On R List of Movie Reviews
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The Running Man (1987)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
9/06, 2/24
9/06:
Everybody is silly in The Running Man.
I thought Arnold Schwarzenegger would save the movie, but he fails miserably, having been a lot better in
The Terminator, Predator, and
Total Recall. Interesting is the inclusion of the legendary Family Feud host
Richard Dawson. It's almost like seeing who he really was, especially behind the scenes.
All in all, The Running Man has a lot of potential, but it goes wasted.
2/24:
The Running Man is still a bad movie, but I'm upgrading my rating from '3' to '4'.
It's not Arnold Schwarzenegger who's the problem but rather how underwhelming the game show is. The concept needs to be
developed more. While at it, the filmmakers should've pushed the year forward by 100 years. It's now 2024, and they saying
the whole thing takes place in 2017 or thereabouts is laughable. Sometimes, I thought of
Rollerball with James Caan.
Seeing Richard Dawson is surreal given how much I enjoyed him hosting Family Feud. I'll say he stole the
show from Arnold. Many who worked with Richard Dawson said that's how he was behind the scenes. What people don't realize is
Jesse "The Body" Ventura never fought Arnold in the final battle; it was all faked. Paula Abdul did the choreography for the dance
sequences, but they're both horrible and pointless. By the way, Erland van Lidth, who played Dynamo, may look stupid, but he
graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Computer Science & Electrical Engineering.
All in all, the filmmakers should've taken more time in developing the material to make The Running Man better.