November 21, 2025 • 34 mins
We sprint headfirst into The Running Man to see if it goes the distance in IMAX and outruns the ’87 classic.
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#Movies #Marketing #Podcast #2025 #SpeakingHuman #Opinions #Reviews #BestOfList #RUNNINGMAN #Arnold #StevenKing #EdgarWright #Hollywood #Cinema #Film #IMAX
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SHOW NOTES
Get visuals, links and show notes from this episode at speakinghuman.com or at MOMApodcast.com.
#Movies #Marketing #Podcast #2025 #SpeakingHuman #Opinions #Reviews #BestOfList #RUNNINGMAN #Arnold #StevenKing #EdgarWright #Hollywood #Cinema #Film #IMAX
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/moma-movies-marketing--3296937/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
In a world where movies rely on marketing more than
ever to connect with audiences, one podcast aims to make
sense of it all. This is movies and marketing. Next
Saturday Night, where're sending you back to the future. Go ahead,
make my day, Corbut.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Now you're crazy Dutch bastard. What we've got here is
failure your mill gate take them around? Where's cross all
of how for we might as well? Good time. I
am an a f I agent. All right, we're ready,
(00:45):
ready to get running.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
I gotta catch my breath. I just got done. I'm
a running man. I don't know if you know that.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, yeah, I heard about that. So you're always getting chased.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, not for good reasons, not for your family. Yeah,
mostly my family's chasing me. And I'm like no, and
I'm running away. I gotta get to the podcast. I'm like, don't,
don't do it, don't podcast. I'm like, i gotta go.
But that's the way it goes. You know, one day
you're an upstanding citizen, the next you are on a
(01:18):
deadly game show.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, that's the course we're following right now. So we're
talking exclusively about the running man today.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
There's still a way out for you. It's the biggest
show in the country.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
It's our birth right right, Welcome to The running Man,
new release in theaters. We're gonna cover it from a
few different angles. But before we get there, of course,
we're gonna ease into things a little trivia. Get your
(01:58):
brain ready for this.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Patrick, Well, the last cast, I think I did really,
really well. This one. We'll see. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I think you're gonna do alright. I think you're gonna
do all right. I say that, you know, setting you up,
no pressure, but I think I think you'll do all
right on these ones obviously related to The Running Man,
which has you know, a lot of different tendrils connected
to it.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
M hmm.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
This new running Man so one of those, of course.
Stephen King originally published The Running Man under the pseudo
name Richard Bachman in nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
You know this, Yeah, but do you know what other
book that.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
King published under the Bachman name was also made into
a movie in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Oh, I think you know this? Uh? Do I give
multiple choice on this or no?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I don't think you need it. I can give you
a hint though, if you need that.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I do need a hint because it's that type of
day for me.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Okay, like The Running Man, you know, movement, this title
also involved his movement, so it's a movie we also
just just had out recently.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Oh Jesus, dude, I don't know. I don't know why
I can't think of this. I don't even know if
I have like an inkling of what this is. So
you think you've got running, yeah, swimming man.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Maybe if you're maybe, if you're maybe if you're not
moving as fast as running.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Oh oh yeah, that's right. Okay, yeah, I do know this. Okay,
this is the one that had Mark Hamill in it,
The Long Walk. The Long Walk, Yeah, because this is
one that I did want to see and I forgot.
Yeah that's right. But you know what's funny is I
couldn't think of that because I was thinking about the
Richard Bachman and I'm thinking to myself, like Richard Bachman,
(03:45):
I don't remember, but of obviously Stephen King, so yeah,
King is Bachman.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Bachman is King.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
The Long Walk another a nineteen seventy nine Bachman you
know book, a dystopian novel about a walking contest.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, with like the interesting factoid of that Richard Bachman,
you know pen name that he used was that, you know,
authors had this, They had like a one book a year.
They couldn't write beyond that or whatever. I don't I
don't really understand that world. But that's why he created
things under Richard Bachman. So the original Running Man movie
(04:22):
had based on the story by Richard Bachman. I was like, wait,
this is Stephen King, and I in my brain I
didn't connect those two things, and then ended up looking
it up and I was like, oh, okay, now I understand.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
King is Bachman is King. It was like a Shamalan moment.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, it was like the usual suspects like Kaiser SoSE
and my cup out of my hand dropped and I
was like, yeah, it.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
All makes sense. Now. Well, here's another trivia question for you.
So you mentioned the previous Running Man. That movie version
was released in nineteen eighty seven, and start, of course,
our guy Arnold Schwarzenegg. What other Arnold Schwarzenegger classic was
also released that same year, nineteen eighty seven. Oh, I
(05:11):
can give you a hint on this one too, if
you need it.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So I'm trying to think of that timeline like Commando Predator.
I don't think it was Predator. Give me a hint
so i'd know, like which one I'm thinking about.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Okay, the hint is this ip is also still alive.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
And well this year brought Predator. Yeah, yeah, it's Predator.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yep, that's the one. Predator was released in June eighty seven.
Running Man released in November eighty seven. Good year for Arnold.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
He was on fire.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, this was you know, within his peak, probably as
he's like building up.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, you know. And it's kind of funny because as
we talk about this movie today, the Running Man, the
difference is in the plot from the original eighty seven
and this movie in twenty twenty five. They're pretty substantial
plot changes. Oh yeah, which I've never read the book.
I'll preface that now. I think have you ever read it?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
No, I've never read.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah. So for the listeners out there, you know this
is movies in marketing, So let me give you a
little little rundown of the movie itself. Okay, the Running Man.
I wanted to do a little bit of a comparison
because I think there are going to be people who
are listening to the cast who know us and know
our love for that time period of The Arnold the original,
(06:35):
and I thought it'd be good to kind of compare
the two things so you can see the differences. So
the original summary is, in a future dystopian America, a
wrongfully accused and convicted policeman gets his shot at freedom
when he's forced to participate in a game TV show
where convicts called runners must battle killers for their freedom.
Pretty simple. IMDb's is pretty simple summary. There's a little
(06:57):
bit more to that. But the new one is a
man joins a game show in which contestants allowed to
go anywhere in the world are pursued by hunters hired
to kill them. That in and of itself should explain
sort of the difference between him one is he's sort
of forced into it. He feels forced in this movie
because of his predicament and like in the in the
(07:18):
new one, yeah, but in the old one, he was
literally forced into the game show. He's a prisoner, yeah,
and that was his way out, and then you know,
things sort of unfold from there. Still kind of some
of the same premise of like the hunters, the killers
that are after him, they're you know, like part of
the game show. And he's also allowed in this new
movie to go anywhere, disguise himself, all that stuff. It's
(07:41):
a little less like a prison sentence as it is,
depending on your your outlook on things. You know, this
has a very societal, uh social commentary, you know of
like economic class and conspiracy, you know, social media manipulation.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
You know, corporation controlling everything.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Mm hmmm. Yeah, So it's got a lot of that
going like thematically through it. And you know, the class
inequality would be the big one, right, Like that is
a huge part. And I'm sure that that's why it's
closer to the original. I could see King writing this
more like this movie than the original. The original movie,
I feel like they were like, we just took the
(08:23):
concept and then applied it to Arnold, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, pretty from what I've heard, pretty loose how the
first movie even used it. It's almost like we just
took this kind of idea of the running man mm
hm and kind of like change that totally around. Whereas
this one is more the actual story is more present,
you know, King's story is more there. His original story,
which I heard Edgar Wright talking about it too, and
(08:48):
he said the novel was originally published in eighty two,
but King wrote it in like the seventies, like the
early seventies, right, So that's kind of where you get
a lot of the maybe some of the social you know,
commentaryan vibe where that initially came from.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Speaking of you know, you mentioned Edgar Wright, who directed
and also wrote some of the screenplay for this. Edgar Wright,
the movie buffs out there, you know, Shanna the Dead,
the World's End, Baby Driver, which we love, We've talked
about on this show, Scott Pilgrim Versus the World. So
he's got some you know, some cred there, you know,
depending on what kind of movie you like to watch.
