That’s So 80’s – The Running Man (1987) – Encore Review

 

THIS IMAGE-DRIVEN SERIES SHINES AN OBNOXIOUS PASTEL NEON LIGHT ON THE 80-EST 80s MOVIES AROUND. 

THAT’S SO 80s! takes a nostalgic trip down VHS memory lane, remembering some of the cheesiest movies from one of the cheesiest decades.

 

Fellow movie connoisseur MOVIEROB joins forces with SLIP/THROUGH for a semi-regular column highlighting some of the best scenes (and fashion choices) of the era.

This edition of That’s so 80s gets its action flick on with legendary mega movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger. RUNNING MAN is one of his Cult Classics that we think deserves more attention. If you’ve only seen the TERMINATORs, check out what the real Ah-nuld was like. He’s fighting for his life in a Reality TV Gameshow with nutso killing machine gladiators.

Rob and Dan breakdown what they love about this retro gem, from the 80s fashion to the 80s sensibilities.

Enjoy your THROWBACK THURSDAY! And Stay Rad!

Check out the full post here

 

I always loved watching movies that show us a not too distant future and we get to see what the film makers believe the future holds for us all.

Most movies of the 70’s and 80’s that have this kind of theme usually show that we are in for a dark and bleak future.

I think Back to the Future Part II is alone in its optimistic future.

Having a movie’s time period pass in real life always gives us an interesting retrospective of what things they got right and what extremely wrong.

The Running Man gets a lot really wrong but still gets some things perfectly right.

This movie takes place in 2017 and 2018 so we actually aren’t very far away from the time period portrayed.

We are not living in a state of Martial Law and state doesn’t control what we watch on TV, but the fact that everyone is hooked on watching reality TV is so very true.

Reality TV shows run our lives these days and the specific genre doesn’t matter because reality has reached just about all of them; cooking contests like master chef, adventure contests like The Amazing Race and Survivor, celebrity contests like Rehab and social shows like Big Brother are all great examples of the range of topics they cover.

The plot of this movie is actually quite similar to a famous George Carlin routine about public executions and if you think about it, it makes lots of sense in many situations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDO6HV6xTmI

Arnold Schwarzenegger was a great choice for the lead here because he is able to do the action scenes really well and is somewhat believable in the dramatic scenes also.

I was such a fan of Richard Dawson on Family Feud as a kid that it was fun seeing him here as the game show host. He was more than just a great host and this movie shows his acting ability too.

Love how they threw in a bunch of pop-culture references that the younger characters just didn’t get (Gilligan’s Island and Star Trek for instance)

I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of the way they fleshed out their gladiators but it fits in great with the theme of doing things just for the ratings and from a TV show perspective, they did it right.

Having read the Stephen King novella that this is “based” on, they basically just carried over a few small themes, but the book and movie are sooooo very different, it’s hard to compare which is better because they both are great in their own ways.

Then – 5

Now – 5

80’s – 3

 

 

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