was a television show, losing all the deeper themes. In fairness, Glaser just didn't have time to research or think through what the movie had to say about where entertainment and government were heading and what it meant to get to the point where we actually kill people on screen. In TV they hire you and the next week you shoot and that's all he was able to do."Written by Steven E. de Souza (who had a hell of a run, writing Commando, 48 Hrs. and the first two Die Hard films, while also adapting Mark Schultz's Xenozoic Tales for TV as Cadillacs and Dinosaurs) from the Richard Bachman book (Bachman was and is, of course, Stephen King, who was using a pseudonym to see if his success was due to talent or luck. A Washinton, D.C. book clerk named Steve Brown discovered the truth before an answer could be found. In fact, Bachman's next book was to be Misery, which ended up becoming a King novel. The Dark Half, which became a George Romero movie, is based on this experience.). In the original book, hero Ben Richards is anything like the physical description of Arnold, who is near super-heroic.The film starts that in 2017 — a time that we're all sadly too familiar with — the U.S. has become a police state post worldwide economic collapse — perhaps not as close to home, but uncomfortably nearby. Actually, it's way too close to reality, as the opening text tells us that the "great freedoms of the United States are no longer, as the once great nation has sealed off its borders and become a militarized police state, censoring all film, art, literature, and communications."Within two years, the only thing that keeps the populace under control is The Running Man, a game show where convicted felons battle for their lives against the Stalkers, who are presented as pro wrestling/American Gladiators style stars. Damon Killian (Richard Dawson of TV's Family Feud and Hogan's Heroes, as well as one of the first people in the U.S. to own a VCR) hosts the proceedings and remains one of the enduring reasons to enjoy this film. One gets the idea that Dawson was keen to parody his years of hosting game shows and he cuts through this film, making his role so much better than it deserves to be, whether it's his ads for Cadre Cola or the way he shits on everyone in his path, even lowly custodians. IMDb states that plenty of folks who worked with Dawson on Family Feud claim that he was exactly like this character, but that seems like the sour grapes of hearsay. Anyways, worried that ratings may slip, Killian pushes for Ben Richards, the "Butcher of Bakersfield," (actually, it was all a setup and he was wrongly convicted of killing citizens during a food riot) to be the next runner.Read more at https://bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/08/15/the-running-man-1987/

Caleb Zero I have always loved this movie, but I'm not sure why. Firstly, this movie is ugly as hell. The entire movie is obviously shot on a sound stage, and poorly. The detail that went into set design is very lack lustre. Even as a kid, I knew this movie was ugly, and I always chalked it up to the fact it was 1987. But now that I'm older, and have taken the time to watch a lot of 80s movies, I now see that the late 80s was a very advanced time for movies. Even 1980's Blade Runner was beautifully detailed, and shot.The constant colour tone of this movie is so droning. If you could hear the colour, it would sound like a collection of low frequencies, eating away at your sanity. The lights and colours seem to overshadow the poor detail of the sets, so I wonder if thats why they went with bold lights. But at the same time as doing that, it masked whats actually happening in the movie. You can't see most of the battle scenes, because you have such an overbearing amount of red, or blue, or whatever colour "works" with which arena.I get the feeling this movie was severely edited for rating. There are certain parts where things seem to rush, and its not justified. One part in particular is the attempted rape scene, by Dynamo. Amber gets knocked on the ground, and all of a sudden Dynamo has his pants off. There are other parts in the movie like this, which make me wonder whether there is a harder rated directors cut somewhere.Story? What story? I know this movie has a "story", but its all just set up basically. In my opinion, this movie is a live action 80s video game. Because videogames of this time were exactly the same. They had stories, but they were all just for set up. The gameplay carried the games, and the stories were just for your imagination. It works for this movie though, somehow. The gameplay keeps you entertained, and the story doesn't matter. Something that I thought fell short, even in the gameplay side of it though, was the final boss. I think Arnie could've killed Killian a lot better.All in all, this movie is great. Maybe for nostalgic reasons, maybe because I like bad movies, but for some reason, I like it.

Scott LeBrun 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.

Spikeopath The Running Man is directed by Paul Michael Glaser and adapted from the Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) story by Steven E. de Souza. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Richard Dawson, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown, Jesse Ventura, Erland van Lidth, Marvin J. McIntyre, Gus Rethwisch, Professor Toru Tanaka and Mick Fleetwood. Music is by Harold Faltermeyer and cinematography by Thomas Del Ruth.It may be packed with cheese, but this is one great and astutely entertaining futuristic slice of sci-fi pie. Schwarzenegger becomes a reluctant contestant in the most popular TV show of the time, The Running Man. It's a sadistic show where convicts are thrust into a zonal world and have to avoid an array of stalking killers. Cue lots of outrageous violence, equally outrageous costumes, and of course with Arnold in the lead there's plenty of dialogue zingers. The caustic observation of how television programmes have evolved is potently portentous, and it's all played out to an industrial 80s score from Faltermeyer.It helps if you know what you are going to get from it, because it's a typical Schwarzenegger movie of the era, thus it's very much one for his fans to lap up with glee. 7/10