Good Lord, what an awful film!
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Running Man
flightsuit — 16 years ago(November 29, 2009 03:46 PM)
I just finished reading the novel upon which this is based. It's an OK book; King is, after all, a great writer. So I had hopes for the movie.
Well, I'm 21 minutes into watching this garbage, and I'm just absolutely stunned by what a piece of crap it is. Never mind the fact that they changed so many details that it's not even the same story, not by a long shot. What really gets me is the generally awful script and totally incompetent direction and cinematography.
You hear a name like Schwarzenegger and you expect to at least see a big-budget action movie that was filmed by qualified professionals. This? This is low-budget, 1980s dreck, with some of the least believable, least plausible action scenes I've ever seen.
To wit, the prison break-out at the beginning:
What prison keeps their guards in close proximity to the prisoners with assault rifles they can easily get their hands on? That's just not how it's done! Furthermore, when the prisoners do predictably get their hands on the weapons, the scenes of people being shot are just ludicrously unrealistic.
And what's this crap I see developing between Schwarzenegger's character and Maria Conchita Alonza-whatever's? Is this supposed to be the film's take on the dynamic between Ben Richards and the wealthy housewife he kidnaps in the book? If so, that's pathetic. What the book depicted as a traumatic encounter between a desperately poor fugitive and a terrified innocent has already, in the first few minutes of this film, been reduced to something cutesy and, I suppose, potentially romantic.
Arrrrggggghhhhhh!!!!
This is why I hate Hollywood. -
proteus122 — 15 years ago(April 04, 2010 08:54 PM)
You should read the book. It's totally different. A lot darker and totally different. It's more of a cautionary tale for our future than this. I don't mind this though. It's just more hokey, Arnie popcorn fare.
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cunn9305 — 15 years ago(May 29, 2010 08:23 PM)
This film is TOTALLY 80's campy, corny and completely over the top. I'm watching this right bleeping now and it seems completely ridiculous but back when I watched it in the theater it actually seemed pretty cool. Jesus is that Mick Fleetwood ??? Dweezil Zappa ??? I miss the 80's
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fookushaba — 16 years ago(January 21, 2010 12:46 PM)
I love this movie.its an arnold movie so its never going to win any awardsI can think of much worse(American Ninja III, Berverly Hills Cop III, Phantom Menace) The book is 99% of the time always better than the movie.
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smoko — 16 years ago(January 28, 2010 04:17 AM)
"Hey flightsuit!"
starts up flamethrower, engulfs flightsuit in flames
"Lighten up!"
OK, I read the book too, and yes it was very different in plot and tone. I would have loved to have seen the game show occur in the outside world like in the book. But having
Richards fly a plane into the building at the end
would have been, um, awkward for Arnold after 9/11, eh? -
davegardner-744-717939 — 15 years ago(July 09, 2010 07:33 PM)
You have to remember that this is an Arnold Scwarzenegger movie. You are not going to get oscar worthy performances. At the time of it's release it was not so bad, just another Arnold action movie as Predator was released earlier the same year. Apart from the first two Terminator movies, in my opinion most Schwarzenegger action films were about the same. I actually liked Terminator 3 despite the bad press. As for Terminator Salvation, huge disappointment. Now THAT was an awful movie. CGI Schwarzengger! How ridiculous!!!