(09:24):
Obviously I've seen a lot of them on his list.
And then you know, you've got Glenn Powell, who is
in this movie. Seems to be the hot thing as
of the like last three to five years, probably has
been tons of stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, a rare name actor we have nowadays, like people
actually like know who he is.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Mm hmm. One other actor. I'll just kind of pull
out of this slightly spoil alert Lee Pace. A lot
of people don't know this guy's name, which he's been
in stuff. Okay, this guy has been in a foundation
which is an Apple show. He's been in cap in Marvel,
so he was Ronan in the Marvel movies if you
(10:05):
remember the Blue Guy who is like, you know, bad guy.
He was also in Halton catch Fire, which is a
great show. Like I think it's twenty fourteen to twenty seventeen.
I don't know who his agent is, but he's getting
a ton of stuff right now, and I think you're
gonna see him more and more. And I think he's
got a really cool name, v Pace. It's kind of
(10:26):
like Lee Majors.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
He's one of those actors who has bounced around and
popped up in things and like you know his face
or you've seen him in something. He's also in a
show called Pushing Daisies that was on like a long
time ago. That was like one of those shows that
people would be like kind of buzzing about but nobody
actually watched. But it was kind of like quirky and
like Tim Burton esque and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
So anyway, off topic, but some good actors in here.
Movie had a budget of one hundred and ten million estimated,
So right now we saw it opening night were in
the same weekend. I will I'll tell you. Doesn't look
like it's going to make the money back at this point,
but we don't know. I mean, it's still first weekend.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, could have legs it's not. Doesn't seem to be
blowing the doors off. Looking like an opening weekend around
like fifteen million, which is a little lower than they
were hoping for, something around twenty mm hmm. We saw
it in Imax opening nights. It was like first show
wasn't exactly a full house, no, but you know, we
(11:28):
were excited. There were some other people who were excited
for it too.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So there's a lot of like game show esque mechanics
to the movie. They're on a game show, the ideas
that they have to he has to survive thirty days.
I'm not giving anything away. By the way, we said
no spoilers. We were not giving any spoilers on this
show today. So all stuff that has been in the
trailer too, so you're not hearing anything that is out
(11:53):
there that's going to ruin the movie for you.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, that's just kind of the general setup. Hmm. So
let's talk a little bit about the movie itself. You know, again,
we're not going to give anything away if you haven't
seen it yet, but just kind of talk about how
we felt about a key question. I think the first one,
did this movie live up to your expectations? I guess
what were your expectations? And did the movie live up
(12:17):
to it?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
My expectations were pretty high. I think I had a,
you know, a fondness for this movie as a as
a young person Arnold, like what are they going to
do with this? That kind of expectation. Did it live up?
I mean it was good, it wasn't great. I will
say that, what did you think?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
I'm right with you there. I do think part of
it is my I went in with like really probably
unreasonably high expectations.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah, with some good reasons.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Like I think the Running Man was actually one of
the rare things. It's probably pretty ripe for a Remaker reboot.
I thought this was like a good thing to bring
back the Edgar Right of it, you know, the Glenn
pal of it. I thought these were like people I
like that. I'm like, oh, this is a good combination here,
it's a good mix. So I probably like raised the
bar higher than the bar should have been raised. So
(13:11):
didn't quite match my sky high expectations. I will say
I really enjoyed watching the movie. It's kind of like
afterwards when you start scratching at it a little bit
where I was like, but for the most part, when
I was watching the movie, I was like having a
good time.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Yeah, it's a good watch, Like it was good. And
then you go back and you're kind of like, using
your words, scratching at it a little bit. You're like, uh,
you know, I kind of wanted a little bit more.
Is there anything the movie could have done that it
would have given me that satisfaction? Probably not, you know.
I think that's where like your expectation sometimes is unrealistic,
especially when it's rooted in nostalgia. You can't live up
(13:51):
to it. And so I don't fault the movie for that,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, I felt the movie a little bit.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Just I'll say, you know, say some like good things first,
like you're gonna sandwich it. You're gonna sandwich it is?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, Yeah, I want to like I don't want to
be like turn it into like a negative thing, but
there's some things I have to like throw out. I
will say, watching it now, you probably have this experience too.
It's a lot funnier than I was expecting. Yeah, I mean,
at least like the first half of it, it's a
borderline like almost comedy to some extent.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, to some extent. Yeah, it whips you around a
little bit in terms of it's too close to home
in some places, and you're like, hhm, and that's kind
of funny, you know, because you're like, okay, that, yeah,
that's actually funny because this is supposed to be the
dystopian future. Yet there are elements from today that are
very accurate, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah. I would even argue the social commentary when they
were being funny was probably better than when they were
trying to like be on the nose about it, you know.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
The other thing I'll say is there's some good fun
action sequences in here. You know, without getting specific, there's
a few of them that were in here that I
thought were pretty good, creative and.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
You know, just kind of like a fun time all
right now, the bad you gave me, the fluff Yeah,
the fluffiness, the happy.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
The sane witch. You know, why did the final product
not match what was in my head? You know, I
kind of mentioned this after we got out of the movie.
I think it starts right off the bat with Pal.
I think he was either miscast or they wrote the
character wrong. Maybe maybe both things. It just never it
didn't line up for me. I never like bought it.
(15:29):
They try to make him like this angry guy who's like,
you know, super protective of his family. I was like, no,
just didn't really fit with me. I'm like, this would
have probably been better if they just made him like
a cocky, down on his luck guy who's like, I'm
gonna go on a TV show and conquer this. But
I just I could not get there with the actor
and the character, with what they were trying to do.
(15:50):
I was almost like, should we be following one of
these other Running Man contestants?
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, I will agree with you, And I think I've
broken it down to this. You almost have this conflict
because he seems like way over the top angry and
it doesn't really jive with everything else that's going on,
because you're kind of like, oh, that's supposed to be funny,
but he's playing it kind of serious. I feel like
it could have been maybe the casting, you know, like
a different person my bill pull that off a little differently,
(16:17):
or to your point, they could have wrote that a
little differently. To be a little less angry, you know,
or giving us some backstory something, Yeah, had to happen
there to make that a little more believable. That was
the part that was a struggle for me too, So
I get what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, Well, for me, it was like they say he's angry,
but he didn't seem all that angry for most of
the movie. So I'm like, either go all in on
the anger because he's not. I don't think of that
actor as like an angry guy. That's where I'm like,
go all in on the anger and like put somebody
else in there who seems really angry, or like throw
that out of there.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah. I think you said this after we left the
movie that you felt like they abandoned that at some
point in the movie.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I felt like, after like twenty minutes, they're kind of like, well.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
He's like, Glenn, don't be so angry in this scene,
and he's like, but you wanted me to be angry.
Now we're done with the anger part, which that was
in the beginning.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Now you're having you're running, man, you're having a good time.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, you're running. You're on a show that releases all
that anger. So you don't need to be angry anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
So, yeah, that was one thing. You know. Then they
do a lot of like kind of like satire of
TV and stuff in there, and I thought a lot
of that stuff felt a little like behind the times,
like that stuff. I thought they should have updated a
little bit for now.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Can you give an example, Well, it's.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Like everybody's watching like TV and game shows, and that
felt very much like attached to the time this was created.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
And they even have like a and then this not
really a spoiler, they have like a keeping up with
the Kardashians satire that they keep showing that people are
like watching on TV. And I'm like, man, this feels
like ten years ago that were like kind of making
fun of this thing. We're like over that now.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
There's a lot of that. I mean, if you're just
talking about tech the contestants send in tapes.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, And I know it's supposed to be like a
weird future that's technology is different.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
But in that I do get what you're saying. There's
like a little bit of that. And then I guess
that's where you kind of disassociate where we're at now.
