Runaway |
  • USA • 1984 • 99m •   • Directed by: Michael Crichton. • Starring: Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes, Gene Simmons, Kirstie Alley, Stan Shaw, G.W. Bailey, Joey Cramer, Chris Mulkey, Anne-Marie Martin, Michael Paul Chan, Elizabeth Norment, Carol Teesdale, Jackson Davies. • Music by: Jerry Goldsmith.      In the near future, a police officer specializes in malfunctioning robots. When a robot turns out to have been programmed to kill, he begins to uncover a homicidal plot to create killer robots... and his son becomes a target.
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Review:
This is one of a number of early 1980s sci-fi actioners -' including TRON (1982), BLUE THUNDER (1983), WAR GAMES (1983), THE LAST STARFIGHTER (1984), etc. -' which seemed to promote technology, often at the expense of narrative and characterization, but which evoke tremendous nostalgia for someone who was a kid at the time. Still, the film serves as a reminder that cinema was in a definite rut throughout the decade -' when you had to rely on a T.V. star for the lead (MAGNUM P.I.'s Tom Selleck) and a rockstar for the villain (Gene Simmons, bassist of KISS)! In itself, though, it's harmless enough and certainly enjoyable -' even if the plot (once all the scientific jargon and gadgetry is by-passed) is pretty routine.
The action sequences (plentiful in number) are O.K. if a bit silly -' such as the situation where Selleck has to save a hostage infant from a squat gun-toting robot gone amok, Simmons shooting missile-like bullets, a car chase in which the passengers change vehicles in motion (a stunt which has just been replicated in the latest Indiana Jones adventure!), etc. Plotwise, we get complications in the relationship between widower Selleck and his immediate family (comprising a young son and a garrulous robot maid!) -' which set in with the appearance of his new (and naturally female) cop partner; Selleck's also fraught with vertigo (in the past, this had cost the life of a number of people when he backed out of following a suspect because of the heights involved) -' a hindrance which is predictably played upon during the climax, where he has to take on Simmons' army of acid-spouting robot spiders in an elevator at a construction site!
The film seemed to have its heart in the right place -' what with employing cinematographer John A. Alonzo and composer Jerry Goldsmith (though his contribution results in a shoddy electronic score), both of whom had worked on the noir revival par excellence CHINATOWN (1974) -' though conditions were hardly as congenial this time around....
Review by MARIO GAUCI from the Internet Movie Database.
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