Patrick's 20 Favorite Action Movies

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09. The Running Man (1987)

Another story involving people hunting people, the Running Man is based on a Stephen King novella and takes place in a dystopian future where popular TV game show makes convict contestants run a gauntlet where they will be pursued by the show’s Stalkers. If they survive, they will allegedly go free. If they don’t then…well they are dead. Arnold Schwarzenneger stars as Ben Richards a wrongfully accused (of course) convict who must try to survive until the end and put an end to the show itself. The movie is fairly cheesy and over the top but the action is great 80’s cheese and the Stalkers like Subzero, Captain Freedom and Buzzsaw are super fun to watch. Opera singing Dynamo might be my favorite for his sheer over the top spectacle. Arnold does what he does best as far as kicking ass and yelling unintelligibly and Richard Dawson lends gameshow cred as Running Man host Damon Killian. There is social commentary at work here too but it isn’t too ham fisted or overbearing and the whole thing is just a lot of fun.

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6 Comments


  1. The Professional? I effing HATED that movie SO MUCH!!!! UGH. You know when you think a movie is just so bad that it makes you angry that you watched it? That is how I feel about The Professional.

    I just don’t DIG movies like that as a general rule.


    1. Given that you never saw the Matrix because it ‘didn’t look even remotely good’ I think it is safe to say this whole list is probably not material you would dig.


    1. GJ: As I said above: I tried to keep it to movies that didn’t stray too far into other their own sub-genre where I could, for instance I avoided primarily martial arts movies as they deserve their own list.

      Ninja Assassin definitely goes on the martial arts list which currently doesn’t exist.


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