Customer Reviews:

• Underated Movie
  Jack Ramsay (Tom Selleck) is a sergeant on the runaway squad - a police squad dedicated to robots. Ramsay and his new partner (Cynthia Rhodes) track down an electronics genious named Charles Luther (Gene Simmons) who has programed robots to kill. After the murders of two electronic engineers Ramsay discovers Luther has stolen a new weapon and plans to sell it to the highest bidder.

  Its hard to believe this movie is sixteen years old. I like all the actors in this movie and have seen it several times and it still is not boring. The only problems i have with it is that the dvd does not have many options on it and there are two very cheesy scenes at the begining....more info

• A review from a robot junkie
  I'm afraid I have to disagree with Mr. Maltin, although I'm biased because I've loved anything to do with robots since I was a small child. While the plot _is_ a bit weak, Crichton's carefully constructed "world of the near future" populated with construction robots, housekeeping robots, security guard robots, robot pets, etc. is one of the most realistic treatments of the subject I've seen in a long time. People who, like me, have followed the development of real robots and eagerly await the arrival of the world depicted in "Runaway" will enjoy the robots in the movie at least as much as the human characters....more info
• Kiss and Magnum PI with Staying Alive
  Not a bad movie, with miss hotness, Gene Simions Rocks, Magnum PI with out the 308 GTS...more info
• You'll Congratulate Yourself For Predicting Every "Twist"
  What a fine movie to MST with some friends! I know some of these guys like it, but I have to AGREE with Maltin here. This movie is awful. You will predict EVERYTHING that happens, I guarantee it. Witness Tom's son, Bobby, in the most annoying "performance" in the movie. Watch as Gene Simmons glares and grins evilly while delivering dialogue like, "Where the template, Ramseeeeey?" Actually, Gene is the best thing about this movie. Seriously, this movie is strictly for laughs....more info
• Nice try, no dice
  Selleck plays a robot bounty hunter whose job is to turn off robots that have gone berserk. (Cf. "Blade Runner", anyone?) Moderately interesting at first, but rapidly turns idiotic in the extreme, esp. when bad guy Gene Simmons steps into the picture. There's a reason he wears all that makeup. Michael Crichton scripted, which should be telling you something: flee....more info
• A purely entertaining sleeper
  I don't understand all of the negative comments on this movie. The story was good. The cast was good. The special effects were good. What is the problem? Granted it is SCIENCE FICTION! The story is no more far fetched than most other hard sci-fi films. Anyway, I am wasting this review defending the film from the critics.

  The film is based in the near future, when robots (rather believable ones) can be found in many homes and businesses performing menial or repetative tasks. A certain level of AI has been reached but these machines are far from perfect, and seem to malfunction with some regularity. This background sets the scene for Tom Sellek and his partner who are police officers who specialize in deactivating "runaway robots." It also forshadows the evil genius Gene Simmons who has a bunch of wonderful (and lethal) robotic "toys." He also has developed an explosive "smart bullet" which is encoded with a specific target's thermal pattern and can home in on that target, even around corners. Anyway, without giving anything away, the plot gets more involved as Sellek and partner track down Simmons to a final exciting showdown.

  My best recommendation here is that if you are a fan of hard sci-fi movies, Tom Sellek, Kirstie Alley, or Gene Simmons (of Kiss fame) then you will probably like this movie. It is nicely paced, with some intense moments and a satisfying, if cliched ending. If you are on the fence about whether or not to see this film, get it. I'll wager you won't be disappointed.

  P.S. I'm waiting patiently for the DVD verson....more info

• Good story for what its worth
  This movie really isn't half bad, in my opinion. It's not going to stretch your imagination or present you with any moral dilemmas, but the film's pace is good - the plot moves along nicely - and Tom's sidekick/partner is pretty enough. Too bad there isn't any nudity (or at least none worth remembering, apparently) or I would've rated it higher. I was secretly pulling for Gene Simmons to kidnap Tom's love interest and give us an extended "damsel-in-distress" torture scene (always a plus in a he-man action film), but no such luck. Instead, we have Tom trying to de-fuse an unexploded bomb that's become lodged in her arm. Policing is a tough job for cops of the future, I guess.

  Anyway, it's good action fare that's worth seeing at least once, particularly if you like well-done robot props....more info

• Predictable, But Definitely Entertaining
  This was a decent suspense film with a different twist for its day, dealing with robots. The idea has since been copied in a few films.
  
  Here, cops go after runaway robots and after a villain who is trying to steal deadly weapons (gosh, that's original). The special effects are pretty good - especially since this was made over 20 years ago - and I particularly enjoyed watching the heat-seeking bullets fired from the villain's gun. Rock star Gene Simmons, by the way, does a nice job as the bad guy.
  
