With Edgar Wright's version of The Running Man just around the corner, it's time to do my old tradition of reviewing what came before.
The Running Man is a dystopian action movie that's based on Stephen King's 1982 novel of the same name. Braveworld Productions, Taft Entertainment Pictures, and Keith Barish Productions did production, while Tri-Star Pictures was in charged of distribution. The screenplay was written by Steven E. de Souza and Paul Michael Glaser directed.
The story is, in the year 2019 the government maintains control with propaganda, censoring art, music, and communications and their state controlled game show The Running Man. This show allows criminals aka runners can earn their freedom by escaping death at the hands of professional killers. One of the new contenders is Ben Richards who was framed for violent incident which unfairly dubbed him "The Butcher of Bakersfield". Now, Ben must do everything he can to survive.
- Negatives
I've got nothing.
- Mix
The only mix bag I had came from the story, mainly from the ending. From beginning to the near end, we're given a very action movie. It fills you with plenty of excitement, but when it came to Ben and his little uprising against the villain [Damon Killian] everything ends very quickly and neatly. Now that would've been fine in every other movie, but this made such a big deal about overthrowing Killian and then the corrupt government it leaves you to believe that by the end is gonna be a big deal. But what we got was "Okay, that's all. We can go home now". So because of that ending we're never told or even given a hint of how the actions at the end will effect this world or if there's any other sort of consequences. So while I still had fun with this, I still wish there was more to the ending.
- Positives
Let's get into the good stuff starting with the pacing. Now the movie isn't that long to begun with. It only clocks in at an hour and forty-one minutes. But I was still surprised by how quickly everything went. I watched this last night at 9:30pm and it ended somewhere around 11:28pm of 11:29pm it was one of those times. Either way, this is one of those movies that's easy to get through.
Then there's the villains or as their called in this the "Stalkers". These guys are named Subzero (insert Mortal Kombat joke here), Buzzsaw, Dynamo, and Fireball. And if you think their names are a bit over the top, who should see their personalities. They're over the top and colorful and a real blast to watch. It was so much fun to see this guys just go full ham as they try to kill Ben Richards.
The last thing I'll praise is the performances from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Dawson. Unsurprisingly Arnold shines with his effortless charisma, bring both being a simple man to being the action hero with plenty of bravado. And Richard Dawson does a fantastic job as Damon Killian. At one moment he comes off a calm and smooth guy, next thing ya know Richard's playing Killian as a smarmy psychopath with a game show host flair. Both of this men delivered and made an already entertaining movie even more entertaining.
While I have some slight issues with the story, mainly how the ending was dealt with, I found this version of The Running Man to be a very good popcorn flick. And it actually made more interested in the upcoming Edgar Wright remake.
My final rating is, Good.
It goes without saying but, that's all for now. Come back on Saturday, Nov 15th, for my and you guessed it, my review for Edgar Wright's version of The Running Man. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
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