I guess it's more of like, oh, remember when it
feels a little less like the future, so it doesn't
hit as hard.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah. And then the probably the biggest thing was, you know,
I came into this and I was like looking for
an Edgar Wright movie, and there's there's pieces of that,
but it doesn't have that feel like you know, like
Baby Driver felt like this guy's putting his stamp on.
Sean of the Dead felt the same way. You know,
you get like the music and some of the cuts
and like there's like a style to it. Yeah, you
(18:38):
got that in like pieces, but it just didn't have
that overall like feel to it. The third act of
the movie, the end of the movie kind of like
falls off a little bit. I feel like it was
almost like lost. His touch was like almost gone.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Well, you know, like I think about it and I go, oh,
it makes sense because like this seems like a huge
budget film, one hundred ten million. There's a lot of
powers that be that are probably like expectations people had,
and he was sort of like trying to curry favor.
That's probably what happened there, because you see those little
(19:12):
bits of it, they're like, we want you to do
your thing. And then he's doing his thing, They're like, well,
but can you do it more like this? Which is
the opposite of what you just asked, right, which.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
I get he was trying to make something, you know,
more for the masses, But sometimes when you do that,
you take away, you know, what makes it unique. You're
kind of like signature thing, which was something I was
like looking forward to. So that was just something that
deflated my expectations a little bit. Those were just a
few of the things that when I like thought about it,
I'm like, why wasn't this what I was hoping it
would be?
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Completely? Yeah, So what was your favorite part of the movie.
You talked about the you know, like you sandwiched the
good and the bad, but what was your favorite part?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Personally, my favorite part, without giving too much away, there's
kind of like an action scene that takes place in
a house after Michael Sarah shows up, Oh yeah, which
I thought was pretty both funny and creative and interesting.
So that was probably my favorite part of the movie.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Sarahve Sarahve, you know what about you? Two things I
think really made this fun for me. And I don't
know what the marketer side of me is. The product
high ins hmm right, there's a lot of product high
ends and they're very blatant. And then the Michael Sarah
part and his hot dog obsession. And I'm not giving
(20:30):
anything away. You won't have any idea. It's like just
I don't know what it is. It hits, it's funny,
it's funny tofbeat, it's hilarious. Yeah, it makes no sense.
But also you know, okay, so between those two things,
the product high ends too. Let me just say, and
I'm only counting a handful that I could remember. You
got Puma, you got Monster Energy Drink, you got car Heart,
(20:52):
and then Liquid Death, some big, very obvious product hie ins.
So from a marketing standpoint, you know, it's kind of
like we talked about in the days with like E.
T and all those movies where they were just like
kind of pumping the products. This is one of those,
and it made sense for the movie. That's what's funny,
is like this movie is all about you know, hyper capitalism,
(21:12):
commercialism of everything. You know, So it made a lot
of sense. But funny too when you see it because
the product tie ins were like all things that you've
seen today. Puma, though crazy to start seeing them kind
of make their way. You think it'd be like an
Adidas or a Nike or something, but they, you know,
they use a brand that has not seen a lot
of love as of you know, like the last twenty years.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, those brands, they really pop out. They really get
a spotlight, uh, especially some of them. So that's a
good one and intentionally so I think there's also in
generally the movie has some good kind of easter eggs
m M. You know, there's a good callback in the
beginning to the original Running Man that got a good chuckle.
So there's stuff like that that I bet if I
watch it again you'd find even more.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Which brings me to the connect question would you see
it again? Will you see it again?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
I'm you might see it again. You know, this is
something it's like would you recommend it? I was my
family was asking me this.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
I'm like, I would.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
It's a fun time at the movies. It's a good
movie to watch, So I'd probably watch it like one
more time and I'd probably recommend it as like, like
you said, good, not great. I'd like temper people's expectations.
I think you'd enjoy it more that way. You know,
if you're not looking for an egg or right classic,
but just kind of a popcorn movie. Yeah, I think
it's a good time at the movies.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, I agree with you. The main word that I
use there might I might see it again. I wouldn't
go see it again in the movie theater. I definitely
wouldn't pay, you know, like twenty bucks for an Imax movie.
But yeah, you know, I think if you go into
it with the expectations of it's just a good movie.
I think there's some pleasant, you know, thrills in it,
and to your point, you might catch things the next
(22:46):
time around that you go, oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
You know, in the old days, you might call this
like a cable movie, when we would when you just
stumble across something and end up watching some of it
and be like, it's growing on me a little more,
you know what I mean. It might be that kind
of movie. Yeah, But let's talk a little bit about
the imax of it. So we saw this in imax.
Imax right now making a lot of money for movies.
(23:11):
So while domestic box office declined eleven percent in the
third quarter of twenty twenty five, Imax box office grew
significantly over the same period, up twenty nine percent in
the domestic market and fifty percent globally. This is a
draw for people to go to the movies right now.
People might not be just going to movies, but they're
(23:32):
going to movies in Imax. All that being said, we
talked about The Running Man as a movie itself. What
did you think about The Running Man in Imax?
Speaker 1 (23:42):
I was let down. I was let down. Okay, yeah, yeah.
I feel like maybe it was the theater, it says
Edgar Wright's first movie in Imax. Maybe the theater we
saw it in wasn't as good. I feel like that
if you're gonna give us an IMAX movie, give us
like the true experience. Maybe the theaters are doing this
a little bit, like they're writing the coattails of the
success of IMAX right now, and they're like saying it's
(24:04):
an Imax movie or an Imax experience, and then they're
not truly delivering because, like you and I were talking
about this, it seemed like it was proportionally shorter height
and I don't know, and I don't know what was
going on there with that theater specifically, but it was
a bit of a letdown for something you're spending a
decent chunk of money on they need to up their
game a little bit.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
To be clear, this this is a movie that was
not made for Imax, right, but it's like converted, you know, optimize.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
For Imax, right, So so that might have been played
a part.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah, that's probably part of the reason it didn't use
the entire screen. You know, it's like kind of cut
off from the top of the bottom. You know. One
of the previews we saw was for Ivatar, Fire and Ash,
and when you saw that, which used the entire screen,
you know, made for Imax, You're like, Okay, give me this,
this is what I want. Yeah, But then going from
that to The Running Man, you know, it felt like
(24:55):
downgrade a little bit, you know, because you're still getting
you're getting like part of this scre and you're like,
it's still bigger, But is it that much bigger?
Speaker 1 (25:03):
You know, yeah, exactly. Probably hurd it that we just
saw a trailer right before the movie that was more
true to the IMAX experience. The average IMAX ticket is
thirty dollars. I was reading, you know, there's in some
places like fifteen. Other places it's like twenty five. It
requires you to I think sort of reflect on whether
(25:25):
or not and also do a little research like are
you getting a true Imax experience for the movie you
want to go see that in because don't pay for that.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
No, it's not. I don't know that it's worth it. Yeah,
but something like you know, one battle after another which
was like shot in Imax or Avatar Fire and Ash.
