7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
In 2019, television is now ruling people's lives. The most popular reality show is called "The Running Man" featuring convicts who compete to defeat murderous henchmen.
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown, Jesse VenturaThriller | 100% |
Action | 88% |
Sci-Fi | 39% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The landscape of television has changed rather dramatically since The Running Man premiered in 1987, and what once might have seemed ludicrous now seems anything but. In this era of Survivor and Masters of Combat and a veritable glut of other niche series, some of the elements of The Running Man aren’t merely the stuff of science fiction or pure predictive speculation any more. Now of course, there’s a matter of degrees, and we haven’t yet —yet—seen a contestant actually die on one of these shows, but the salacious appetite of the general viewing audience has been primed to the point where it probably isn’t totally beyond the realm of possibility to imagine that hideous situation ultimately becoming part of some still slightly distant “sweeps week”. Arnold Schwarzenegger had been on something of a hot streak in the years immediately prior to making The Running Man, with the two Conan films, The Terminator and Predator (as well as less stellar efforts like Red Sonja and Raw Deal) leading up to this enterprise, but this was a slightly different formulation for the future Governator, and in fact in some ways is a bit similar to a film Arnie would make three years after this one, Total Recall. In both The Running Man and Total Recall, Schwarzenegger plays a man alone (or at least mostly alone) in a dystopian future fighting against a corrupt all knowing government. The Running Man doesn’t have the mind bending elements that Total Recall does, and in fact is a considerably less successful film overall than Total Recall, but some of its commentary on modern society and our addiction to celebrity is quite prescient, ringing more true now than it probably did even in 1987.
The Running Man is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. I no longer have the Lionsgate Blu-ray in my collection, but my memory of it is still strong enough to state that while this new transfer is not optimal, it's still at least a marginal improvement over the first release. The Running Man was never a "pretty" film by any stretch of the imagination, and that kind of soft (some might even say ugly) appearance is still well on display in this newest incarnation. Clarity is improved over the Lionsgate release and colors are more accurate looking and better saturated. Fine detail isn't fantastic on this release, but it pops at least at decent levels in close-ups. The film continues to look a trifle dark at times (though this release looks considerably brighter than the Lionsgate version), though contrast is generally solid and stable throughout the film. As has been the Olive tradition, no egregious digital tweaking of any kind appears to have been done to the elements, and the film retains a very natural layer of grain.
The Running Man features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix that may worry some viewers who remember the Lionsgate version's repurposed 7.1 track. Why Olive didn't choose to at least give consumers a 5.1 track is a pertinent question given what appears to have been the film's original 6 track theatrical exhibition. That said, the 2.0 track, while obviously very narrow and lacking any real sense of overwhelming depth or immersion, presents the mix fluidly and with good prioritization, offering dialogue cleanly while also presenting the glut of sound effects with excellent fidelity. There's some occasionally wide stereo separation here, but most audiophiles are probably going to be disappointed by the lack of a surround mix on this release.
Olive is taking a chance offering a property like The Running Man so relatively recently after its first Blu-ray release, especially when that release had arguably better audio and many more supplements than this release does. Does the uptick in video quality outweigh all of that? That will be up to the individual consumer, of course, but with the Lionsgate version now out of print and fetching rather steep prices online, those who love this film (and there are quite a few) who didn't get the Lionsgate version at least now have a reasonably priced alternative. The film itself is a mixed bag, but for those who want their Arnie without much if any nuance, The Running Man will more than likely fit the bill.
1987
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35th Anniversary Edition
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1987
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2012
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PG-13 Theatrical Cut
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Collector's Edition
1988
Replacement Disc issued by Paramount
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