ok_chaos42 t1_ixyqvdn wrote on November 27, 2022 at 12:55 PM

I think it has more to do with people seeing the movie first, then reading the book. I love The Running Man, it was so good! And that opinion was never colored by seeing the film. Haven't seen it ever, and I read the book over a dozen years ago. Nor do I plan to see it. I love the Governator, don't get me wrong, and his early work is chef's kiss, but I'm not a fan of book adaptations. I will sit there and complain about everything they got wrong or left out and be unable to enjoy the movie. So I leave it alone, and keep loving Bachman's/King's work.

absynthefairy t1_ixysxa7 wrote on November 27, 2022 at 1:18 PM

I'd say you're missing out with the movie. It's so insanely detached from what's in the book you won't even care after the first few minutes, really. Even the rules of the Running Man game are fundamentally deformed to the point where you have to ask, why even bother with an "adaptation"? That being said, it really IS a classic early Arnie film, definitely one of the more entertaining ones. Less depressing dystopia with mothers giving cocaine to their dying toddlers so they wouldn't cry, more one-liners and 80s action heroes.

In addition, if you got a paperback edition in the 2000s in Hungary, which is what I ended up with, the front cover was clearly a close-up picture of Sylvester Stallone. I kind of appreciate that sort of subtle piss-taking.