Review: "THE RUNNING MAN" is Still Running Like it's 1987

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 40 of 2025 (No. 2046) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Running Man (1987)

Running time:  101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)

Rating:  MPAA – R

DIRECTOR:  Paul Michael Glaser

WRITER:  Steven E. de Souza (based on the novel by Richard Bachman)

PRODUCERS:  George Linder and Tim Zinnemann

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Thomas Del Ruth (D.o.P.)

EDITORS:  Mark Roy Warner, Edward A. Warschilka, and John Wright

COMPOSER:  Harold Faltermeyer

SCI-FI/ACTION

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Dawson, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown, Jesse Venura, Erland van Lidth, Marvin J. McIntyre, Mick Fleetwood, Professor Toru Tanaka, Dweezil Zappa, and Sven-Ole Thorsen

The Running Man is a 1987 American dystopian science fiction-action film and black comedy directed by Paul Michael Glaser and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.  The film is based on the 1982 novel, The Running Man, from author Richard Bachman (a pen name of Stephen King).  The Running Man the movie focuses on a wrongfully convicted policeman who gets a shot a freedom if he participates in television game show where he must avoid death at the hands of professional killers.

The Running Man is set in a world where the United States has become a totalitarian police state following a worldwide economic collapse in the year 2017.  The U.S. government now maintains control of the population through state television propaganda and through sanctioned entertainment such as the TV show, “The Running Man,” the nation's most popular show.  Hosted by the slick-talking Damon Killian (Richard Dawson), “the Running Man” features convicted criminals who are “runners” and who must avoid death at the hands of lethal professional killers known as the “stalkers.”

One of the latest runners is Benjamin A “Ben” Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger).  He was a police officer, and he was wrongfully accused and convicted for an incident called the “Bakersfield Massacre,” in which Ben allegedly killed 60 men, women, and children during a “food riot.”

Now known as “the Bakersfield Butcher,” Ben is joined by two comrades, Laughlin (Yaphet Kotto) and Weiss (Marvin J. McIntyre), and the trio has three hours to escape to freedom by running through four quadrants.  Standing in their way are such stalkers as “Professor Subzero” (Professor Toru Tanaka), “Dynamo” (Erland van Lidth), and “Fireball” (Jim Brown).  And the stalkers have weapons, while Ben and his fellow “running men” don't.

I remember not liking whatever amount of The Running Man I had seen in the past.  I decided to watch it in its entirety in anticipation of the director Edgar Wright's remake, The Running Man (2025), starring Glen Powell.  I was shocked to find out how much I really enjoyed watching the 1987 film.  Truthfully, The Running Man can still pop its 80s action movie coochie, and it's still running strong.  Also, the extent to which the authoritarian U.S. government in the world of this film goes to maintain control is comical.  In its bid to watch and to control everything and everyone, They inevitably miss something and some people – with comical results.  The Running Man is genuinely a funny black comedy.

There are also a number of things that make The Running Man charming and likable. Before she became a right wing harpie, actress Maria Conchita Alonso, who plays Ben's sidekick (more or less), “Amber Mendez,” hit her peak in the mid to late 1980s.  I find her to be a delight in The Running Man, and her star quality, though short-lived as it turned out to be, is obvious.

The late, great film and television actor, Yaphet Kotto (1939-2021), gave the films and TV series in which he appeared a little more credibility, which he also does in The Running Man as “Laughlin.”  However, actors and pop culture figures, Jesse Ventura and the late NFL legend, Jim Brown (1936-2023), make appearances in this film, in which they are woefully underutilized.

The late actor Richard Dawson (1932 to 2012) was best known for two things.  First, there was his role as con man, safe cracker, and thief, “Corporal Peter Newkirk” in the former CBS sitcom, “Hogan's Heroes” (1965-71).  Next, was his stint hosting the American game show, “Family Feud,” from 1976 to 1981 and again from 1994 to 1995.  Dawson brings the best of those two performances to his role as the host of “The Running Man,” Damon Killian.  It is standout performance mixing the charming rogue that was Corporal Newkirk with the roguish charm Dawson showed on “Family Feud.”