You know, I think there's like some real value there,
and just going to a movie in Imax does feel
like you're doing something special. Yeah, so you do want
to you want that experience, you know, you want to
(25:53):
go in there and be like, oh yeah, like watching
Avatar seeing that on the screen when you're like your
full field of vision in front of you, you know,
is covered. Yeah, that feels like something better. There's like
an ooh factor to that. This didn't really have that.
And again expectations were like, yeah, the Running Man and Imax, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
We should have saved it for an Avatar Fire and Ash.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I mean yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Also I will say, just side bit, Avatar Fire and
Ash looks a little cartoony.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Well, did you feel that way about the Way of Water.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
A little bit? A little bit, I felt like I
kind of felt that.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Way about the way it was.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, like I felt like and maybe that was just
you know, at the time of the original, it was
way it surpassed everything we were experiencing up until that point,
so it had a leg up, you know in terms
of our perception. And now I wasn't super impressed by
the Also, they showed us the entire movie in the trailer, Like,
why would you show me that much of the trailer
(26:54):
or that much of the movie? Show me less?
Speaker 2 (26:57):
You know, it's not the entire movie, because the entire
movie is four hours long.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Twelve if you've got the director's you know cut director's cut. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah, so i'max, you know, at a little bit of
a little bit of a wet down. Also, yeah, I
mean this is the real downer of an episode. Now, yeah,
we like to stay positive. I'll give you credit.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
You've you know, you sandwiched everything really nicely at the beginning,
and then we just kind of like you know, trailed off.
This led us into what our next portion of this
is the shadow of Arnold's biceps. Hello, qutie Pie. One
of us is in deep trouble the original versus now
and you know, the big question that comes up is
(27:40):
how does this compare, which I told a little bit
of the comparisons of the plotline, How does it compare
to the eighty seven Arnold Classic, not to be confused
with the Arnold Classic, which was his bodybuilding show that
he had. It was called the Arnold Classic. Did you
know that? No?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I didn't know it. So it's like, what are you
talking about?
Speaker 1 (27:59):
For all Arnold fans out there? You know, you know
who you are.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, this is one of the things I was interested
going into this. I'm like, how much is this going
to be a like or different from the eighty seven movie,
which you know I've seen several times, and it is
almost unrecognizably different. You know, it's completely completely different from
beginning to end with all the people involved. You know,
as I was talking about, I thought for sure this
one was going to blow the doors off the nineteen
(28:24):
eighty seven. But I think I still probably prefer the
eighty seven in some ways, even though it's pretty dated
you watch it, yeah, but it's also kind of darker
and more you know, raw in some ways. I actually,
when I watched it recently, I was like, oh, the
four K transfer, this actually looks still looks pretty good.
I agree with that, But it has some things that fit.
I mean, it feels very eighties and someoney. It has
(28:45):
Richard Dawson as like the game show host who used
to hoacht the family feud and you know, was like
known for like hitting on all the female contestants, who's
actually pretty good. And it has like Jesse the body
Benchura who was a wrestler and then became a governor,
and Jim Brown who was like an NFL player. So
those are very like eighties things. So it's got like
a cheese factor to it. It kind of works for
(29:07):
the the way they do the premise there, with the
you know where you're very much in the game show
a lot of the movie. If I'm like putting these
side aside, they're very different. That one's still kind of
it's almost so hyper focused. It works for me a
little better.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, I agree with you. I get that this is closer.
This new one is closer to the original novel.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
I don't think Stevie King liked the original at all.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yeah, well, you know it was sort of like loosely adapted. Yeah,
and I get that, you know, no matter how factual,
this is, like, this is as close to the original,
because again I can't speak to reading and then watching
the movie, but I can watch the movie and hear
people say that it's closer. But I don't know if
it's necessarily a better movie because of that. I think
there's always the element of you watch something present time.
(29:51):
You know, it feels higher quality because it dated media
and the way that they filmed it and stuff like that.
But to your point, the four K version of the
original still looks really good.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Yeah, it looks pretty clean.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Yeah, and it does. You know, there are elements to
that that's dated. But I think the New Ones a
very well made movie. It feels good. It has some
of that campiness that we need, you know, because like
the original, I think there's there's a little bit of
that campiness for other reasons, right like because it's Arnold.
It's that type of movie. There's a lot of like
goofy one liners, you know, and stuff.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Like that, what happened to Buzzsaw?
Speaker 1 (30:26):
He had to split? Yeah, he has a lot of
one liners in there. This was that peak one liner
era for Arnold. But the tone feels really spot on
for this one. I feel like the aesthetic is pretty good.
We talked about this a little bit the theme from
a punk rock perspective. The end credits scene. I feel
like the graphic design of that.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah, we watched the whole credits.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, we watched all of the credits, which is unusual,
you know, because they all had fun little easter eggs
in them each slide essentially, and then I really like
little things that they threw in there. Here's a continuous
quote stop filming me. That was a big one, and
then continuous theme of the middle Finger. The middle Finger
is kind of like the ultimate punk rock anarchy, telling
off the man the powers that be.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Yeah, the New One has a good world where it's
like it's kind of like our world with just these
little which is what the future essentially is. You know,
if you look back like thirty years or then thirty
years before that, the buildings, the streets, it's all similar
mm hmm, but then you just have these like little
technological differences and things like, you know, these little touches
that are different. And I think the New One gets that.
(31:31):
There's like a griminess to it, and it like puts
you in that world pretty well, and it does a
good job taking you to kind of like different settings
because the way it hops around, which the first one
does to some extent, but it's a little more.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Contained, Yeah, a little more set.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Like. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
The one thing I will say for for listeners or
people who are going to see this, and you could
disagree with me, I think the social commentary aspect is
way more in your face in this movie, yeah, versus
the original. The original had some of it, but it
was pretty secondary to the action, HM, whereas this one
feels like media and corporate government collusion and surveillance and
(32:10):
stuff like that, like all those things that you get
in some of the other dystopian movies that we've talked about,
like Minority Report or something like that. But this one
it's like in your face, like stick it to the man.
If you don't like those types of movies that talk
about that, then you probably hate this. I will tell
you that there's a lot of it. There's a lot
of it layered in, and I like that piece of it.
(32:31):
I did think it was like a little thick, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
I kind of like that stuff when it tends to
be like a little more not necessarily subtle, but you know,
it's not like painted over the top the whole time,
and by the end of.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
This, I was like, we got it. Yeah. I like
the ones that are you know, you almost don't even
realize it's there.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Yeah, you're pulling it in almost a little bit subconsciously.
You know, it's like a line or two or like
something you're picking up in like the setting or the
you know, the background.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah. And I think there's a place for movies that
have it sort of like this, where it's so thick
you in your words that you're sort of choking on it.
You know. I think there's places for those movies, because
I think there's times where you're like, Okay, we need
to like hit you over the head with it. But
I do enjoy the ones where it's way more subtle,
way more subconscious, maybe also subliminal. Yeah, just what was
(33:22):
that flash of That was one frame and I saw
you know, whatever the anarchy symbol is or whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
You can sort of read it in your self or
you're like getting something you're like, did I see that?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Mm hmmmm hmmm.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
So it's a mixed bag the Running Man, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
And I think it's like we said at the beginning,
you know, it's good, not great if you're going to
go see it. If you have seen it, we I'd
be interested to see what people think. You know, We've
got a lot of listeners out there who, like us,
you know, have a love for the original stuff that exist.
And if you don't, that's okay. For our other listeners
out there who who don't appreciate the arnold world of
(33:57):
action movies, I'd be interested to hear what you think
of this is standing on its own.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Yeah. I don't know that this movie is made better
or worse by the existence of the first one at all.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I don't think it even matters to how you will
see it.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah, but if you do have that perspective where you
have or that vantage point where you can, you know,
compare the two, it would be interested to see if
we're on par with everyone else's thoughts or if they're like, man,
this one was glorious.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Yeah, that was banging. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Six seven six seven? I don't even know if that
applies this.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I mean, it applies everything, doesn't it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
We hope you enjoyed this episode. That's it for movies
and marketing until next time. Let's fade to black.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
I'll be back. It's not coming back.
