The Running Men

 Last night was "The Running Man" night here at the Home for Unwed Ferrermen, where I am chief cook and bottle washer. I have seen the original (1987) with former California governor, Arnold Swartzenegger, a few times over the years, and liked it. He's a horrible actor, but the story was good and the cast was bolstered with the lovely Maria Conchita Alonso (AY CARUMBA!) and Richard Dawson was perfect as the game show host, Damon Killian. Other guest stars like, Jim Brown, Mick Fleetwood, Dweezil Zappa(!) and Jessee Ventura, a former Minnesota governor make up the cast. It is set in a 2017 dystopian America that has become totally owned and operated by corporations (IF you can fathom that ever happening) where people live pretty much like one would expect republicans would expect a perfect society to be. There are the corporate super rich, the well-off middle-class consumers and the poor standing around burning 55-gallon drums, trying to stay warm in ragged clothing. Yeah, kind of like now. There's no real politics involved, but you know it's republicans because they are lying motherfuckers and the emphasis is law and order to make you think they are doing good. Those are telltale signs of any republican regime, and this is late-stage capitalism in all its brutal glory. 

The 2025 version is updated from the original, but pretty much follows the storyline. It stars Glenn Powell as Ben Richards and I'm not very familiar with him at all. He does fine. He's more a believable anti-hero than the overly muscled Arnold. And instead of being a wrongly convicted *criminal* forced to participate in the gameshow, the new Ben Richards is an everyman who volunteers himself in order to make enough money to get a better life for his wife and daughter. He didn't want to do the "Running Man" show, but network executive, Josh Brolin, backdoored him into it because he tested very well in the talent portion of the selection process. Ratings, ya know. Brolin's DAN Killian is the exec instead of the show's host. The similarities are different and it still works. If there wasn't an original version to compare to, the new one would be a very acceptable story. I don't generally like remakes, but as movie technology improves, Hollywood has to show off. No problem with that. 

I guess you can credit the 1987 version with predicting our current growing scourge of AI, as it is used then to show how a government would use technology to manipulate film to lie to the people. Here in 2026, though they are not quite there yet, you can see it from here. Once they figure out people's hands, there will be versions of Alex Pretti trying to murder heroic ICE cops and be deservedly shot for it. They can't rely on boldfaced government lies and the gullibility of stupid maga and mainstream media's compliance for forever. Technology marches on by the leave of those who have the capital to exploit it. That's a given. 

Both are dark comedies. I'm into that, though I didn't like my recent viewing of "Bugonia" much at all. Humor has always been a coping mechanism in difficult times throughout history. The motherfuckers can't change that. They just might hate humor almost as much as they do *the wrong people* having health and freedom. They don't like to be made sport of! Trump: has there ever been a more thin-skinned fat man in the world? Maybe... but if we don't give him even that accolade, we're dead. He's so needy.  

The takeaway theme proudly running through both versions is the very human theme of resistance. It's never futile. It is always necessary. It must always be done. We keep fighting the same monsters in the collective history of man's existence, because they keep fighting us. Sorry, but that's never going to stop. We must keep at it though because these cocksuckers cannot even maintain their own happiness. The current regime will fail. We have got to help them do that though. That cannot happen without US. The games have long since already begun.