Is The Running Man Arnold’s Most Underrated Movie?

Everyone has a favourite Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, ask a random person and they’ll usually say Terminator, Predator or Conan.  After that, you could probably say that most consider Total Recall, Commando and True Lies as somewhat ‘second tier’ Arnold movies.  But I think one movie on his resume that does not get enough respect is The Running Man.  It’s his most underrated movie.

It’s a strange one.  Maybe its just me, but it gets comparatively little TV time, and people just seem to talk about it less in general.  Naturally, the critical consensus is ‘average at best’ too.  The home release is also thin on the ground.  If you like vaseline-smeared transfers with no extras, buy it on Blu-Ray.  Seems that some people deemed it unworthy in that regard too.  It’s a strange one, because this is a damned good movie.

Two hundred dollars on Richards!

The Running Man is under appreciated, as is ‘Mad Dog’ Ben Richards. Maybe it’s because it was eclipsed by Predator in the same year.  Maybe it’s because people like Arnold have to over-achieve in movies like this to receive deserved recognition, where the same movie probably would’ve had huge appraisal had some other ‘more respected’ actor appeared in it.  Maybe some trendy pissants just can’t handle manly threats, such as breaking spines (by way of the stomach) in a movie covering a Stephen King dystopin subject.  After all, Jack Nicholson did that other King movie the same decade.  This approach was… different.

Different, but no less meaningful.  People demanded Schwarzenegger appear in more sophisticated movies, then when he appears in a movie like this, they really don’t have much to say.  The action is also sturdier and superior to a lot of mundane and synthetic crap appearing movies today.  Buzz Saw Vs. Richards, what a battle of the ages!  And Ventura Vs. Schwarzenegger, quite possibly Arnold’s best hand-to-hand fight in any movie he has made.

That boy’s one mean motherfucker!

I love The Running Man.  Perhaps even more than Total Recall (easy, fanboys).  I know it hasn’t aged well, in fact, it has aged really bad.  But man, it’s the perfect mix of Dredd/RoboCop style deadpan satire with 1980’s violence.  It’s mean, with a lead character like a typical Bronson pissant slayer on steroids.  It’s ahead of its time, look at how the screw is tightening in the west now, it’s almost visionary.  And it has a great soundtrack by Harold Faltermeyer, the kind of guy who makes you want to actually buy a CD soundtrack.  The Running Man is no Predator.  Nobody is saying that.  But what it does happen to be is underrated.

I feel like watching the movie right now.  Maybe it’s a good thing though that they canned the sequel, which was to star Denis Rodman.