In a world where movies rely on marketing more than
ever to connect with audiences, one podcast aims to make
sense of it all. This is movies and marketing. Next
Saturday Night, where're sending you back to the future. Go ahead,
make my day, Corbut.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Now you're crazy Dutch bastard. What we've got here is
failure your mill gate take them around? Where's cross all
of how for we might as well? Good time. I
am an a f I agent. All right, we're ready,
(00:45):
ready to get running.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
I gotta catch my breath. I just got done. I'm
a running man. I don't know if you know that.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, yeah, I heard about that. So you're always getting chased.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, not for good reasons, not for your family. Yeah,
mostly my family's chasing me. And I'm like no, and
I'm running away. I gotta get to the podcast. I'm like, don't,
don't do it, don't podcast. I'm like, i gotta go.
But that's the way it goes. You know, one day
you're an upstanding citizen, the next you are on a
(01:18):
deadly game show.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, that's the course we're following right now. So we're
talking exclusively about the running man today.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
There's still a way out for you. It's the biggest
show in the country.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
It's our birth right right, Welcome to The running Man,
new release in theaters. We're gonna cover it from a
few different angles. But before we get there, of course,
we're gonna ease into things a little trivia. Get your
(01:58):
brain ready for this.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Patrick, Well, the last cast, I think I did really,
really well. This one. We'll see. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I think you're gonna do alright. I think you're gonna
do all right. I say that, you know, setting you up,
no pressure, but I think I think you'll do all
right on these ones obviously related to The Running Man,
which has you know, a lot of different tendrils connected
to it.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
M hmm.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
This new running Man so one of those, of course.
Stephen King originally published The Running Man under the pseudo
name Richard Bachman in nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
You know this, Yeah, but do you know what other
book that.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
King published under the Bachman name was also made into
a movie in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Oh, I think you know this? Uh? Do I give
multiple choice on this or no?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I don't think you need it. I can give you
a hint though, if you need that.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I do need a hint because it's that type of
day for me.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Okay, like The Running Man, you know, movement, this title
also involved his movement, so it's a movie we also
just just had out recently.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Oh Jesus, dude, I don't know. I don't know why
I can't think of this. I don't even know if
I have like an inkling of what this is. So
you think you've got running, yeah, swimming man.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Maybe if you're maybe, if you're maybe if you're not
moving as fast as running.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Oh oh yeah, that's right. Okay, yeah, I do know this. Okay,
this is the one that had Mark Hamill in it,
The Long Walk. The Long Walk, Yeah, because this is
one that I did want to see and I forgot.
Yeah that's right. But you know what's funny is I
couldn't think of that because I was thinking about the
Richard Bachman and I'm thinking to myself, like Richard Bachman,
(03:45):
I don't remember, but of obviously Stephen King, so yeah,
King is Bachman.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Bachman is King.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
The Long Walk another a nineteen seventy nine Bachman you
know book, a dystopian novel about a walking contest.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, with like the interesting factoid of that Richard Bachman,
you know pen name that he used was that, you know,
authors had this, They had like a one book a year.
They couldn't write beyond that or whatever. I don't I
don't really understand that world. But that's why he created
things under Richard Bachman. So the original Running Man movie
(04:22):
had based on the story by Richard Bachman. I was like, wait,
this is Stephen King, and I in my brain I
didn't connect those two things, and then ended up looking
it up and I was like, oh, okay, now I understand.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
King is Bachman is King. It was like a Shamalan moment.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, it was like the usual suspects like Kaiser SoSE
and my cup out of my hand dropped and I
was like, yeah, it.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
All makes sense. Now. Well, here's another trivia question for you.
So you mentioned the previous Running Man. That movie version
was released in nineteen eighty seven, and start, of course,
our guy Arnold Schwarzenegg. What other Arnold Schwarzenegger classic was
also released that same year, nineteen eighty seven. Oh, I
(05:11):
can give you a hint on this one too, if
you need it.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So I'm trying to think of that timeline like Commando Predator.
I don't think it was Predator. Give me a hint
so i'd know, like which one I'm thinking about.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Okay, the hint is this ip is also still alive.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
And well this year brought Predator. Yeah, yeah, it's Predator.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yep, that's the one. Predator was released in June eighty seven.
Running Man released in November eighty seven. Good year for Arnold.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
He was on fire.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, this was you know, within his peak, probably as
he's like building up.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, you know. And it's kind of funny because as
we talk about this movie today, the Running Man, the
difference is in the plot from the original eighty seven
and this movie in twenty twenty five. They're pretty substantial
plot changes. Oh yeah, which I've never read the book.
I'll preface that now. I think have you ever read it?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
No, I've never read.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah. So for the listeners out there, you know this
is movies in marketing, So let me give you a
little little rundown of the movie itself. Okay, the Running Man.
I wanted to do a little bit of a comparison
because I think there are going to be people who
are listening to the cast who know us and know
our love for that time period of The Arnold the original,
(06:35):
and I thought it'd be good to kind of compare
the two things so you can see the differences. So
the original summary is, in a future dystopian America, a
wrongfully accused and convicted policeman gets his shot at freedom
when he's forced to participate in a game TV show
where convicts called runners must battle killers for their freedom.
Pretty simple. IMDb's is pretty simple summary. There's a little
(06:57):
bit more to that. But the new one is a
man joins a game show in which contestants allowed to
go anywhere in the world are pursued by hunters hired
to kill them. That in and of itself should explain
sort of the difference between him one is he's sort
of forced into it. He feels forced in this movie
because of his predicament and like in the in the
(07:18):
new one, yeah, but in the old one, he was
literally forced into the game show. He's a prisoner, yeah,
and that was his way out, and then you know,
things sort of unfold from there. Still kind of some
of the same premise of like the hunters, the killers
that are after him, they're you know, like part of
the game show. And he's also allowed in this new
movie to go anywhere, disguise himself, all that stuff. It's
(07:41):
a little less like a prison sentence as it is,
depending on your your outlook on things. You know, this
has a very societal, uh social commentary, you know of
like economic class and conspiracy, you know, social media manipulation.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
You know, corporation controlling everything.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Mm hmmm. Yeah, So it's got a lot of that
going like thematically through it. And you know, the class
inequality would be the big one, right, Like that is
a huge part. And I'm sure that that's why it's
closer to the original. I could see King writing this
more like this movie than the original. The original movie,
I feel like they were like, we just took the
(08:23):
concept and then applied it to Arnold, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, pretty from what I've heard, pretty loose how the
first movie even used it. It's almost like we just
took this kind of idea of the running man mm
hm and kind of like change that totally around. Whereas
this one is more the actual story is more present,
you know, King's story is more there. His original story,
which I heard Edgar Wright talking about it too, and
(08:48):
he said the novel was originally published in eighty two,
but King wrote it in like the seventies, like the
early seventies, right, So that's kind of where you get
a lot of the maybe some of the social you know,
commentaryan vibe where that initially came from.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Speaking of you know, you mentioned Edgar Wright, who directed
and also wrote some of the screenplay for this. Edgar Wright,
the movie buffs out there, you know, Shanna the Dead,
the World's End, Baby Driver, which we love, We've talked
about on this show, Scott Pilgrim Versus the World. So
he's got some you know, some cred there, you know,
depending on what kind of movie you like to watch.
