Oct 051984
 
two reels

In the near future, when robots do most daily chores, and often break down and damage people and property, Sergeant Jack Ramsay (Tom Selleck) is in charge of shutting down “runaways.”  With his new partner, Karen (Cynthia Rhodes), he stumbles upon a scheme by madman Dr. Charles Luther (Gene Simmons) to turn robots into killing machines.  He also finds Jackie Rogers (Kirstie Alley), who has the templates for the chips that Luther needs to complete his work.

Some age gracefully.  Me?  I’ve seen better days.  So has Runaway.  Not exactly a gripping tale of the future when it was made, its mix of intelligent, boxy robots, mounted laser weapons, and 1980s society makes me feel like I’m meeting a business executive with a mullet and a leisure suit.

Writer-director Michael Crichton may be the most successful science fiction writer of our times, financially anyway, though he seems none too thrilled by science.  His Luddite opus Jurassic Park is imaginative and compelling.  Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Runaway.  Setting it in a future that looked a bit different than 1984 would have helped.  Even in my first viewing back in 1984, the robots seemed out of place.  Viewed again after twenty years, this “future” is decidedly old fashioned.  Crichton presents a world where robotics has advanced, though Ford hasn’t put out a new car model.  Well, that and police departments have retrofitted their unchanging cars with lasers.

I could, after a few snickers and a smart-alecky comment or two, have moved on from the limited view of the future, if any invention had gone into the story or characters, but this is where Crichton really fell down.  Heaped with clichés that weren’t interesting the first time, we’re given the tough cop who does things his way, a gruff police chief who yells at him, and the attractive female partner who falls for him.  There’s even a son tossed in for the sole purpose of being kidnapped.  Each person is given only dialog that fits the stereotype.  It’s all covered with a tinny, electronic soundtrack that sounds like an old-school MIDI track.

Gene Simmons (of the band KISS) makes a suitable, glaring villain, and if his acting is unremarkable, that still makes him the best in the cast.  Several robot attacks, particularly where mini-bots chase down a police car, are exciting, and Kirstie Alley is attractive.  Runaway offers nothing more you haven’t seen better somewhere else.

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