The Running Man (1987)

The only reason I’m watching this is to prep for Edgar Wright’s remake, which I have far more interest in than this version. I’m much more of a Glen Powell fanboy than Schwarzenegger, so that’s most of the reason. But I was mildly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. It’s definitely not the most well made film ever, but it’s certainly fun. It’s one that’s so bad, it’s good. It’s one of the goofiest films I’ve ever seen, but I’m not complaining. I love the overly futuristic vibe, while still feeling slightly grounded. Like, it’s far fetched enough to not really be believable, but at the same time, it’s *just* close enough to reality to feel like this is how society will be in a few years. The story is Hunger Games meets John Wick meets Turbo Man. That sums it up. I always love a good cat and mouse action thriller, which is exactly what it is. Especially with the dystopian setting, which is always fun. The biggest drawback (very obvious but also ignorable) is the dialogue and the acting. Schwarzenegger isn’t too great, and the rest of the cast is pretty stale and forced. The line deliveries were extremely corny and awful and the script was garbage and horrible. On the flipside, it was absolutely hilarious and the puns and random quips were top notch for an 80s film. This almost rivals ‘Batman & Robin’ in terms of Schwarzenegger delivering awful but awesome puns. Lastly, the production and costume design was very generic and cliche for a sci-fi/action, but again, everything was so goofy, it was hilarious. Overall, this can be hard to sit through at times, but also, it’s so awful, it’s great. I was entertained for most of the time, and loved laughing at how stupid it was. I would recommend it to most fans of cheesy action sci-fi.