The Running Man (1987)

The Running Man (1987)
I'm a big Arnold Schwarzenegger fan so it was only a matter of time before I watched The Running Man. Somehow I still need to see Conan the Barbarian, but after that I should be caught up on all the major Arnie movies.
Stephen King wrote the novel this movie is loosely based on under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. The Running Man takes place in a dystopian future where convicted criminals are put on a game show and forced to fight for their lives. Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a policeman framed for a massacre he didn't commit. Richards is put on the show as punishment and tries to survive and clear his name.
The Running Man shares some similar themes to Videodrome and They Live, such as the effect of TV and the media on the masses, but is lighter in tone than those two movies. The Running Man is hilarious at times, but still tells a good story with something to think about. The satire continues to be relevant today, perhaps even more so than in 1987, thanks to the popularity of reality TV and the internet.
Arnold is fun as always bringing a bunch of great one liners (like "you're the asshole from TV!") to the table as usual. However, it is Richard Dawson as The Running Man's host, Killian, who steals the show. Dawson hosted many game shows such as Match Game and Family Feud in real life and does a great job parodying himself as a sleazy and egotistical host. Jesse Ventura (as Captain Freedom!), Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown, and Maria Conchita Alonso also put in memorable performances.

Besides the humor and satire, another strong point of the film are the creative action scenes. As part of the game show, contestants are hunted in different game zones by "stalkers" with gimmicks such as Buzzsaw and his chainsaw, Fireball and his flamethrower, and Dynamo who has a suit that can arc electricity.
The Running Man was directed by Paul Michael Glaser. This is his most well known film but he is also infamous for being the director of Kazaam! That movie effectively killed Glaser's career though he has done some TV work since. Although Glaser was not the first choice to direct, I think his background in TV helped the film given its subject matter.
The music is dated and the dance scenes featuring choreography from Paula Abdul go on too long. While I understand that the cheesy music and scantily clad women dancing for no reason in the TV show are part of the parody, it still could have been limited since it felt like overkill at times.
The Running Man is not on the quite on the same level as other Sci-Fi action movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger such as the Terminator movies or Total Recall, but The Running Man is still a fun ride and a must watch for fans of Arnie.
8/10

Moneyball (2011)

Moneyball (2011)
I'm a huge baseball fan so I had read the non-fiction book Moneyball a few years before I watching the movie. I was also already familiar with the events before reading the book and am very knowledgeable about the sport. I heard about a film adaptation after I finished the book and wondered how it would be done. While I loved the book and think it's a great story, it didn't seem to lend itself to film like other real life events. Although I liked the movie version, I still feel that the best way to tell this story would be as a documentary. That said, Moneyball is a nice attempt that manages to be as good a movie as possible with the source material.
Director Bennet Miller does a solid job given the high degree of difficulty here. This is Miller's third film having previously directed the documentary The Cruise as well as Capote. As you can see, Miller is no stranger to making movies based on true events and was therefore a good choice to direct. Steven Soderbergh was originally supposed to direct Moneyball but left the project after creative disagreements. Soderbergh wanted to make the film more like a docudrama and feature interviews with the actual players. I think I would've preferred his version though I still liked the movie we ended up with.

Moneyball chronicles the 2002 Oakland A's as they try to win the World Series despite competing with 29 other teams who have more money than they do to acquire good players. The A's general manager, Billy Beane, uses sabermetrics (analysis of baseball statistics) to find players who are undervalued by other teams but will help the A's win ball games.
As a baseball fan I was able to jump right in with the terms, statistics, and even names of players. I saw the film with my Dad who liked it, though admitted that there was stuff which went over his head. For example, the movie frequently throws around the phrase "five tool player," which is even used to describe the playing career of Billy Beane, without ever explaining what those five tools are. Therefore it seems that Moneyball was made more for baseball fans than the masses.
Unlike a lot of sports movies, Moneyball focuses on the off the field business side of the sport which is a nice change of pace for the genre. Not a lot of baseball action is shown, and most of the games we see are real footage of the 2002 A's.
The acting is very good all around. Brad Pitt and the now late Phillip Seymour Hoffman put in stand out performances. This is only the second movie of his I've seen with Phillip Seymour Hoffman so I'll need to check out more of his films. Jonah Hill is fine but I don't think his performance was worthy of an Oscar nomination (which was one of this movie's six nominations despite not winning any awards).

Some of the facts are changed or conflated but this seems to have been done mostly to shape a narrative out of a series of events that didn't really have one. For example, Art Howe is portrayed as a villainous figure which wasn't the case even though he didn't always get along with Billy Beane. Jonah Hill's character is a composite based on A's assistant General manager Paul DePodesta as well as other scouts and advisers on the A's. Hardcore baseball fans will notice other inaccuracies but this almost always comes with the territory of Hollywood adapting true events into movies. These changes do make sense from a storytelling perspective as they were a way to raise the stakes and add more tension.
I understand why Moneyball didn't discuss how the A's chose players to draft since the movie is only about the 2002 Oakland A's and not Billy Beane's entire tenure as their general manager. However, I still feel that this could've been included briefly as it would've paralleled nicely with Beane's story of being a top draft pick for the New York Mets in the 80s.
Moneyball has slow pacing. The movie didn't need to be over two hours long and several individual scenes could've easily been cut down or out. The editing is fine as I liked how the story scenes were inter-cut with the real footage to give the movie a the feel of docudrama at times. However, Beane's backstory should've been told straight through at the beginning since flashing back to it several times didn't add anything to the story for me.

