weasl-729-310682
I was led into "Coma" (personal 8 rating) by IMDb's reccos for me. Loved it, and went from there to "Star Chamber" (personal rating 7). That led me to "Runaway". Thanks, IMDb!I'm a long-time reader of Michael Crichton, but had not realized he had also plied his hand at directing. Not many people are lucky enough to have so many facets to their talent.This movie was gripping from the first. I meant to just bookmark it for tomorrow when I was not supposed to be sleeping. No dice. Not only did I finish watching this excellent movie, but now I find myself writing this review. It's that good.Not only do you get treated to a young Tom Selleck, who also appears in "Coma", but also Kirstie Allie, both of whom are youthful and trim in this movie. It's not just eye candy though, and I'm not really a fan of either of these actors, but they both did a very fine job here. The suspense is taught throughout.I could not get over the fact that I kept comparing Gene Simmons' (again not a fan) Luther character to Javier Bardem's Academy award winning Anton Chigurh's character in "No Country For Old Men". They are both unemotional psychopaths, and, to me, similar demeanors. I can highly recommend this movie to any fan of Sci-Fi and suspense.
Vincent Black
This movie was in the same fashion as Robocop or other alternate reality movies. I don't berate it for bad effects or silly technology because that was cutting edge back in the mid 80's. There is plenty more to make this movie lose some points. The stereotyped and heavy handed police chief (Bailey) who rants at officers. The little boy played by Joey Cramer who couldn't be more stiff and robotic in his acting. Joey went from feature films to TV and now into obscurity. Poor dialog like, "Drop it, sucker!" or "...we got two dead giddy punks!". The movie has moments you question motives and direction. Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons did their best with the material they were given. The five lead roles have no last names and everyone else is just listed as professions, so the characters seem less than real.This movie has some good points that make it worth watching, cool robots (RC puppets) from a farming bot that looks a lot like Wall-E to Dr. Luther's evil acid injecting spider bots that also explode. There is no CGI in the film which is always a big plus. The moral that robots are expected to be perfect, although built by flawed humans is a good adage. Movies made that same year of 1984 "Terminator", "Ghostbusters", and "Temple of Doom" blew "Runaway" out of the water but I still like it as a nostalgic part of my father's generation and it is fun to watch.
enilenis
I watched this movie with my father when I was little. For its time it was a masterpiece. The robot movies and early cg assisted sci-fi were becoming a trend (Short Circuit, Flight Of The Navigator, The Abyss). The filmmakers were experimenting with animatronics and many plots seemed to have been written solely for the purpose of showing off the latest and greatest. Each new movie pushed the envelope.Sure, the action, suspense, script and choreography - everything pales in comparison to today's films and this one, probably, can only be enjoyed by someone who was growing up at the time it was made. I still give it a full 10. I work in film business now, I also make robots and animatronics and if you want to know what inspired me it were gems like this.
buckikris
I remember the first time I saw this movie I was at my cousin's house in Lexington, KY. She had been married for approximately 2 years and everyone decided to go and get some movies. I was about 12 at the time and picked this one out. I had no idea what kind of movie it would be, just that it had Tom Selleck and Gene Simmions from KISS in it. I just turned to my Cousin-In-Law and said this looks good. Out of the three movies we got this one was the best, not only was I surprised but he loved the movie. After all there years it still has that futurist appeal to it and to a point it makes you think. The movie came out in 1984; and it's about robots that have been altered to become dangerous and in some ways killers. In the beginning of the film you see Tom Selleck and his new partner Karen. They are apart of the police departments Runaway unit. A unit that gets calls about malfunctioning robots and they are the ones that go in to take care of the situation. One day a call comes in a 713 or something like that, a runaway call where people have been killed. Once on the scene Ramsey, Selleck and Karen, Cynthia Rhodes, get the info, that robot that helps with the house a lot has killed 2 members of the family. The baby has not been harmed, but the father on the scene knows more about what is going on than he is telling. Well Ramsey gets the baby out of harms way, but the father disappears suddenly. In comes Gene Simmons character,Luther, a robotics expert who is a homicidal maniac. Luther is partners with two other men, one being the father of the baby and another who is working with him to form genetically altered programming chips for robots, so they can be altered to become killing machines. Once the two partners ask for there share, they end up getting tracked down or killed after Luther get's what he wants. Luther also has engineered robotic spider's who are programmed to kill with acid.You will see this in the movie, and for anyone who has a sever phobia of spiders you have to see this, it will make your skin crawl. It's up to Ramsey, Karen, and Luther's girlfriend, Jackie, to stop this psycho before he wrecks havoc on everywhere. THX, Kris L. CocKayne
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