Running Man – Review

Some films from the 1980’s stand the test of time and age well, some seem even better in retrospect, but sadly Running Man made in 1987 is not one of them.

In the year 2017, America is a totalitarian state where the favourite television program is “The Running Man” — a game show in which prisoners must run to freedom to avoid a brutal death. Having been made a scapegoat by the government, an imprisoned Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has the opportunity to make it back to the outside again by being a contestant on the deadly show, although the twisted host, Damon Killian (Richard Dawson), has no intention of letting him escape.

Arnold Schwarzennegger was at his peak in the 1980’s and the prospect of him filming a story made popular by Stephen King seemed exciting but sadly it all went badly wrong with director Paul Michael Glaser.

The film looks so 1980’s its scary, from the so called futuristic fashion to the technology used, although they did get a few things correct such as voice recognition in the home and sadly reality TV becoming very popular. Even the action scenes, normally the highlight of any Arnold film, are badly shot and edited and the acting is beyond help. despite the casting of such powerful presences as Jim Brown and former wrestlers Jesse Ventura and Prof. Toru Tanaka it falls flat very quickly. The violence is brutal at times but the characters are so one dimensional you just don’t really care about what happens to them.

The film has its fans and will be happy to finally see a UK Blu Ray release from Fabulous Films. The 1080p HD picture is good, not anything special but the colours are solid and its a step up from the DVD. Audio gives your surround system a good workout, but extra features are a little disappointing with an Audio Commentary by Producer Tim Zinnemann and Director Paul M Glaser another Audio Commentary with Executive Producer Rob Cohen, Lockdown on Mainstreet featurette (25 mins approx), theatrical trailer and Game Theory featurette (20 mins approx).

A decent release from Fabulous Films, buts its definitely a like it or loath it type of movie.

FILM : 5 PICTURE: 7.5 AUDIO: 8 EXTRAS: 6