If you’ve seen The Running Man – the gloriously cheesy 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger cult classic adapted from a Stephen King story and directed by one half of TV’s Starsky & Hutch to hammer home its bizarre credentials – then you’ve got absolutely no reason whatsoever to watch The Condemned.
Virtually identical in plot except exponentially worse, the 2007 dud stars Stone Cold Steve Austin as a death row inmate awaiting execution who gets dropped on a remote island to be plunged into a battle to the death, with the sole survivor earning their freedom as an audience of millions watches the action unfold in a real-time broadcast. Yep, it’s The Running Man.
The Condemned proved that Austin was never going to join the likes of Dwayne Johnson, Dave Bautista, and John Cena in making the jump to Hollywood, and he soon wound up in VOD purgatory after the film cratered at the box office after recouping less than $9 million of its $20 million budget from theaters, with a 15 percent Rotten Tomatoes score effectively hitting the nail on the head.
And yet, because mindless shoot ’em ups remain massively popular on streaming, the risible retread has ended up as one of Netflix’s biggest hits out of nowhere. Per FlixPatrol, The Condemned has parachuted onto the Top 10 in a jaw-dropping 30 countries since being added to the library yesterday, securing the number one spot 19 of them. Of course, The Running Man isn’t available on Netflix, so the bargain basement ripoff has evidently been deemed an acceptable substitute.
