Review: The Running Man

Directed by: Paul Michael Glaser

Written by: Steven E. de Souza

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, María Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Richard Dawson

Rating: [2/5]

Totalitarian governments have the tendency to not act with honesty in regard to disseminating information to the masses. In fact, they take pride in doctoring things to manipulate messages in their favor, which occurs to a hilariously ridiculous degree in The Running Man. A feature with a fun and zany premise but the way it all plays out well and truly fumbles it all in a way it cannot comprehend how to conclude. 

After refusing to murder individuals in cold blood, a police helicopter pilot, Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) gets framed for their deaths thus forcing him to take part in the immensely popular television show Running Man where criminals get forced into an arena as they get hunted down by stalkers. With the stakes of a pardon for survival on the line and a resistance movement against this government brewing, Barnes tries to remain unscathed. 

Stories focusing on dystopian futures fascinate me to no end in the way they try to establish this absurd world they can utilize as their setting to make some real-world parallels. However, in cases like this feature, this film represents something we’re probably not too far away from in the way some people speak about punishing others. Operating as an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name this feature sets the stage for something quite gnarly, which this feature adds in the 80s cheesiness to some absurd degree. 

As with many Schwarzenegger features during this time, this feature employs many one-liners for this character, which certainly provides the Arnold experience but does not necessarily make for a great character. This ultimately sums up everything wrong with this feature where it has the limited range of Arnold but not a narrative that helps make up for it like his other more successful features. 

Having not read the story this film has its foundations in the misgivings held with the feature cannot be definitely stated if it derives from a source that never quite provides a great story to navigate or whether the failings come from adaptation. The feature certainly has some interesting ideas it seeks to dissect, but only in the light acknowledgment does it provide anything of real substance. For example, we have the use of doctored footage by totalitarian governments to convey the message they want about citizens in order to pass off the message they want. They know people crave carnage of some sort thus making criminals the perfect target. However, what defines a criminal can change at any time depending on the laws in place, which allows this government to decide who can essentially be put to death. 

On the surface, everything has its place and the feature never really digs much deeper thus shifting the focus of the quality on either the acting, which we already discussed does not cut the mustard, but then the action in the arena. While employing some fun ideas, especially in the ridiculous ways these characters dress, including the stalkers, none of it really drives much intrigue. The execution truly lacks in capturing these action sequences throughout the feature leading to moments meant to exhilarate and thrill to be quite boring in all actuality. This leaves all aspects of the feature barely hanging on and bringing the entire feature down a peg as a result. It could have at least been the case of a feature not equal to the sum of its parts but many of these parts simply do not work, thus making for quite the ugly concoction in the middle. 

Having some good bones set in a dystopian future to tell quite a fascinating story, The Running Man falters in its execution making for some oddball decisions where you have Arnold running in tights trying to land his one-liners with the same coolness he does in his other features. In the areas where this feature should have excelled it very much struggles, which when given the premise of the film, more could have been done to make it all work. Instead, we get a movie with a wasted premise but one that perhaps deserves another attempt in getting right because it’s evident this all has good potential, but it remained untapped here.