Despite mouthing a basket of deplorable one-liners and quips, Arnold Schwarzenegger is still Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Running Man.  What can I say?  He truly is a real Hollywood movie star and is really a true cinematic icon.  I believe there are other actors who could have played Ben Richards in a contextually different version of The Running Man.  However, in The Running Man that we did get in 1987, only Arnold Schwarzenegger could have saved this film from becoming straight-to-cable, late night trash.  Only Arnold could have made it an 80s action movie that won't go away.

6 of 10

B

★★★ out of 4 stars

Thursday, November 13, 2025

The text is copyright © 2025 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: 45 Years On, "ALIEN" is Still a Great Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 36 of 2024 (No. 1980) by Leroy Douresseaux

Alien (1979)

Running time:  117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)

MPAA – R

DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott

WRITERS: Dan O'Bannon; from a story by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett

PRODUCERS: Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Derek Vanlint (director of photography)

EDITORS:  Terry Rawlings and Peter Weatherley

COMPOSER: Jerry Goldsmith

Academy Award winner

SCI-FI/HORROR/THRILLER

Starring:  Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, Bolaji Badejo, and Helen Horton (voice)

Alien is a 1979 American science fiction and horror film directed by Ridley Scott.  It is the first movie in the Alien film series, which has entered its fifth decade and is comprised of prequels and a set of crossover films.  Alien is also a multimedia franchise that includes comic books, novels, video games, and an upcoming television series.  Alien focuses on the crew of a commercial spacecraft that encounters a deadly alien lifeform after landing on a mysterious moon.

Alien opens on the commercial towing vehicle, the Nostromo, which is returning to Earth.  Its cargo is twenty tons of mineral ore that is being refined.  It has a crew of seven in stasis (suspended animation): Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Executive Officer Kane (John Hurt), 3rd Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Navigator Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Science Officer Ash (Ian Holm), and engineers, Parker (Yaphet Kotto) and Brett (Harry Dean Stanton).

The ship's computer, Mother (voice of Helen Horton), detects a mysterious transmission of unknown origin from a nearby moon and awakens the crew.  The company that owns the Nostromo has a policy that the crew must investigate any transmission that indicates intelligent origin.  After landing on the moon, Dallas, Kane, and Lambert head out to investigate the landscape, and they discover a derelict alien spaceship.  What they find onboard that ship leads to a deadly encounter with an alien lifeform.  The problem is that the crew does not know how dangerous the lifeform is, and not everyone on the ship is working towards the same goal.

20th Century Studios (formerly 20th Century Fox) is set to release Alien: Romulus (2024), the latest entry in the Alien film franchise.  It is set between Alien and its sequel, Aliens (1986).  I have already reviewed Aliens, so I decided to watch Alien for the first time in over three decades and to review it for you, dear readers.

There are generally three reasons that I fondly remember Alien.  First, the Alien creature (now known as a “xenomorph”) was created and designed by the late Swiss artist, H. R. Giger (1940-2014).  Alien was how I discovered Giger, and I became a huge fan of his.  I sometimes paid premium prices for his art books, including those that focused on his work on Alien and his prior work that influenced the film.

The second reason is the film's director Ridley Scott.  I am a fan of Scott's work, especially his 1982 science fiction classic, Blade Runner, and his Alien prequel, Prometheus (2012).

The third reason that I fondly remember Alien is that it is one of the first films that introduced me to the Oscar-nominated actress Sigourney Weaver.  Her most famous films appeared in the 1980s and 1990s, including such personal favorites as Ghostbusters (1984) and Galaxy Quest (1999).

That aside, the film is rather good, although I think that Ridley Scott takes many of his cues for the film's pace, tone, and execution from Stanley Kubrick's space epic, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).  That is not necessarily a bad thing.  Unlike some of the Alien sequels, Alien is a science fiction film that is also a classic horror film.  It builds its scares not on action and violence, but rather on building a sense of mystery, creating an atmosphere of fear and desperation, and throwing a blanket of suspense over the entire thing.  Of course, the chest-bursting scene is still chilling and mesmerizing.

