The Running Man

 

             After watching countless slasher movies from different franchises, as well as coming into the month of November it's kind of hard at times to find a decent or good movie to start November off with. And luckily, I haven't watched many Arnold Schwarzenegger movies so, The Running Man became one of the many candidates before I crossed into Weapons and Lady Snowblood. A surprising factor is that Stephan King written The Running man for which I didn't know he written a book about a futuristic man running for dear life, in a reality TV show.

              In the year 2019, America is a totalitarian state where the favorite television program is "The Running Man" - a game show in which prisoners must run to freedom to avoid a brutal death. Having been made a scapegoat by the government, an imprisoned Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) could make it back to the outside again by being a contestant on the deadly show, although the twisted host. Damon Killian (Richard Dawson) has no intention of letting him escape. 

              Surprisingly this is one of the many movies in the eighties where the producers in Hollywood thought that 30 years into the future, we would be in a dystopian future the other movies are like Blade Runner, the first Terminator movie along with Barb Wire and I'm also going to add Terminator Salvation also. Which sure it's the eighties or nineties, back then we had no idea what the future would bring but, the main problem is thirty years from now we're still going to be a normal-ish future despite now there's no video stores and we're relying on bitcoin? And as amusing as Arnold's version being set in 2019 and the movie was released in 87, I'm still going to be around and know what 2019 looked like, I mean Jason X solved the futuristic problem by setting the year in 2455 moreover it was terrible but at least I'm not going to be around in the year 2455 hell I hope my bones will be turned to ashes by now. As many of Stephan King books I'm familiar with I actually never pegged the man writing a science fiction novel, and yet the man is using an alias name to make it look like the man is still a horror fiction legend, I mean, I guess I can't fault the guy, because King was using so much cocaine back then while writing his books so, either way the man now can't writing anything now since he's been sober off of hard drugs, though on the bright side we at least know cocaine's a hell of a drug. There's really not a whole lot to say about Arnold in this movie considering when you look at the man's entire filmography of films that are the typical eighties cliched films where the hero always win in the end but with some overrated one liners, either way we all know what Arnold's best movies are if you had to rank his top five best, but with some of the movies like this film and or Predator you can obviously tell that the big buff, steroid man is going to be the victor in the end and granted this movie isn't all bad it's basically a fun futuristic movie with some eighties flair to go along with it, a side from it being funny, the fact that in thirty years we sort of dress all in eighties fashion which again this is typical eighties action films, but with the Running Man you still have that sense of breath of fresh air that you can turn your brain off and have a good time watching it so, deep down despite this film being flawed it's still fun to watch till the very end. I believe I said this before and I'll say it again if you ever want to thank a man whose be responsible for your all-time favorite eighties and nineties movies growing up, Steven E. de Souza is the man you should be thanking for your all-time favorite childhood movies growing up or your favorite R-rated movies you secretly watch behind your parents backs. I mean this guy wrote hit after hit of great action movies like, 48hrs, another Arnold classic Commando, and even the first-two Die Hard films as well as Street Fighter and The Flintstones which I find that surprising because I remember watching that movie and Hallie Berry made me realize that I like girls and women growing up. But still Souza was a writer in Hollywood that knew what the audience wanted and that man should at least be given an award for what he brought to the audience that were starved for some over the top action movies. I'm never in a million years planning on watching the remake to the Running Man mainly because I find Glen Powell overrated as an actor especially when he's trying to act like Peyton Manning in that Football movie in Hulu. Though with Running Man as well as Steven E. de Souza I should give a lot of thanks to for the season of giving thanks because this guy sure did write a lot of my favorite action movies growing up as well as one of my favorite Christmas movies Die Hard. So, if you’re in the mood to watch an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Running Man is a great movie to watch on Hulu for good reasons it was ahead of its time in terms of Government corruption and reality TV shows and more importantly fake news so, deep down the Running man has it all for a movie to watch this month of giving thanks.