Thursday, July 29, 2021

Runaway (1984)

A rather strange, sometimes cheesy, but definitely fun future cop film. It is the near future (and looks like 1985) and robots are everywhere, doing everything from the cooking to construction. However, sometimes they go wrong and that is where the specialist police team led by Ramsey (Tom Selleck) comes in. Along with his new partner Thompson (Cynthia Rhodes) they chase and disable a runaway agricultural robot. But soon things become much more serious when they are called to the case of a robot which has killed people...

They discover the robot has been modified by an unauthorised microchip and under the control of someone else. That someone else is Luther (Gene Simmons), a rather over the top hoodlum and electronics expert, who wants to make these killer chips to terrorists and the mob. Ramsey seeks to stop Luther though he always seems one step ahead, plus he has a gun which fires heat seeking bullets...

A glorious mess of a film, completely ridiculous in many ways but always entertaining and with some interesting ideas about how technology would develop in the future (and they got a lot of things spot on). Tom Selleck seems a bit out of place in this film but that makes it all the more fun and to be fair he does a good job. Gene Simmons chews the scenery but it completely suits the film. Also look out for Kirstie Alley.