Who is the Audience for This Movie?

Fans of futuristic action movies.

What I Liked About This Movie

Fun fact, in the opening credits the credit for the author of the novel the movie is based upon is “Richard Bachman” a pen name Stephen King used for a handful of his novels. For many even the slightest mention of his name would turn them off watching that particular movie but The Running Man has always held a special place in the part of my heart where movie memories are stored.

Watching it today is a completely different experience compared to when I watched it as a kid. The most monumental change is that it is now only a few years away from the time the movie is set in and while all of the things it prophecies have not quite reached quite the state they have in the movie it has aspects that have come true. I say this because when this movie was made there was no reality TV. I have watched reality TV since its inception and every year it gets increasingly more shocking; maybe one day we will have a game show like the running man. The audience attending the show (in the movie) always seems to be enjoying the suffering of others. People today watch movies with overblown torture elements and they tend to make good money; just something to think about.

The host of The Running Man (Richard Dawson) is by far the best character in the movie. He looks/acts like a mix between R. Lee Ermey (drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket) and Dennis Hopper (bad guy from Speed). When Arnold promises to kill him you know he is truly an evil human being. Arnold is no better or worse then he is in every action movie he stars in. He kills a lot people and triumphs over evil. The movies plot is simple yet effective. There is a wide variety of action sets throughout the movie and you shouldn’t get bored at any point because the dramatic elements do not linger for very long. Most importantly though the movie never EVER takes itself seriously so it works effectively as a parody and as a cool action movie.

What Didn’t Work For Me

Sadly the costumes look like what people in 80’s thought the future would look like. I guess they assumed we would still make everything ridiculously flashy well into the next century. The inclusion of a love plot was unnecessary but I guess every hero needs to get a girl in the end. One thing I found really strange though is the inclusion of a dance troupe in a few of the audience scenes doing dances that were already losing their “coolness” by the time the movie was released.

Should You Watch This Movie?

If The Running Man didn’t pander to some of the typical 80’s action movie conventions I would be labeling it as a classic.

My Rating (Out of 13)