(09:24):
Obviously I've seen a lot of them on his list.
And then you know, you've got Glenn Powell, who is
in this movie. Seems to be the hot thing as
of the like last three to five years, probably has
been tons of stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, a rare name actor we have nowadays, like people
actually like know who he is.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Mm hmm. One other actor. I'll just kind of pull
out of this slightly spoil alert Lee Pace. A lot
of people don't know this guy's name, which he's been
in stuff. Okay, this guy has been in a foundation
which is an Apple show. He's been in cap in Marvel,
so he was Ronan in the Marvel movies if you
(10:05):
remember the Blue Guy who is like, you know, bad guy.
He was also in Halton catch Fire, which is a
great show. Like I think it's twenty fourteen to twenty seventeen.
I don't know who his agent is, but he's getting
a ton of stuff right now, and I think you're
gonna see him more and more. And I think he's
got a really cool name, v Pace. It's kind of
(10:26):
like Lee Majors.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
He's one of those actors who has bounced around and
popped up in things and like you know his face
or you've seen him in something. He's also in a
show called Pushing Daisies that was on like a long
time ago. That was like one of those shows that
people would be like kind of buzzing about but nobody
actually watched. But it was kind of like quirky and
like Tim Burton esque and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
So anyway, off topic, but some good actors in here.
Movie had a budget of one hundred and ten million estimated,
So right now we saw it opening night were in
the same weekend. I will I'll tell you. Doesn't look
like it's going to make the money back at this point,
but we don't know. I mean, it's still first weekend.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah, could have legs it's not. Doesn't seem to be
blowing the doors off. Looking like an opening weekend around
like fifteen million, which is a little lower than they
were hoping for, something around twenty mm hmm. We saw
it in Imax opening nights. It was like first show
wasn't exactly a full house, no, but you know, we
(11:28):
were excited. There were some other people who were excited
for it too.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So there's a lot of like game show esque mechanics
to the movie. They're on a game show, the ideas
that they have to he has to survive thirty days.
I'm not giving anything away. By the way, we said
no spoilers. We were not giving any spoilers on this
show today. So all stuff that has been in the
trailer too, so you're not hearing anything that is out
(11:53):
there that's going to ruin the movie for you.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, that's just kind of the general setup. Hmm. So
let's talk a little bit about the movie itself. You know, again,
we're not going to give anything away if you haven't
seen it yet, but just kind of talk about how
we felt about a key question. I think the first one,
did this movie live up to your expectations? I guess
what were your expectations? And did the movie live up
(12:17):
to it?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
My expectations were pretty high. I think I had a,
you know, a fondness for this movie as a as
a young person Arnold, like what are they going to
do with this? That kind of expectation. Did it live up?
I mean it was good, it wasn't great. I will
say that, what did you think?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
I'm right with you there. I do think part of
it is my I went in with like really probably
unreasonably high expectations.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah, with some good reasons.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Like I think the Running Man was actually one of
the rare things. It's probably pretty ripe for a Remaker reboot.
I thought this was like a good thing to bring
back the Edgar Right of it, you know, the Glenn
pal of it. I thought these were like people I
like that. I'm like, oh, this is a good combination here,
it's a good mix. So I probably like raised the
bar higher than the bar should have been raised. So
(13:11):
didn't quite match my sky high expectations. I will say
I really enjoyed watching the movie. It's kind of like
afterwards when you start scratching at it a little bit
where I was like, but for the most part, when
I was watching the movie, I was like having a
good time.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Yeah, it's a good watch, Like it was good. And
then you go back and you're kind of like, using
your words, scratching at it a little bit. You're like, uh,
you know, I kind of wanted a little bit more.
Is there anything the movie could have done that it
would have given me that satisfaction? Probably not, you know.
I think that's where like your expectation sometimes is unrealistic,
especially when it's rooted in nostalgia. You can't live up
(13:51):
to it. And so I don't fault the movie for that,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, I felt the movie a little bit.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Just I'll say, you know, say some like good things first,
like you're gonna sandwich it. You're gonna sandwich it is?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, Yeah, I want to like I don't want to
be like turn it into like a negative thing, but
there's some things I have to like throw out. I
will say, watching it now, you probably have this experience too.
It's a lot funnier than I was expecting. Yeah, I mean,
at least like the first half of it, it's a
borderline like almost comedy to some extent.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, to some extent. Yeah, it whips you around a
little bit in terms of it's too close to home
in some places, and you're like, hhm, and that's kind
of funny, you know, because you're like, okay, that, yeah,
that's actually funny because this is supposed to be the
dystopian future. Yet there are elements from today that are
very accurate, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah. I would even argue the social commentary when they
were being funny was probably better than when they were
trying to like be on the nose about it, you know.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
The other thing I'll say is there's some good fun
action sequences in here. You know, without getting specific, there's
a few of them that were in here that I
thought were pretty good, creative and.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
You know, just kind of like a fun time all
right now, the bad you gave me, the fluff Yeah,
the fluffiness, the happy.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
The sane witch. You know, why did the final product
not match what was in my head? You know, I
kind of mentioned this after we got out of the movie.
I think it starts right off the bat with Pal.
I think he was either miscast or they wrote the
character wrong. Maybe maybe both things. It just never it
didn't line up for me. I never like bought it.
(15:29):
They try to make him like this angry guy who's like,
you know, super protective of his family. I was like, no,
just didn't really fit with me. I'm like, this would
have probably been better if they just made him like
a cocky, down on his luck guy who's like, I'm
gonna go on a TV show and conquer this. But
I just I could not get there with the actor
and the character, with what they were trying to do.
(15:50):
I was almost like, should we be following one of
these other Running Man contestants?
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, I will agree with you, And I think I've
broken it down to this. You almost have this conflict
because he seems like way over the top angry and
it doesn't really jive with everything else that's going on,
because you're kind of like, oh, that's supposed to be funny,
but he's playing it kind of serious. I feel like
it could have been maybe the casting, you know, like
a different person my bill pull that off a little differently,
(16:17):
or to your point, they could have wrote that a
little differently. To be a little less angry, you know,
or giving us some backstory something, Yeah, had to happen
there to make that a little more believable. That was
the part that was a struggle for me too, So
I get what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, Well, for me, it was like they say he's angry,
but he didn't seem all that angry for most of
the movie. So I'm like, either go all in on
the anger because he's not. I don't think of that
actor as like an angry guy. That's where I'm like,
go all in on the anger and like put somebody
else in there who seems really angry, or like throw
that out of there.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah. I think you said this after we left the
movie that you felt like they abandoned that at some
point in the movie.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I felt like, after like twenty minutes, they're kind of like, well.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
He's like, Glenn, don't be so angry in this scene,
and he's like, but you wanted me to be angry.
Now we're done with the anger part, which that was
in the beginning.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Now you're having you're running, man, you're having a good time.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah, you're running. You're on a show that releases all
that anger. So you don't need to be angry anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
So, yeah, that was one thing. You know. Then they
do a lot of like kind of like satire of
TV and stuff in there, and I thought a lot
of that stuff felt a little like behind the times,
like that stuff. I thought they should have updated a
little bit for now.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Can you give an example, Well, it's.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Like everybody's watching like TV and game shows, and that
felt very much like attached to the time this was created.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
And they even have like a and then this not
really a spoiler, they have like a keeping up with
the Kardashians satire that they keep showing that people are
like watching on TV. And I'm like, man, this feels
like ten years ago that were like kind of making
fun of this thing. We're like over that now.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
There's a lot of that. I mean, if you're just
talking about tech the contestants send in tapes.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, And I know it's supposed to be like a
weird future that's technology is different.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
But in that I do get what you're saying. There's
like a little bit of that. And then I guess
that's where you kind of disassociate where we're at now.
