The Running Man 1987
This is another 80's movie that I never saw. It seems like it has a pretty solid reputation as an action movie, but critics were mostly unimpressed at the time. It is a neat concept for a movie as a corrupt government feeds people a diet of gladiator blood sport on TV, set in the future (2017!). Arnold Schwarzenegger is the hero of the movie and is thrown into this game show coliseum to be disposed of by the government's gladiators. Arnold still can't act and his groan-inducing one-liners upon killing people are an awful substitute for any real humor. Richard Dawson was hailed for his performance as the egotistical game show host and it is pretty good, but still not really outstanding, more because of the writing and direction. Like other similar movies, they are trying to tell us how horrible this system is while making sure we root for our heroes to kill all the bad guys. The movie is exactly what it is supposedly commenting against. Still, there are some decent concepts at work and it is fun seeing Arnold being chased this whole movie and figuring out ways to defeat the government gladiators even though the police were able to catch him on their own earlier in the movie. It is a classic mindless action movie. I would have liked a little more meat to the story than what we get, but they chose a fairly simple premise, essentially a variation of professional wrestling, and rode that into the ground. And Arnold is not the only bad actor in a movie filled with wooden line readings. It feels like a missed opportunity and I am hoping that the 2025 re-make is able to do better.
Written: 09 Nov 2025
Owned on: Digital