"The Running Man" is based on a story by Richard Bachman, a.k.a. Stephen King writing under pseudonym.

It takes place in the near future, where everything is run by the media and the government. Kind of like right now. In the future, there isn't much selection on television. All there is is "The Running Man"--hosted by Damon Killian (Richard Dawson, host of "Family Fortune" in real life)--a show that features convicts, or "runners" being chased by madmen, or "stalkers." It's a bit like a futuristic gladiator sport. No one ever, ever wins the show. But Schwarzenegger has yet to play. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Ben Richards, also known as The Butcher of Bakersfield, for firing upon a crowd of humans in a food strike. Only one problem. He's been framed--he never shot anyone. After Arnie escapes from jail, Damon Killian wants his hands on him for the show--so they hunt him down and bring him in. Damon offers Ben a deal--if he goes on the show, he'll let his friends from jail go free. But if he doesn't...he puts his friends on. So Richards agrees to play the game, only to find that Damon has put his friends-from-jail in the show anyway. Right before being launched in the arena, Ben Richards says to Damon, "Hey, Damon. I'll be back." There is a pause. "Only in a rerun," Damon says. Yeah, right.

This movie is about as action-packed and adrenaline-punched an action movie you're going to see in a while. We see an excuse for Schwarzenegger being thrown into an arena with killers, where he must use his brains, strategy, and most of all muscles, to kill the stalkers. But the thing is, the excuse for throwing Schwarzenegger in the arena is a good one. They didn't completely ignore the plot; they don't even throw him in the arena until at least a half hour into the film. They set up the plot first, which is nice.

Arnold proves his acting talent is not just in his muscles once again. Too many people make fun of Schwarzenegger's acting skills, but to tell you the truth, I prefer him over Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone any day. Bruce and Sly are mumblers, in my opinion. Anyway, I like Arnold in this movie, because unlike in "The Terminator" where he is an indestructible cyborg, he is a vincible human with emotions in this film. We see a different side to Schwarzenegger, and it's pretty nice.

Richard Dawson is surprisingly good as Damon. I love his charisma on screen. Of course he's good at playing a gameshow host--he himself was one--but he also has a very good acting talent. Check out the scene where he offers Arnold a deal for going on the show. Look how smug he is in that scene, and how well he delivers his lines. He envelops his character very well. An underrated actor if ever I saw one. He comes off slightly creepy and slightly likable.

This movie is good fun no matter how you slice and dice it. I've often noticed it has a bit of a weird vibe to it, but then I realized that's just the sci-fi/futuristic vibe of the film. I've felt it before when watching sci-fi films. There's something about them. When I watch a film, or a certain genre, I get different vibes. Sci-fi gives me a weird vibe that is undescribable. This film gives that vibe to me. It sounds weird, but I think a lot of people get "vibes" and don't realize it.

I recently viewed this movie twice in less than a day; once at night and once in the morning. It just goes to show how easy it is to watch. It is strictly a fun, action film with lots of imagination and charisma. Easy to watch with a high re-watch factor.

What would you rather do with 90 minutes of your life on a Friday night then watch Arnold Schwarzenegger get to knock some skulls together in a gladiator arena? Exactly.

4/5 stars -

A camp, incredibly cheesy and dated '80s movie with Schwarzenegger, yet it's still a lot more fun than RAW DEAL. If you wanted one film that epitomised the cheesiness of the '80s then this would be a good film to look at. Although the title is taken from a Stephen King story (writing under his usual Richard Bachman pseudonym),this film actually succeeds in ripping off Joe D'Amato's ENDGAME and other Italian post-apocalyptic movies; it's not often that American films rip off their Italian counterparts so this makes an exception.

In this particular futuristic world, class is divided by those who work for the government and those who don't (and live lives of grime in the streets below). Into this world comes Arnie, who is betrayed by his employers and thrown into a prison camp. Prisoners have a metal necklace which explodes if they try to escape, leading to a cool exploding head scene a la SCANNERS. Obviously the makers of FORTRESS liked this idea as they used a similar one in their film, except the explosive was in the stomach instead of the neck. Of course, being the hulking muscular bloke that he is, Arnie does manage to escape before being unfortunately recaptured on an airport runway. Here, after a slow start, the fun begins.

The incredibly slimy Richard Dawson plays Killian, a megalomaniac game show host who wants Arnie for his show. Arnie is forced into submission, thrown into the pit with a couple of his fellow escapees, and must battle a string of amusingly-named and even more amusingly-attired villains. Eventually, he beats the system, exposes the truth, infiltrates the television show and wipes out all of the bad guys in time for a cheesy happy ending. What more could you want? A little intelligence perhaps? Nope, sorry, you've come to the wrong place. This is out-and-out dumb entertainment. Sure, there is the occasional glimpse of intelligence (I liked the idea of previous "winners" who supposedly went to live in Hawaii, but whose corpses are found rotting in an underground room) but for the majority of it, this film just consists of out-and-out action.

Schwarzenegger here indulges in his cheap, predictable one-liners (as in COMMANDO) which I still manage to get a kick out of. Maria Cochita Alonso is the female lead and lends some Latin spirit to the proceedings, with her agreeably-tough female fighter not having to get rescued too often by Arnie. Old hand Yaphet Kotto stars as Arnie's pal, and while it's sad to see him in a tight bodysuit, his presence nonetheless manages to upgrade the film a little. I've never seen him looking so out of place though. However, it is the cast who make up the bad guys who are of the most interest. Aside from Dawson's slimy game show host, we have blaxploitation star Jim Brown as "Fireball", who ends up igniting himself; Professor Toru Tanaka as "Subzero", who gets strangled with barbed wire, Gus Rethwisch going way over the top as "Buzzsaw", who gets sliced in two between the legs (ouch!) and finally Jesse Ventura (who's now gone political, believe it or not) as "Captain Freedom", who isn't really an adversary but who just stands around being annoying.

The action scenes pass the time, but lack finesse. It's just a case of "point the camera and shoot", although Arnie fighting is always good for a chuckle. I thought the ending to be a bit lacklustre too, but that may be down to budget constraints. One thing I did like was the set design, which convincingly creates a grime-strewn future world full of crumbling buildings, decaying rubbish and the like. At least it looks good. THE RUNNING MAN is definitely worth watching to see what kind of films they made in the '80s, but the Italian films that inspired this are even funnier AND more cheesy, if that's even possible.

I'm pretty surprised that this film is rated as low on IMDb as it is--especially since this is one of Arnold's better films. I think part of the problem is that some people MIGHT be looking at the film from a superficial and purely aesthetic level, whereas I see a lot more depth in this movie than many viewers. Yes the film is violent and dopey but that's exactly the point! Just like the original (and only one worth watching) ROLLERBALL, the film was dismissed by some because of the film's violence and seeming banality whereas the film really is a great indictment about society. And, on that level, the film is great. I could actually see people in our country, especially in the near future, intoxicated by the violence of a show dedicated to watching men die. Is this really that much of a leap from Jerry Springer and the evening news?

And, if you look at the film technically, it's well-made. Arnold is just fine with this role, the direction is great, Steven King's story is excellent and Richard Dawson just steals the show as the sleazy and creepy host of this show dedicated to making capital punishment a spectator sport!

So, try watching this film and think to yourself--could this really make it on TV? I think YES, as our world really isn't that far removed from the Romans and their Coliseums.

UPDATE--I just saw this movie again and I think my original review was too optimistic. While I had given it a 9, now I think 6 or 7 is probably more accurate. While I agree there is some good social commentary, the film had too many holes and silly plot points when I saw it again. Still, not bad brain candy.