I guess it's more of like, oh, remember when it
feels a little less like the future, so it doesn't
hit as hard.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah. And then the probably the biggest thing was, you know,
I came into this and I was like looking for
an Edgar Wright movie, and there's there's pieces of that,
but it doesn't have that feel like you know, like
Baby Driver felt like this guy's putting his stamp on.
Sean of the Dead felt the same way. You know,
you get like the music and some of the cuts
and like there's like a style to it. Yeah, you
(18:38):
got that in like pieces, but it just didn't have
that overall like feel to it. The third act of
the movie, the end of the movie kind of like
falls off a little bit. I feel like it was
almost like lost. His touch was like almost gone.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Well, you know, like I think about it and I go, oh,
it makes sense because like this seems like a huge
budget film, one hundred ten million. There's a lot of
powers that be that are probably like expectations people had,
and he was sort of like trying to curry favor.
That's probably what happened there, because you see those little
(19:12):
bits of it, they're like, we want you to do
your thing. And then he's doing his thing, They're like, well,
but can you do it more like this? Which is
the opposite of what you just asked, right, which.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
I get he was trying to make something, you know,
more for the masses, But sometimes when you do that,
you take away, you know, what makes it unique. You're
kind of like signature thing, which was something I was
like looking forward to. So that was just something that
deflated my expectations a little bit. Those were just a
few of the things that when I like thought about it,
I'm like, why wasn't this what I was hoping it
would be?
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Completely? Yeah, So what was your favorite part of the movie.
You talked about the you know, like you sandwiched the
good and the bad, but what was your favorite part?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Personally, my favorite part, without giving too much away, there's
kind of like an action scene that takes place in
a house after Michael Sarah shows up, Oh yeah, which
I thought was pretty both funny and creative and interesting.
So that was probably my favorite part of the movie.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Sarahve Sarahve, you know what about you? Two things I
think really made this fun for me. And I don't
know what the marketer side of me is. The product
high ins hmm right, there's a lot of product high
ends and they're very blatant. And then the Michael Sarah
part and his hot dog obsession. And I'm not giving
(20:30):
anything away. You won't have any idea. It's like just
I don't know what it is. It hits, it's funny,
it's funny tofbeat, it's hilarious. Yeah, it makes no sense.
But also you know, okay, so between those two things,
the product high ends too. Let me just say, and
I'm only counting a handful that I could remember. You
got Puma, you got Monster Energy Drink, you got car Heart,
(20:52):
and then Liquid Death, some big, very obvious product hie ins.
So from a marketing standpoint, you know, it's kind of
like we talked about in the days with like E.
T and all those movies where they were just like
kind of pumping the products. This is one of those,
and it made sense for the movie. That's what's funny,
is like this movie is all about you know, hyper capitalism,
(21:12):
commercialism of everything. You know, So it made a lot
of sense. But funny too when you see it because
the product tie ins were like all things that you've
seen today. Puma, though crazy to start seeing them kind
of make their way. You think it'd be like an
Adidas or a Nike or something, but they, you know,
they use a brand that has not seen a lot
of love as of you know, like the last twenty years.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, those brands, they really pop out. They really get
a spotlight, uh, especially some of them. So that's a
good one and intentionally so I think there's also in
generally the movie has some good kind of easter eggs
m M. You know, there's a good callback in the
beginning to the original Running Man that got a good chuckle.
So there's stuff like that that I bet if I
watch it again you'd find even more.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Which brings me to the connect question would you see
it again? Will you see it again?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
I'm you might see it again. You know, this is
something it's like would you recommend it? I was my
family was asking me this.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
I'm like, I would.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
It's a fun time at the movies. It's a good
movie to watch, So I'd probably watch it like one
more time and I'd probably recommend it as like, like
you said, good, not great. I'd like temper people's expectations.
I think you'd enjoy it more that way. You know,
if you're not looking for an egg or right classic,
but just kind of a popcorn movie. Yeah, I think
it's a good time at the movies.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, I agree with you. The main word that I
use there might I might see it again. I wouldn't
go see it again in the movie theater. I definitely
wouldn't pay, you know, like twenty bucks for an Imax movie.
But yeah, you know, I think if you go into
it with the expectations of it's just a good movie.
I think there's some pleasant, you know, thrills in it,
and to your point, you might catch things the next
(22:46):
time around that you go, oh, okay.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
You know, in the old days, you might call this
like a cable movie, when we would when you just
stumble across something and end up watching some of it
and be like, it's growing on me a little more,
you know what I mean. It might be that kind
of movie. Yeah, But let's talk a little bit about
the imax of it. So we saw this in imax.
Imax right now making a lot of money for movies.
(23:11):
So while domestic box office declined eleven percent in the
third quarter of twenty twenty five, Imax box office grew
significantly over the same period, up twenty nine percent in
the domestic market and fifty percent globally. This is a
draw for people to go to the movies right now.
People might not be just going to movies, but they're
(23:32):
going to movies in Imax. All that being said, we
talked about The Running Man as a movie itself. What
did you think about The Running Man in Imax?
Speaker 1 (23:42):
I was let down. I was let down. Okay, yeah, yeah.
I feel like maybe it was the theater, it says
Edgar Wright's first movie in Imax. Maybe the theater we
saw it in wasn't as good. I feel like that
if you're gonna give us an IMAX movie, give us
like the true experience. Maybe the theaters are doing this
a little bit, like they're writing the coattails of the
success of IMAX right now, and they're like saying it's
(24:04):
an Imax movie or an Imax experience, and then they're
not truly delivering because, like you and I were talking
about this, it seemed like it was proportionally shorter height
and I don't know, and I don't know what was
going on there with that theater specifically, but it was
a bit of a letdown for something you're spending a
decent chunk of money on they need to up their
game a little bit.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
To be clear, this this is a movie that was
not made for Imax, right, but it's like converted, you know, optimize.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
For Imax, right, So so that might have been played
a part.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah, that's probably part of the reason it didn't use
the entire screen. You know, it's like kind of cut
off from the top of the bottom. You know. One
of the previews we saw was for Ivatar, Fire and Ash,
and when you saw that, which used the entire screen,
you know, made for Imax, You're like, Okay, give me this,
this is what I want. Yeah, But then going from
that to The Running Man, you know, it felt like
(24:55):
downgrade a little bit, you know, because you're still getting
you're getting like part of this scre and you're like,
it's still bigger, But is it that much bigger?
Speaker 1 (25:03):
You know, yeah, exactly. Probably hurd it that we just
saw a trailer right before the movie that was more
true to the IMAX experience. The average IMAX ticket is
thirty dollars. I was reading, you know, there's in some
places like fifteen. Other places it's like twenty five. It
requires you to I think sort of reflect on whether
(25:25):
or not and also do a little research like are
you getting a true Imax experience for the movie you
want to go see that in because don't pay for that.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
No, it's not. I don't know that it's worth it. Yeah,
but something like you know, one battle after another which
was like shot in Imax or Avatar Fire and Ash.
You know, I think there's like some real value there,
and just going to a movie in Imax does feel
like you're doing something special. Yeah, so you do want
to you want that experience, you know, you want to
(25:53):
go in there and be like, oh yeah, like watching
Avatar seeing that on the screen when you're like your
full field of vision in front of you, you know,
is covered. Yeah, that feels like something better. There's like
an ooh factor to that. This didn't really have that.
