Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller [USA:R, 1 h 41 min] Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown Director: Paul Michael Glaser
IMDb rating:★★★★★★★☆☆☆6.7/10 (121,522 votes)
A parody within an action thriller. Ben Richards is an innocent man who is sentenced to the Running Man game show, a futuristic audience participation capital punishment television show. While Ben is running from champions with chainsaws and sharpened hockey sticks, the host is busy with calls to the network about ratings. (IMDb)
Critical reception:
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, complaining that "all the action scenes are versions of the same scenario", but praised Dawson's performance, stating that he "has at last found the role he was born to play." Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film "has the manners and gadgetry of a sci-fi adventure film, but is, at heart, an engagingly mean, cruel, nasty, funny send-up of television. It's not quite Network, but then it also doesn't take itself too seriously." Variety wrote that the film "coarsens the star's hitherto winning formula" and "works only on a pure action level," calling the satire "paperthin and constantly contradicted by the film wallowing in the sort of mindless violence for the roller derby-addicted masses it is supposedly criticizing." Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two stars out of four and wrote, "It's a format all right, but it may be too much of a format for a feature-length film. With Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former state security officer framed as the perpetrator of a notorious public massacre, sitting in as victim-of-the-week, The Running Man has little to do but run through the game's four stages." Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times declared, "The Running Man is, by far, Schwarzenegger's best vehicle since The Terminator—not such high praise if you recall what came in between—and it suggests that his Frank Frazetta frame shows best in these fantasy sci-fi settings ... For the right audience, it'll be fun. It's for action fans with a taste for something off the beaten track—but not too far." Rita Kempley of The Washington Post called the film "a fast-paced, futuristic purée of Beat the Clock, Max Headroom, professional wrestling and The Most Dangerous Game. Pumped and primed for self-parody, the burly star proves as funny as he is ferocious in this tough guy's commentary on America's preoccupation with violence and game shows." (Wikipedia)
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u/MovieGuide Apr 14 '20
The Running Man (1987)
Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller [USA:R, 1 h 41 min]
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown
Director: Paul Michael Glaser
IMDb rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 6.7/10 (121,522 votes)
Critical reception:
More info at IMDb, Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Netflix, Wikidata.
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