The Reel Rejects - THE RUNNING MAN (1987) MOVIE REVIEW!! First Time Watching!!

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Starting point is 00:01:08 And without further ado, we'd like to thank MGM Plus, without whom we also couldn't watch this, because that's where we're streaming it from in glorious 4K. So let's dive into The Running Man in three, two, one. What a fascinating bit of a lot of it, prophetic, but a fascinating bit of common. Terry from the 80s. Right. Oh, man. If you were just joining us on Spotify and iTunes,

Starting point is 00:01:36 we just experienced Running Man for the very first time. We are now men, whoever ran. What did you think, man? I really enjoy it. I just Arnold the one-liners. And also, there was a lot of stuff that they were talking about, like you said, that just like really hold true to today. I mean, there's a lot of propaganda in it, capitalism.

Starting point is 00:01:58 Deep fakes before their time? Yeah, that too. Oh my God, Franco Colombo. I just told you that I just watched the Netflix special with Arnold. And that was a dear friend of his. He said it, Franco Colombo is one of the nicest human beings. So he just cast his friends in this. Hey, he's like, I love that.

Starting point is 00:02:13 No, I love that too. Like Adam Sandler does too. I love that. No, I think it's funny when people get mad at like the industry for nepotism. If they're not talented, can bother me. But when like, people are like, oh, they just use their friends. I'm like, don't like accountants and lawyers. Any job where you can work with people you like,

Starting point is 00:02:30 of course. Yeah, take care of your friends. So, yeah, I love when I can see that and like names you recognize. Yeah, and it's not like he's giving the main role. Well, it's also like if they're big bodybuilder guys, why not cast bodybuilder guys? Like, if it works for the role. For sure. So I love when that happens when you can work with the homies.

Starting point is 00:02:43 Yeah, no, for sure. And I just, I love this character that Arnold plays too. And I think it was a, yeah, I mean, I know it's not, it's hard not to relate to him just in terms of like how he's built and all that. But I did relate to his character, the moral compass. and, like, right? Paul Hebdoch were, I, I've been in the game a long time. A long time, and she was a Laker girl, too. But I did relate to his character right away.

Starting point is 00:03:07 They did a good job of establishing that, like, this dystopian future where human life means nothing to the government. And they will do anything. We saw that in general, like, all they care about is the bottom line when it comes to the capitalism angle. And then in terms of government, they will do anything to imprison. They will do anything to control. and that's a scary thought

Starting point is 00:03:30 and I like that Arnold was in a position there were two different times in this movie where he was in a position to have freedom and he didn't and he chose to come back and fight yeah to come back and fight and like when he had that choice to wipe out these people

Starting point is 00:03:43 he's like I'm not going to do that and then also too Killian gave him that opportunity to be a stocker he's like after what had happened with his friends and just trying to kill him all night he's like to hell with you

Starting point is 00:03:52 like a lot of people might have just taken that offer and then again in the position at the beginning being the the Bakersfield butcher like again that's awful what had what was happening there and I'm not saying anybody should have done that but the position of knowing the dystopian future that you're in right there and that what's happening and the way the government is structured there again do not do what what they were asking you to do but it's easier said than done to

Starting point is 00:04:17 what Arnold did is my point I'm making with how scary the government is there so I just immediately like just completely loved and was emotionally invested it into his character. I couldn't, like, again, relate to him just because of how big and strong it was, but I related to his character. I really like that I only knew of this that it was Arnold and that it was,

Starting point is 00:04:39 I didn't even know what the plot was, but that it was getting remade. And within 10 minutes of the movie, I'm like, oh, I see why this is more prevalent than ever with the way we use news to kind of twist truths and the way that, like, you can give someone a 10-second clip and take it out of context and ruin things.

Starting point is 00:04:55 It, you know, had predicted deep fake. and Photoshop and all this propaganda that's like now modernized. So I enjoy that it is something that is arguably more prevalent now because we didn't have the technology in 87 to do what was science fiction then. That is not science fiction now. We're living in an age where I have said time and time again, this is probably our last election where we can actually count on what we're seeing. And even that's kind of a in pencil, not pen, there are certain things I don't know truths of.