And again expectations were like, yeah, the Running Man and Imax, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
We should have saved it for an Avatar Fire and Ash.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I mean yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Also I will say, just side bit, Avatar Fire and
Ash looks a little cartoony.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Well, did you feel that way about the Way of Water.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
A little bit? A little bit, I felt like I
kind of felt that.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Way about the way it was.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, like I felt like and maybe that was just
you know, at the time of the original, it was
way it surpassed everything we were experiencing up until that point,
so it had a leg up, you know in terms
of our perception. And now I wasn't super impressed by
the Also, they showed us the entire movie in the trailer, Like,
why would you show me that much of the trailer
(26:54):
or that much of the movie? Show me less?
Speaker 2 (26:57):
You know, it's not the entire movie, because the entire
movie is four hours long.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Twelve if you've got the director's you know cut director's cut. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah, so i'max, you know, at a little bit of
a little bit of a wet down. Also, yeah, I
mean this is the real downer of an episode. Now, yeah,
we like to stay positive. I'll give you credit.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
You've you know, you sandwiched everything really nicely at the beginning,
and then we just kind of like you know, trailed off.
This led us into what our next portion of this
is the shadow of Arnold's biceps. Hello, qutie Pie. One
of us is in deep trouble the original versus now
and you know, the big question that comes up is
(27:40):
how does this compare, which I told a little bit
of the comparisons of the plotline, How does it compare
to the eighty seven Arnold Classic, not to be confused
with the Arnold Classic, which was his bodybuilding show that
he had. It was called the Arnold Classic. Did you
know that? No?
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I didn't know it. So it's like, what are you
talking about?
Speaker 1 (27:59):
For all Arnold fans out there? You know, you know
who you are.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, this is one of the things I was interested
going into this. I'm like, how much is this going
to be a like or different from the eighty seven movie,
which you know I've seen several times, and it is
almost unrecognizably different. You know, it's completely completely different from
beginning to end with all the people involved. You know,
as I was talking about, I thought for sure this
one was going to blow the doors off the nineteen
(28:24):
eighty seven. But I think I still probably prefer the
eighty seven in some ways, even though it's pretty dated
you watch it, yeah, but it's also kind of darker
and more you know, raw in some ways. I actually,
when I watched it recently, I was like, oh, the
four K transfer, this actually looks still looks pretty good.
I agree with that, But it has some things that fit.
I mean, it feels very eighties and someoney. It has
(28:45):
Richard Dawson as like the game show host who used
to hoacht the family feud and you know, was like
known for like hitting on all the female contestants, who's
actually pretty good. And it has like Jesse the body
Benchura who was a wrestler and then became a governor,
and Jim Brown who was like an NFL player. So
those are very like eighties things. So it's got like
a cheese factor to it. It kind of works for
(29:07):
the the way they do the premise there, with the
you know where you're very much in the game show
a lot of the movie. If I'm like putting these
side aside, they're very different. That one's still kind of
it's almost so hyper focused. It works for me a
little better.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, I agree with you. I get that this is closer.
This new one is closer to the original novel.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
I don't think Stevie King liked the original at all.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yeah, well, you know it was sort of like loosely adapted. Yeah,
and I get that, you know, no matter how factual,
this is, like, this is as close to the original,
because again I can't speak to reading and then watching
the movie, but I can watch the movie and hear
people say that it's closer. But I don't know if
it's necessarily a better movie because of that. I think
there's always the element of you watch something present time.
(29:51):
You know, it feels higher quality because it dated media
and the way that they filmed it and stuff like that.
But to your point, the four K version of the
original still looks really good.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Yeah, it looks pretty clean.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Yeah, and it does. You know, there are elements to
that that's dated. But I think the New Ones a
very well made movie. It feels good. It has some
of that campiness that we need, you know, because like
the original, I think there's there's a little bit of
that campiness for other reasons, right like because it's Arnold.
It's that type of movie. There's a lot of like
goofy one liners, you know, and stuff.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Like that, what happened to Buzzsaw?
Speaker 1 (30:26):
He had to split? Yeah, he has a lot of
one liners in there. This was that peak one liner
era for Arnold. But the tone feels really spot on
for this one. I feel like the aesthetic is pretty good.
We talked about this a little bit the theme from
a punk rock perspective. The end credits scene. I feel
like the graphic design of that.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah, we watched the whole credits.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, we watched all of the credits, which is unusual,
you know, because they all had fun little easter eggs
in them each slide essentially, and then I really like
little things that they threw in there. Here's a continuous
quote stop filming me. That was a big one, and
then continuous theme of the middle Finger. The middle Finger
is kind of like the ultimate punk rock anarchy, telling
off the man the powers that be.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Yeah, the New One has a good world where it's
like it's kind of like our world with just these
little which is what the future essentially is. You know,
if you look back like thirty years or then thirty
years before that, the buildings, the streets, it's all similar
mm hmm, but then you just have these like little
technological differences and things like, you know, these little touches
that are different. And I think the New One gets that.
(31:31):
There's like a griminess to it, and it like puts
you in that world pretty well, and it does a
good job taking you to kind of like different settings
because the way it hops around, which the first one
does to some extent, but it's a little more.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Contained, Yeah, a little more set.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Like. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
The one thing I will say for for listeners or
people who are going to see this, and you could
disagree with me, I think the social commentary aspect is
way more in your face in this movie, yeah, versus
the original. The original had some of it, but it
was pretty secondary to the action, HM, whereas this one
feels like media and corporate government collusion and surveillance and
(32:10):
stuff like that, like all those things that you get
in some of the other dystopian movies that we've talked about,
like Minority Report or something like that. But this one
it's like in your face, like stick it to the man.
If you don't like those types of movies that talk
about that, then you probably hate this. I will tell
you that there's a lot of it. There's a lot
of it layered in, and I like that piece of it.
(32:31):
I did think it was like a little thick, you know.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
I kind of like that stuff when it tends to
be like a little more not necessarily subtle, but you know,
it's not like painted over the top the whole time,
and by the end of.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
This, I was like, we got it. Yeah. I like
the ones that are you know, you almost don't even
realize it's there.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Yeah, you're pulling it in almost a little bit subconsciously.
You know, it's like a line or two or like
something you're picking up in like the setting or the
you know, the background.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah. And I think there's a place for movies that
have it sort of like this, where it's so thick
you in your words that you're sort of choking on it.
You know. I think there's places for those movies, because
I think there's times where you're like, Okay, we need
to like hit you over the head with it. But
I do enjoy the ones where it's way more subtle,
way more subconscious, maybe also subliminal. Yeah, just what was
(33:22):
that flash of That was one frame and I saw
you know, whatever the anarchy symbol is or whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
You can sort of read it in your self or
you're like getting something you're like, did I see that?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Mm hmmmm hmmm.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
So it's a mixed bag the Running Man, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
And I think it's like we said at the beginning,
you know, it's good, not great if you're going to
go see it. If you have seen it, we I'd
be interested to see what people think. You know, We've
got a lot of listeners out there who, like us,
you know, have a love for the original stuff that exist.
And if you don't, that's okay. For our other listeners
out there who who don't appreciate the arnold world of
(33:57):
action movies, I'd be interested to hear what you think
of this is standing on its own.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Yeah. I don't know that this movie is made better
or worse by the existence of the first one at all.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I don't think it even matters to how you will
see it.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah, but if you do have that perspective where you
have or that vantage point where you can, you know,
compare the two, it would be interested to see if
we're on par with everyone else's thoughts or if they're like, man,
this one was glorious.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Yeah, that was banging. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Six seven six seven? I don't even know if that
applies this.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I mean, it applies everything, doesn't it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
We hope you enjoyed this episode. That's it for movies
and marketing until next time. Let's fade to black.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
I'll be back. It's not coming back.
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