The book shows that while the use of sabermetrics by Beane and the A's was successful, the system wasn't perfect. Both the movie and book place an emphasis on how moneyball doesn't work in small sample sizes. However, the movie doesn't get much into the fact the playoffs themselves are a small sample size. The book discusses players the A's selected in the draft only for their statistics who ended up failing in ways that regular scouting would've foreseen such as an overweight catcher who can't run and a pitcher who had an arm deformity which ultimately ended his career in the minor leagues. Moneyball implies that sabermetrics alone work while the book doesn't completely discount the old way of scouting and suggests it should be part of the moneyball process. I feel that the film would've benefited by showing that Beane and sabermetrics aren't always right.
I think most baseball fans will enjoy this movie but your mileage may vary if you are a novice to the sport. Still, even as a hardcore baseball fan there are more fun (Major League) and better (The Natural, Field of Dreams) baseball movies out there.
Fun Fact: Spike Jonze has an uncredited cameo!
7/10

Arthur (1981)

Arthur (1981)
Looking over my recent posts I realized that this is the first comedy (not counting Manborg) film I've talked about in 2014. Arthur is slow paced for a comedy and features a lot of dry humor. The story is pretty basic but told well with good acting to support the solid writing. The jokes are great but the writing is more than just funny with well-developed characters and good setups and payoffs.
Dudley Moore plays Arthur, a rich drunk who will only inherit his family's fortune if he marries Susan, the daughter of a wealthy businessman. However, Arthur instead falls in love with a working-class woman named Linda (Liza Minnelli). The relationship between Arthur and his butler Hobson (John Gielgud) is surprisingly touching for a comedy. Hobson is much closer to Arthur and a better father figure for him that Arthur's actual father. Hobson is the typical British butler, but truly cares about Arthur like a son (think Jeeves from the stories of P.G. Wodehouse or Alfred from Batman) thanks to Gielgud's top notch performance and wonderful chemistry with Dudley Moore.
It's impossible for me to pick a favorite scene or line as I found the movie hilarious as a whole. One scene in particular that I loved involved a moose!
The Academy Awards tend not to recognize comedies but Arthur proved to be an exception. Gielgud won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and the theme song by Christopher Cross won Best Original Song. Dudley Moore was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Steve Gordon received a nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Sadly, Arthur is the only film directed by Steve Gordon (who also was the writer) as he died the year after it was released.
8/10

Fallen (1998)

Fallen (1998)
Fallen is an creepy thriller that features good acting, great writing, and nice cinematography. Denzel Washington plays John Hobbes, a detective who recently captured a serial killer named Edgar Reese. Edgar Reese is put to death for his crimes, but the murders continue in Reese's style. Is there a copycat killer on the loose or is something supernatural at play?
Fallen has a tightly written script, which is especially impressive for a work of speculative fiction. Writer Nicholas Kazan is the son of director Elia Kazan so it looks like the film making gene was passed down. Nicholas Kazan was nominated for an Oscar for Best Screenplay based on material from another medium for Reversal of Fortune. The story of Fallen has good twists and turns which kept things fresh. We have high stakes and insurmountable odds combined with well-written characters to make us care about what is happening. The theme of "evil among us" has been done since the beginning of human history, but the inclusion of the Azazael demon and use of scapegoats put a different spin on it.

Director Gregory Hoblit has made one movie I have seen before, Frequency. I remember liking that film but I saw it so long ago that I don't remember much about it. The directing in Fallen is very good with one of my favorite scenes being a creative "whisper down the lane" chase scene which features fantastic choreography.  The "demon vision" is a unique look that I haven't quite seen before. The Rolling Stones cover of the song "Time Is on My Side" is used multiple times in the movie in an interesting and effective way.
John Goodman is hilarious as Hobbes' fellow detective, Jonesy. Donald Sutherland, Embeth Davidtz, and James Gandolfini also put in solid supporting performances.
I found Fallen to be underrated since it's a movie most people haven't heard of despite being a major Hollywood film with plenty of recognizable actors. If you haven't seen it, check it out sometime.
Fun Facts: Fallen is one of the few movies to feature the Assyrian Neo-Aramaic language.
Fallen was filmed in part at Philadelphia and showcases locations such as 30th Street Station and Pat's King of Steaks.
8/10