Starting point is 00:05:24 So it's interesting that we're making a movie now. about this movie that will be more of a present tense like even if they said it in 2035 or whatever they end up doing it's still a present day problem as opposed to a future problem because like we said at the top this is almost 40 years old but it predicted

Starting point is 00:05:41 a lot of the problems of today and even though a lot didn't work like they wouldn't have known that the computers would get rid of rolodexes and that they couldn't have possibly known like styles and hair and all those things what it did know is accurate like the the root of this is very true

Starting point is 00:05:56 And I really think that it's fascinating that retrofuturism of movies in the 80s is either a hyper dark timeline or a hyper positive timeline. And I think that it's interesting when things are good on paper like the 80s, we made a lot of dystopian stuff. But you don't see a lot of like positive future stuff maybe save for back to the future about how we predicted things would go. A lot of it's like your Blade Runners, this. You know, we always were worried about a dystopia, especially with like Robocop and Dread. And now a lot of those things are present tense, and we don't make a lot of movies now about the future.

Starting point is 00:06:37 Yeah. Because like, what's to come? Like, it does feel very interestingly end of days. So I really enjoyed this commentary. I really enjoyed what it had to say. I really enjoyed, like, you know, I wish we still had TV that was network so we could make stuff that, you know,

Starting point is 00:06:52 had ratings like they do with streaming, have killed even this that side of things existing but it's really cool to look back at a joyous time in movies where things were fun but even then being like a cautionary tale yeah no you're absolutely right because back in the day i used to watch game shows all the time and then once streaming became it's like wait what are game shows right and there's parts of the country that i think still do like network tv i'm not saying network tv's gone i'm saying there's a lot more different factions yeah and i you know again i had no idea that uh glen glen pal right i had no idea that he and Edgar Wright were going to be tackling this franchise. So I'm looking really

Starting point is 00:07:26 forward to that. I love, again, the charisma and the charm that he brings to every character that he portrays. And Edgar Wright, he's just got the style and flare that he does at where he brings it, makes it his own. And I'm very interested to see his take on talking about, I mean, I would assume it's going to be very similar to the dystopian future and propaganda and all and capitalism. He's going to have some kind of take, but he's going to also make it his own as well. So I'm very interested to see what Edgar Wright is going to do Because I've only seen a few This I've only seen a few of Edgar's films

Starting point is 00:08:01 I'm trying to think what in the Coronado trilogy That's Sean of the Dad Hot Fuzz At the end of the world I've seen those Yeah at World's End I've seen those Those were really good and then I've seen what's the video I'm just blanking What's the video game one The video game stylized type of movie

Starting point is 00:08:16 I'm blanking right now Video Game stylized It's Baby Driver No I did not see baby It's, uh, oh, this is killing me. I like, I can't not place what would be considered. And maybe I'm missing a movie in my head off together. Oh, when I, when I say it right now, we're both going to be like, oh, yeah, that's obvious.

Starting point is 00:08:31 That I think that I'd go right movie that talks about. Scott Pilgrim. Thank you. Scott Pilgrim versus the world. That is video game. I think of it as like, because the manga references video games, I disconnected. I saw it so long ago, but I just remember there's a lot of like, like, this feels like a video, very video game mask, obviously. No, no, totally. And that would be, I mean, I'm hoping that sensibility ties into whatever they do to modernize running

Starting point is 00:08:51 man and and it will be interesting because like I'm sure I'm missing dozens but I don't think of a lot of movies as taking place in the deep future or being commentaries in the future in present movies so I'd be curious what they do to set this differently because the commentary is still very accurate if not more accurate and I think it's really sparked of Glenn Powell to play a role like this where it's about charm not necessarily I don't think he's going to gain a hundred pounds but like it'll be interesting to see a different take on that because this movie it was you know of its time in a lot of ways and and super 80s and all of that was very fun like we both like 80s movies but But I really like that the theme is timeless. And I really like that the universality of the conversation that needs to be had was great. Yeah. And also, too, speaking of 80s, I loved all the action we got in there with. You had all these stockers in there. You had sub-zero fireball, Jim Brown. That was great.

