Release Year: 1987 Rating: R Duration: 101 minutes Director: Paul Michael Glaser Producer: Tim Zinnemann
synopsis
A wrongly-convicted man must try to survive a public execution gauntlet staged as a TV game show. Set in 2019, an ex-cop framed and convicted of mass slaughter, becomes a contestant on the most popular game show in which convicted felons race for their lives in decimated L.A. in hopes of a pardon. Adapted from a Stephen King novel.
Somewhere along the line, Arnold Schwarzenegger actually developed a passable acting technique, but THE RUNNING MAN comes before that time. His wooden performance is just one of the reasons this movie will never be more than a mediocre movie experience for people who don't have the sense of humor to appreciate just how dismal the 80's action formula was working by this point in Arnold's career. This movie, like the far superior TERMINATOR and TOTAL RECALL, provides a science-fiction backdrop for the mindless violence, in a more extreme, futuristic version of "American Gladiators."