  As entertaining as this Tom Selleck movie was, it had a B-quality to it with some stupid and predictable dialog. The climactic scenes were very predictable. You just knew certain things were going to happen...and they did. Yet, it was still fun to watch and worth one look. I'd watch it again.
  ...more info
• not truly great, but very entertaining
  There are entertaining movies that aren't great, and great movies that aren't entertaining. If I had to choose one, I'd choose entertaining. That's what this movie delivers. If you're reading the reviews, you know the characters and the story. If you like science fiction with characters you can care about (or hate), a good story, some suspense, and creative technological features, you'll enjoy this film. It's far better than a lot of the garbage they're cooking up in CGI labs today!...more info
• Not for People with Short Attenshion Spans
  Runaway is a slow movie with some action. It has grate actors, directors and special efects so real that you feel it hapining to you. The plot is strate on and makes you think for a while that it might be a tipical machines running amuck. But when it takes a turn too a mistery then it ingulfs you in to a new and more then plosable world. Some of the tecnology has come true such as artifical inteligents in simple robots and learning robots not to mention small missiles. Runaway is a grate sifi movie for the smart sifi wacher....more info
• Magnum P.I. 2010 (Cue The Synth Music Please.....)
  I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid all those years ago, and it's future is pretty much as I remember. Do ya love films made in the past predicting what the future would be like....and getting it so wrong and dated in the process? Wow, then Runaway is for you. Best put, the world's now serviced by robots, not really smart human-like robots but more of the HAL/Doctor Who's Daleks kind. Tom Selleck's a cyber-policeman who you basically call when your robot starts acting crazy, and Gene Simmons (yes, that tongue-enhanced KISS demon who took off his make-up only one year prior) as a madman computer programmer who wants to turn The Jetsons Rosie into his own version of Blade Runner's Replicants. In fact, think of this film as a product of the popularity of 1982's Blade Runner, except much, much worse on every level. Add in a couple of assassin mini-spider robots filled with acid and a very young Kirstie Alley in a strip-search scene (?!!?), and pretty much that's Runaway. Selleck is like "Magnum P.I. 2010" here, so don't expect much of an acting stretch from him on this one. I guess the most surprising aspect of the film is that it's not only written by, but directed as well by Michael "Jurassic Park" Crichton, and does remind you of one of his earlier than this works in Westworld, just very 80's instead of 70's. Dated, corny, and should be seen by anyone who loves the inaccurate future films just once, Runaway could become one of your newest guilty pleasures on DVD.
  (RedSabbath Rating:7.0/10)...more info
• Give it a chance
  I'd like to think of myself as an advent movie buff and somewhat of an audio/video file. I pride myself with my Home Theater and DVD/LD/CD collection. I'd also like to think that I've got good taste in movies. There are 2 qualifying criteria that a movie has to meet for my to purchase it (and it doesn't necessarily have to have both of them in the movie), a good script and/or great sound. I enjoy a good story line, but I also love to hear reference quality sound (being that I have a home theater). That being said, I think this is a decent flick! I must admit though, I'm a little bias being a big Kiss fan. I ran out to see this movie in the theater (when it came out) solely for Gene Simmons. I also think Tom Selleck is a decent actor; he just has the Burt Reynolds and John Ritter syndrome (guys that can act but seem to pick very BAD movies to act in). It also has something that I whish more older movies would do...Dolby 4.0 (true Dolby pro-logic) and not just stereo. I know every movie can't be in THX-EX and they aren't all going to rumble your house either, but when they can spread the sound spectrum across the front 3 and the surround speakers, it just seems to accentuate the mood of the scene, and this movie can do just that! The only knock on the sound track is the 80's synthesizers, but it's used more for affect than anything else (so that makes it bearable). Now a little about the story, Tom Selleck plays a cop who transfers to the robotics division of the police department because of his fear of heights. His usual calls are responding to robots (that are designed to do menial labor) that have for some reason or another, malfunctioned (hence the term Runaway). Gene Simmons play a High-Tech villain named Charles Luther, and his only goal is to sell a newly developed bullet that is more like a "smart missal". It acquires and locks onto it's target by using a persons body heat signature and will literally follow your every move until it hit's the target. Selleck accidentally stumbles across this and kind of takes it upon himself (and dragging his partners in with him) to crack the case. The affects are cool for the time-line of the movie (especially the view from the "smart bullet" as it chases it's target) and the story isn't as bad as some of the reviews here make it out to be (even though everyone is entitled to their own opinion). If you are looking for a movie to take a chance on, Runaway could be that very movie....more info