Starting point is 00:09:39 And then you had the guy with the Jesse Ventura, man. I was a, I know we got the deep fake, but I was a little sad. And we didn't get an actual battle. It was so funny. Because he quit. I love it. Yeah, because that was ridiculous. That shit.

Starting point is 00:09:51 was um and again i had no idea he was in this because i know we we talked about the top uh he was in predator and the other comic folk film we don't talk about um with arnie um but yeah i was kind of hoping we we were going to get about but again having said that the battles that he did have with the stalkers i think they did a good job just giving it a horror as type of feel in terms of making it very suspenseful um with that and again when arnold's in these films in the 80s and early 90s you kind of feel like there's no way uh who arnold is bad at Adeling has any shot. And that's why I like him casting all his friends because they're as big as him.

Starting point is 00:10:25 Yeah, exactly. He's like, who are the largest men that can keep up with Arnold? For sure. My homies. Yeah, for sure. And actually, like,

Starting point is 00:10:32 he gave his character a little bit of vulnerability in these fight sequences. Obviously, we know he's going to survive. Like, you have to, but still. This isn't a full knock at the Rock and Vin Diesel. Like,

Starting point is 00:10:41 it sounds like it's going to be. But I miss this where it's like there's some plausible deniability of there's not a contract where it's, they can't lose. Like Vin Diesel and the Rock have apparently in their contract that neither of them can lose in movies so they like when they punch each other it has to be like an even number of punches and stuff like so it's stuff like yeah that's the rumor that's just whatever do you even count that when you're watching a movie like okay it was 10 to 9 lawyers do so so that's what like you lose out on some of the fun of like Arnold was willing to take a punch both in movie like he actually did some of those dives where he got scraped up and like we talked about with him getting injured and like Stallone famously went to the hospital because Dolf Lunger and actually punched him like his heart murmured because he got hit in the chest so hard it like went to the hospital. So like that was, I'm not saying that's correct. I'm saying story-wise, not, don't put yourself in the hospital, but story-wise, it's nice to see some plausible, like, we know he's going to win, but it's nice to have some tension in the middle. In the moment. And I love that he cast people big enough that there was that tension. And I am the one-liners are like this era. And by the way, in the comments, let us know if there's an iconic Arnold movie we haven't seen or you think we haven't seen because right now on the screen is raw deal, a movie I've never heard.

Starting point is 00:11:47 I've never even seen that. So like things in the comments, like one-liners and stuff, we, you'd like us to watch because we really enjoy doing these so uh that was a blast yeah should we do a little trivia yeah yeah but yeah if there's if there's arnold stuff in this vein that we're just missing i would love to hear well hello again huel huel today's video sponsor lately i've been loving talking about huel because i've used it as an excuse to give you guys updates on my fitness journey back in january of this year i was 218 pounds last time i weigh myself i'm down to 179 but this time i decided to take a fancy picture close to the mirror Good lighting. And I did have to flex, but I'm making progress. I'm almost at the six-pack.

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Starting point is 00:13:58 Skip the stress, not the nutrition. Try Hewled today for complete nutrition bottled. When Rob Cohen purchased the rights to the Richard Bachman novel, The Running Man, he had no idea that Bachman was actually a suit in him for Stephen King. When it opened and said Bachman and I made that cheeky awareness of, it's because I love, I think Stephen King

Starting point is 00:14:19 is such a genius horror writer, but I love that sometimes his horror is more of commentary, and that's the Bachman concept. This didn't feel like a Stephen King film, but it felt like a Bachman film. Right, right. Many people who worked with Richard Dawson, Killian, on the game show Family Feud,

Starting point is 00:14:35 say that in real life, Dawson was more like his character, Damon Killian, in his handlings of underlings. Oh, shit. It was funny because I was thinking, like, he's not a great actor, but I get why they cast him. Oh, yeah. he's the game show host like line deliveries i was like that man is used to broadcast like it just it like it was like oh that's scripted with a comma he put that comma yeah yeah when he was doing the

Starting point is 00:14:57 game show stuff it was like okay he's clearly used to doing it like this doing all of his finger gesticulating it stuff i was like oh they cast a game show host yeah definitely whereas bob barker and happy gilmore is the right level of cheese right yeah oh i'm so sad he won't be in happy gomore too rest in peace yeah but i'm glad we're getting a happier gilmore yes i hope they call it that Happier Gilmer That's what I've been calling it all day I hope it's I hope that's what they call it Happier Gilmer I like that

