The Running Man: Review By Shogun BlizZzard

Opening Thoughts:

This movie was not bad, for being almost as old as me, but it has been such a long time since I first saw this movie that it was like watching a new movie. This movie was pretty good still, some what imaginative, but not my favorite Arnold movie, a Renter/ Watch on TV, 4.5 out of 5(8.3/10).

Story:

Spoiler: The movie takes place in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, California, in 2017, where a Richard Benjamin (Arnold Schwarzenegger) morals and values, get in the way of him doing his job, killing 1500 unarmed Men, Women, Children, he choose not to do it, and he is thrown in a prison program, as an iron worker, and has been falsely given the name The Butcher of , due to the rest of team killing the 1500, and framing him, he escapes, kidnaps a women in his brothers old apartment, to get out of California, she gets away, gets him arrested again, his meets a with a the worlds top rated show "The Running Man", show about "Stalkers" killing criminals in a arena, show's host named Damon Killian, who gives Richard a ultimatum, go on the show or his friends will I his stead, he dose, and Killian put his friends on the show anyways, the girl who was kidnapped, starts putting thing together about the truth, and gets caught, and throw in the arena with the other three, and then the must survive, the stalkers, to get out of the arena.

The movie is an 80's movies so it's going to have some cheesy moments, and one liner's, but I felt this movie could have really gone some where, maybe if they stayed to the original novel by Stephen King as Richard Bachman, which has the events take place in different cities, instead of an arena. The movie is slightly good rollercoaster, you kind of feel for the characters, and you want the truth to come out, so Richard Benjamin can clear his name, but it seems like almost everybody in 2017 post-apocalyptic American has lost their morals, and doesn't care about human life or their neighbors anymore, but the police have become less lethal, basically the movie said to me that Americans will/are puppets, and have blinders on, not realizing the value of Human life, truth, morals, values, until the end of the movie and also that if you've got technology you rule the world.

Visuals:

Its 80's, so you get what you get, but that's not another excuse, the visuals are expectable, there was nothing special to talk about, but I'm tainted by the cinematography and CGI of today's movies, so their can be no comparison, modern will when.

Acting:

And a again 80's, but the acting was not bad, but was some what cheesy and of course Arnold has to have one liners, especially "I'll be back", in some his movies, but between the one liners the acting was good, I believed that they could have been the characters, but some of it was hammed up, it's the 80's.

Directing:

The directing was fair to good, nothing special really.

Tangent:

I know it was the 1987 but they could have been more imaginative with the futuristic look, clothing, technology, but I guess back then they didn't think computers would as big as they are now, and there was no internet yet, but that's no excuse, look at Blade Runner, it came out in 1982 and looks like The Fifth Element, which cam out in 1997, and what I consider the number one futuristic movie, second Equilibrium, then Aeon Flux. Another thing is that in the movie they say "The Running Man Show", is the highest rated show ever in history, but once again this was before American Ideal, the E. Network, Bravo Channel, and the whole fad of reality shows, in this decade, I guess if everything's under censorship and that's only show on television, then it could work. Additionally this movie didn't fully explore what happen, if other cities are like the future L.A, in the movie, why things were under censorship, they do alluded to there still being braches of the government, and some people being able to live comfortable still, but they never explain anything, so I guess we are suppose to know or make up the rest. The whole thing I'm getting at is that the movie doesn't feel like a post-apocalyptic world in 2017, its 2008 now and about to turn 2009, so that's 8 years away, I'm thinking we can do better then what's in this movie, but they way things are going, in America right now, we might be, lets just hope not. As I was watching this movie, in my head I was thinking that they should and probably will make this into a remake, like thy are doing with Death Race, but lets just hope they do it right, and make it a big budget Hollywood, epic movie, and not cheesy like the original, or go with the original novel, and explain sh*t. Another problem was, why in everyone of these movies the main character and the women, always fall in lust by the end of the movie, not everybody falls in lust after a big moment in their life.

BlizZzard