Well-Filmed Sci-Fi Adventure Movie!
In this wry and entertaining take on a world gone crazy, where corporate rulers routinely engage popular sport activities to distill public anger and frustration and to try to distract common people from civic unrest, we find perpetual everyman Arnold Schwarzenegger caught in the vise-grip of official lies when he escapes from maximum security prison only to be caught and selected as the latest "contestant" (read `intended victim' here) for the overwhelmingly popular television program called, appropriately enough, "Running Man". The point of the game is for the contestant to survive being hunted down by a sewerful of villains while trying to make his way through a nightmarish maze. The villains are a bit campy, ranging from an outrageously garbed electric man who dispatches virtual lightning bolts to fry his prey out of existence to a chainsaw freak who attempts to hack his victims to death while riding his motorcycle.
Yet the action sequences more than make up for the...
Great remaster - pathetic extras
You know the movie, so I'll cut to the details of this particular release...
The newly-remastered picture is so much clearer and more vivid than the original release and the DTS soundtrack is an awesome addition. After having heard it, I would've bought it for the DTS, alone. Who knew that a 17-year-old, stereo movie could be remastered to DTS quality and 6.1 surround so well (including very targeted use of the rear channels).
The extras are another story, as many people have stated. The "Lockdown on Main Street" is a thoroughly one-sided political statement. Regardless of anyone's beliefs, it doesn't belong on an action movie DVD. It feels like execs at Artisan were determined to put this documentary out there and picked "The Running Man" from their upcoming catalog as the best suitor.
The "Game Theory" documentary is just a piece in which creators and participants of early reality TV shows pat themselves on the back for their popularity. Perhaps fans...
Not that eighties
It was between this or the second (but technically the first) Indiana Jones movie or this. I was surprised at myself, wanting to watch Indiana Jones, but it was too long. So this went on instead. I was forewarned about it being too eighties, but I think after you get warned about these things, they're don't jump out as much at you. Only the terrible hair & outfits, but they're only really the noticable things.
Stephne King movies have a habit of not being very good. Carrie & The Green Mile are exceptions, along with this. This film is loosely based on a novel written by Stephen King that he penned under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. He wrote the story in 72 hours, and it was published with virtually no changes.
Like 1984, this book/movie was way ahead of its time, and is much more relevant now, than it was then. The ending from the book to movie as changed, and I'm quite curious to find out what happened originally.
There are some great lines in...
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