Starting point is 00:15:21 When Arnold Schwarzenegger ran for governor He rode around in a campaign bus And named it after this film Running Makes He was running for governor That makes sense That makes sense Oh my God

Starting point is 00:15:36 You weren't living here at the time yet Right when he was running It was 2004 No I was in high school Okay Yeah I was not here yet But I wish I'd seen a running man Like that's genius

Starting point is 00:15:45 I mean, yeah, using, I mean, I'm not sure how popular. Did he run a second time and say, I'll be back? Like, is that? Oh, yeah, you might as well use that. I'll be back. Right, if he's going for like the... Might as well. That's your, that's your iconic line in all your films now, I guess, after the first Terminator.

Starting point is 00:16:03 Erlon Van Lift, the actor plays Dynamo was a... Did I call it? Was a classically trained, held in baritone opera singer. So in his introduction, when Dynamo is singing an oria from the marriage of figure figure oh it is actually it it actually is van lintz singing he died this the same year as the film in 1987 this was his final film as well as that of richard dawson damon killing oh did he also 87 oh no no but this was his final film but he didn't die in but like the way it was written it sounded like he died in 87 no he died in 2002 he's retired

Starting point is 00:16:42 yeah 2012 wow i i thought I thought he was not, and that's the ADR, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. When we had that one scene, too, where he was taught, yeah. Although credited is simply Sub-Zero, the character is introduced as Professor Sub-Zero by announcer Phil Hilton. Professor Sub-Zero is played by Professor Toro Tanaka. It is worth noting that Tanaka's title of Professor is not from a post-doctorate academic rank, but rather from the wrestling name, the actor went under his wrestling career from the 1960s through the 1980s. Let me clarify that man.

Starting point is 00:17:14 Professor Tanaka. I would have guessed, too, if said professor, he's probably as a PhD or something. It's so funny, they're clarified. They're like, just so you know, do not seek medical advice from this giant man. Yeah. The big dance, the big dance number at the start of the Running Man show was choreographed by Paula Abdul. That was, that blew my mind because I didn't realize she was that old. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:17:34 I didn't know as Paula Abdul was old enough to almost 40 years ago choreograph. Paul Abdul was born in 1962, so she would have been 25 during the filming. Paul Abdul was born, Paul Abdul's 62. Oh, 19662, so 62, yeah. Oh, my God. A woman is a gilf. Oh, she is. He's gorgeous.

Starting point is 00:17:53 62? She looks great stuff. Yeah, the footage of the attacking helicopters is from King Kong, 1976. Oh, my God. And then he King Kongs, and then he, Donkey Kong. I was going to say, yeah, you were called that. You're like, Kong. When Killian is sending Fireball into the game, he says, and I quote, there he goes,

Starting point is 00:18:12 the leading rusher, fireball was played by. by Jim Brown, the NFL's all-time leader in rushing yards until the mid in 1980s. There are so many meta-jokes in this movie. Oh, yeah, no doubt. Although Arnold Schwarzenegger hates Richard Dawson on screen in real life, they were lifelong friends. That's cute.

Starting point is 00:18:30 I wonder if that's how this movie came together. Yeah. Originally scheduled for July 1987 release, it was moved back four months by TriStar to avoid competition with Arnold Schwarzenegger's other summer film, Predator, which was released in June. Smart decision.

Starting point is 00:18:44 Because that's one of my favorite Arnold. Oh, it's one of my favorite sci-fi films ever, Predator. I love that movie. I love Pray. I saw it with you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Jesus.

Starting point is 00:18:57 We see so many movies. It's hard to, sometimes it can all mash us together. That movie was such a special experience for you. Oh, it was great. I was like, I actually, when we were down, we were like, damn, wish this movie was released in theaters. Oh, no, we didn't see it together. I saw Pray in theaters. Yeah, no, I saw it with you in theaters.

