After really taking off as the next Action Hero following The Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger was plopped into the big budget blockbusters for like the next 15 years. This was year 3, which doubled up releases in 1987 with Predator. Yeah. They put that guy to work. The dude is no Shakespeare, but he did play some in 1993’s The Last Action Hero. Kind of. I think. That one is a little fuzzy. Mostly he just was good at blowing up shit. And shootins. And delivering bad one-liners with aplomb.
Ben Richards is a chopper pilot on a military mission to a rioty kinda situation in Bakersfield. It’s 2017, the economy is shite, resources are low, and the population lives under a police state ruled by an Iron Hand. I’m not writing shitty, that’s what the opening intro tells us, so fuck you, screenwriters! Given that scenario, we see the most popular of the State TV programs is ‘The Running Man,’ a Gladatorial Killfest to keep the burbling societal unrest at a dull roar with the amount of diabeetus-causing breads and circuses. But that Ben guy? Looks like he can play the game pretty well, too.
This is more action blockbuster than story, but it does at least try. Based on the book of the same name by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King back before he published his first best seller Carrie), this one is... a looser adaptation. Director Glaser (aka Starksy from ‘Starksy and Hutch’) just made it Schwarzeneggerized. The original story is relatively simple but effective in its message, and this one stays relatively true to that. But it does throw in a LOT of cheezy Ahnold one-liners to appease the market of the time. And so many cartoony villainous adversaries. It will make your eyes roll. But Richard Dawson as the main foil? Casting a Game Show Host as a Game Show Host? Brilliant! But Dawson shows his acting chops here. He actually raises the bar of the film, so significant kudos to him here playing a real prick character. Maria Conchita Alonso as the eye candy isn’t horrible, her story arc might be a little suspect there at the end but, hey, it’s an action movie. It is fun to see Mick Fleetwood and Dweezil Zappa as part of the resistance, Jesse Ventura as whatever he is here. There’s also multiple 80s dance numbers that are worth their weight in Aqua Net. And it is a decent look at Media’s effect on societal manipulations. Starring Ahhnold. Whodathunk?
