I don't remember there being a wife in the first one. There was a time that action movies didn't need women to give a man agency. It was like a reverse Bechdel Test where men never mentioned women.
The original does have a wife and sick kid as motivation (and the reveal that they were murdered in a break-in after he left to go sign up is part of the impetus for the climactic scene).
Who wants to bet that in the movie, there’s a racial element to the killing?
Do you think they’ll go with the book’s ending, seeing as this is a post 9/11 world? Look at how people flipped their shit over Joker because of the Dark Knight Rises shooting.
I think they'll go for it, or if they don't, it won't be because of 9/11. Not to diminish the tragedy, but 24 years dulls the memory of any event. The Dark Knight Rises shooting was a lot closer to Joker, both temporally and in that the shooter was dressed as the Joker. Maybe if the Twin Towers had been a massive TV station, we'd see a change. As it is, I think we're past the window in which airplane kamikaze is off the table without a much stronger connection.
The Running Man film is to the book what Moonraker's film was to the book; essentially an entirely different piece of fiction, sharing only a name, characters, and basic plot points.
The only time you could have really filmed a Running Man based on the book is in the early 2000s when studios were big on expansive worlds (28 Days Later, Gangs of America) and longer running times.
Apparently this movie is going back to the original Stephen King story that he originally published under the pen name Richard Bachman. Been a looong time since I read anything by that asshole but IIRC there was a wife and sick kid
Yeah he was doing it for his family, but the novel wasn't that great.
It meanders a lot and doesn't really drive home the seriousness of his situation very well. The inner monologue should have been way more anxious and frantic, but it was all kind of pedestrian and lackadaisical given the circumstances.
The Arnold film portrayed everything as being much more fast-paced and frantic and immediately dangerous. This remake seems to take the concept from the novel but with a bit of the camp and over-the-top action from the Arnold flick.
That being said, the Lefty messaging just in the trailer is a pretty big turnoff right from the start.
I wonder if the movie will have the chutzpah to end the same way the book did. Without giving any spoilers, the book ending has two elements that I don’t think will play well in the US
If his wife and kid were White, then they would have gone the route of the book. But since they race-swapped them there is no way they will go the route of the book with the first element.
The second element? Probably. There will be an ultimatum and they will likely have Richards sacrifice himself to save his wife and daughter.
I don't remember there being a wife in the first one. There was a time that action movies didn't need women to give a man agency. It was like a reverse Bechdel Test where men never mentioned women.
The original does have a wife and sick kid as motivation (and the reveal that they were murdered in a break-in after he left to go sign up is part of the impetus for the climactic scene).
Who wants to bet that in the movie, there’s a racial element to the killing?
Do you think they’ll go with the book’s ending, seeing as this is a post 9/11 world? Look at how people flipped their shit over Joker because of the Dark Knight Rises shooting.
I think they'll go for it, or if they don't, it won't be because of 9/11. Not to diminish the tragedy, but 24 years dulls the memory of any event. The Dark Knight Rises shooting was a lot closer to Joker, both temporally and in that the shooter was dressed as the Joker. Maybe if the Twin Towers had been a massive TV station, we'd see a change. As it is, I think we're past the window in which airplane kamikaze is off the table without a much stronger connection.
Book is good if you haven’t read it. I liked it better than the movie
Agreed. Too bad no studio would ever have the balls to accurately adapt the ending.
The Running Man film is to the book what Moonraker's film was to the book; essentially an entirely different piece of fiction, sharing only a name, characters, and basic plot points.
The only time you could have really filmed a Running Man based on the book is in the early 2000s when studios were big on expansive worlds (28 Days Later, Gangs of America) and longer running times.
That is true. I read the book before seeing the movie and remembering it was a bad adaptation
Apparently this movie is going back to the original Stephen King story that he originally published under the pen name Richard Bachman. Been a looong time since I read anything by that asshole but IIRC there was a wife and sick kid
Yeah he was doing it for his family, but the novel wasn't that great.
It meanders a lot and doesn't really drive home the seriousness of his situation very well. The inner monologue should have been way more anxious and frantic, but it was all kind of pedestrian and lackadaisical given the circumstances.
The Arnold film portrayed everything as being much more fast-paced and frantic and immediately dangerous. This remake seems to take the concept from the novel but with a bit of the camp and over-the-top action from the Arnold flick.
That being said, the Lefty messaging just in the trailer is a pretty big turnoff right from the start.
I wonder if the movie will have the chutzpah to end the same way the book did. Without giving any spoilers, the book ending has two elements that I don’t think will play well in the US
If his wife and kid were White, then they would have gone the route of the book. But since they race-swapped them there is no way they will go the route of the book with the first element.
The second element? Probably. There will be an ultimatum and they will likely have Richards sacrifice himself to save his wife and daughter.