Starting point is 00:19:13 Yeah, so we didn't watch it together. here. That's why I couldn't place it. We saw it together in theaters. I was like, Jesus Christ, am I forgetting a whole shoot? We were doing the interviews. And that was so fun to have that vibe with the people that, like, the indigenous people that they base that thing around. Yeah. It was so cool to like see their excitement because I imagine that is an experience. They don't get it all. Like that was so special. Oh my God. That was incredible. I was thinking after the movie like, I'm so pissed. This movie is not going to be in theaters. Yeah, because we got that unique experience of being the only ones like, I think ever to see it in theaters.

Starting point is 00:19:43 Like us two of 400 That's seat in theaters Yeah It was an amazing experience It's I'll just do like two more Oh This is the one you called Schwarzenegger wears

Starting point is 00:19:54 A World's Jim sweatshirt in the scene After he escapes from the prison World's Jim was owned by Schwarzenegger at the time Yes He's like this movie's about capitalism Can I wear my merch? Gotta wear it That's so yeah

Starting point is 00:20:06 Gotta wear it's real Okay So this will be I'll do last two I promise Arnold Schwarzenegger thought Paul Michael Glazer, the director, was a terrible choice to direct with what Glazer best known for playing Detective Starsky and Starsky and Hutch coming from a TV background and having no experience as a feature film director at all, he thought Glazer shot this film like a TV show, losing all the script's deeper themes. Schwarzenegger suspected that because Glazer was a last-minute replacement, he didn't have time to research this future he was depicting, unlike James Cameron had with The Terminator. Also in television, they hire you, and the very next week, week, you shoot, so he didn't place all the blame at Glazer's feet.

Starting point is 00:20:46 Oof. I see how they hired a TV director for a movie that's set in a TV dystopia, but I don't disagree. There were some things that would have aesthetically done differently. Yeah, for sure. John McTiernan intentionally kept Jesse Ventura out of any close-up shots with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Predator because of Ventura's immense size, 6-5 and almost 300 pounds. The director didn't want Schwarzenegger to look small in comparison, which is evident during the fight scene in The Running Man.

Starting point is 00:21:13 When Ventura almost dwarfs Schwarzenegger. That's really funny. It's like how they shoot Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, and Mark Wahlberg creatively. But like in this case, it's a 6-2 guy looking small because Ventura's a beast. Yeah, no, and again,

Starting point is 00:21:25 I know I made a minor nitpick that I wish they would have fought, but I was glad that we at least got the deep fake of it, which was cool to say. And that was it good to mix it up because you don't want it to get redundant with all those different fights. For sure.

Starting point is 00:21:34 So it's good that like we'd been through like five. It's good. They had a little, you know, versatility. And I did like that they gave his character a little bit of a... More depth. Yeah, depth. also like hey he's got that respect level like this guy is kicking ass and like hey respect and like

Starting point is 00:21:47 the wrestling cage match at the end for him like it felt it felt right true in that very literal very true that was an experience again like I said a little while ago leave a comment below if you want us to check out any other Arnold stuff or like Stallone or like any of the stuff that's in this 80s vein I'm digging you know what I haven't seen cobra with so I've seen cobra I know that came on 86 I've never seen it and also we just saw rod deal on there if that's a movie you want there's a lot of mandam i'm missing oh there's a lot of and dam so like 80s stuff would be a fun little run to go on with us too because we definitely miss some of it so let us know in the comments below uh and please like this video if you like running man as we did we will see you very soon reject nation much

Starting point is 00:22:26 love like i think ethan chadwick dude man if we were in the running man games i would want you want our team oh sure that's for sure i feel like you got dexterity i feel like you got dexterity i feel like got strength, your cunning, your agility, cleverness, because they, they position you in ways to lose. Yeah, you got people with like, crazy weaponry and stuff. And all you got our, our Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie right here. Hey. And you got to use them and right here, your brain. We call that the Oppenheimer. Ain't no simple life up there. Ain't no simple life at all. So you got to buy yourself to go nuclear in there. And we feel like Ethan Chadwick is the right kind of individual to whoop some serious ass when we need it.

Starting point is 00:23:16 Brother, thank you so much for being a royal reject.

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The Reel Rejects - THE RUNNING MAN (1987) MOVIE REVIEW!! First Time Watching!!

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