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)
I never really watched Power Rangers as a kid but remember it being a big thing at the time. I saw this movie about a year ago and can't remember much so I'm going to keep this post short. I didn't bother to take copious notes on this one! Despite Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie being forgettable and stupid, it's still kinda fun as a bad movie to watch with a bunch of friends.
The production values felt more like a TV movie or direct to video than a theatrical release, which is not surprising considered it's based on a low budget TV show. This was probably done on purpose to turn a quick profit as the property was hugely popular with kids who would go see it no matter what. The tactic worked as MMPR:TM grossed over $66 million worldwide on a $15 million budget. Another reason why this movie has more of a TV look and feel is because director Bryan Spicer has mostly directed TV shows. MMPR:TM was Spicer's first theatrical film. He also directed McHale's Navy and For Richer or Poorer in the mid-90s before returning to TV where he is still active today with shows such as Hawaii Five-0.
The story about the production of MMPR:TM is more interesting than the movie itself! Read all about it here.
3/10

Real Steel (2011)

Real Steel (2011)
As promised in my Flight write-up last week when talking about John Gatins, here is my review of Real Steel. Writer John Gatins followed up Real Steel with Flight, and his next movie will be Need for Speed which comes out next month. Director Shawn Levy got his start in TV and now mostly makes typical Hollywood fare like Night at the Museum, Date Night, and The Internship.
Although Real Steel is billed as being an adaptation of the Richard Matheson short story "Steel," I doubt it has much in common with it. I've never read the original story but I've seen the Twilight Zone version which is also titled Steel. The only similarity between the two is that they feature robots and boxing.
I didn't expect much coming into Real Steel, but was pleasantly surprised with a solid family film. Real Steel takes place in the near future where boxers have been replaced with robots. Former boxer Charlie (played by Hugh Jackman who puts in a nice performance) now uses robots to fight for him but has had bad luck and is now in a lot of debt. Charlie discovers that he has an 11 year old son and the two bond while working together on turning a robot found in the scrap heap into a champion.
Real Steel clocks in at 127 minutes which is too long for this type of movie. Several scenes went on too long and could've easily been trimmed. I've had this complaint about a decent amount of recent movies. I don't have a problem with long Hollywood blockbusters if they deserve their running time, but most movies that have followed this trend (such as Real Steel) usually do not.
Real Steel is basically Rocky with robots but at least this movie has heart and emotion, unlike the live action Transformers movies. Although Real Steel is predictable, it's still well executed for what it is (an action family movie for all ages) and the cinematography is better than expected. The visual effects are quite good and received an Oscar nomination before losing out to Hugo.
6/10

Manborg (2011)

Manborg (2011)
I don't think you are prepared for the plot of Manborg, but I'm going to throw it at you anyway. During the Hell Wars between humans and Nazi Vampires, a human solider is killed in combat by the vampire leader, Count Draculon. The soldier's body is given robotics and he returns to life as Manborg, who vows to get his revenge by defeating Count Draculon with help from the resistance. His comrades are Mina who looks like she fell in a vat of New Wave, her brother who is a gunslinger and Billy Idol look-alike, and a martial arts fighter called "Number One Man" voiced by anime voice actor Kyle Hebert.
Manborg is a pastiche, parody, and homage to 1980s action and science fiction movies. Of course there are references to The Terminator, Robocop, and Blade Runner, but Manborg is more focused on emulating the style of 80s B sci-fi flicks such as Eliminators, Robot Holocaust, Future War, The Dungeonmaster aka Ragewar, etc. As somebody who has seen those movies and had fun with them (thanks in part to MST3K!) I completely understood what they were doing. The tongue is planted firmly in cheek here and great efforts were made to capture the look and feel of these movies.
I love the above poster for Manborg. It looks like a VHS cover you would see on the shelf of a video store in the 1980s or a comic book cover circa 1990!

Manborg uses green screen to create a unique look in a way that I haven't really seen before, which is sometimes combined with stop motion animation. The art direction is inspired by 1980s neon and pastels, cyberpunk imagery, and video games. Manborg was made on a $1,000 Canadian budget and while the movie looks low budget, that number surprised me as it doesn't look THAT cheap.
If you have seen movies like Cyborg, Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe or any of the ones I mentioned earlier, you'll have fun with Manborg as a loving parody of low budget 80s sci-fi movies. Otherwise you probably won't get it. I can easily see people who have never heard of movies like Robo Vampire mistaking Manborg as an honest to goodness terrible Z grade sci-fi flick. Although I enjoyed Manborg for what it was, I couldn't help but think it would've worked better as a fake trailer, short film, or internet mini-series in the vein of "Ninja the Mission Force." Manborg is only 75 minutes long but still overstays its welcome as this sort of thing generally works better in short bursts.
I had never heard of Astron-6, the Canadian production company behind Manborg, but looked them up after I watched this movie. Astron-6 has a bunch of cool 70s and 80s homage stuff on their website, most of which is shorter than Manborg. Check them out if you are into that type of thing. They nail the clothing style and film look of the 70s and 80s. If you do watch Manborg, be sure to stick around for the fake Bio-Cop trailer shown after the movie!
5/10