Alien remains a great film because it demands that we be patient and enjoy our steadily mounting feelings dread and terror.  The film is not perfect, but because it acts as if its audience is smart enough to enjoy a film without fast-paced action scenes and frenzied blood and gore, it is almost perfect.  Alien is as good today as it was when it first debuted in theaters forty-five years ago (specifically May 1979).  I am happy that Alien remains a thrilling film full of imaginative and inventive production design, SFX, and make-up and creature effects.  Not showing any wrinkles, Alien has aged well.

9 of 10

A+

Wednesday, August 14, 2024

NOTES:

1980 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Effects, Visual Effects” (H.R. Giger, Carlo Rambaldi, Brian Johnson, Nick Allder, and Dennis Ayling) and 1 nomination: “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Michael Seymour, Leslie Dilley, Roger Christian, and Ian Whittaker)

1980 BAFTA Awards:  2 wins: “Best Production Design” (Michael Seymour) and “Best Sound Track” (Derrick Leather, Jim Shields, and Bill Rowe); 5 nominations: “Best Costume Design” (John Mollo and Terry Rawlings), “Best Editing” (Terry Rawlings), “Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Role” (Sigourney Weaver), “Best Supporting Actor” (John Hurt), and “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (Jerry Goldsmith)

Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Jerry Goldsmith)

2002 National Film Preservation Board, USA:  “National Film Registry”

The text is copyright © 2024 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: Isaac Hayes, Yaphet Kotto Rev Up "Truck Turner"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 172 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Truck Turner (1974)
Running time: 91 minutes
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Kaplan
WRITERS: Michael Allin and Oscar Williams (from a story by Jerry Wilkes)
PRODUCERS: Paul M. Heller and Fred Weintraub
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Charles F. Wheeler
EDITOR: Michael Kahn

ACTION

Starring: Isaac Hayes, Yaphet Kotto, Alan Weeks, Annazette Chase, Nichelle Nichols, Sam Laws, Paul Harris, John Kramer, and Scatman Crothers

With its whacked-out violence, splashy sex, foul language, preening ho’s, and funky costumes, Truck Turner is one my best experiences with so-called blaxploitation films. The early Jonathan Kaplan (The Accused, in which he directed Jodie Foster to her first Oscar) directorial effort stars Isaac Hayes as Truck Turner. Turner is a bounty hunter who with his partner Jerry (Alan Weeks) is tracking a vicious and powerful pimp named Gator (Paul Harris). Turner kills Gator after an extended chase scene and huge shootout. Driven by revenge, Gator’s main squeeze, Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols), puts a hit out on Truck. After Truck easily dusts off the hit squad, Dorinda convinces Gator’s old rival and nemesis, Harvard Blue (Yaphet Kotto), to go after Truck in what turns out to be a bloody finale.

Kaplan directed a breezy and smoothly moving, violent action feature that would fit right in with current hyper-kinetic action flicks. Michael Kahn, who would go onto to be Steven Spielberg’s editor-of-choice and win three Oscars for editing Spielberg films, showed why he is so highly respected and graced with so many awards and nominations. Kahn’s editing created the sense of urgency, desperation, danger, and fear that was necessary to sell this particular kind of urban thriller. He actually raised the sense of looming disaster that hides around every corner in the urban setting.

The stars of this show, however, were the stars. Isaac Hayes gave a great performance as the kind of relentless and destructive protagonist that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Harrison Ford would become so famous and so wealthy for playing. His Truck Turner is every bit the unstoppable force that the Arnold’s Terminator is. Hayes also provided the cool score for this film. Nichelle Nichols bold, foul-mouthed, Dorinda alone is worth the cost of admission, especially since we get to see her brick house form squeezed into her tight and sexy futuristic ho outfits. Yaphet Kotto is always a welcome sight, and he was so smooth and sensible that it’s almost a shame that Harvard Blue wasn’t the star.

7 of 10
A-

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