Runaway Reviews

A futuristic "good guy versus bad guy" picture that is stylistically born out of the pages of a comic book. Sgt. Jack Ramsey (Tom Selleck) is a charming, rugged policeman who is raising a young son with the help of a robot maid, while risking his life as a specialist in terminating "runaways"--robots that short-circuit and become killers. A sudden rash of runaways causes a panic, and Ramsey is placed in charge of the investigation with a new partner, Karen Thompson (Cynthia Rhodes). Together they begin their pursuit of Luther (Gene Simmons), an evil genius who is programming the robots for his own devices. Directed by Michael Crichton, who is responsible for such technological suspense films as WESTWORLD (1973) and COMA (1978), RUNAWAY offers much of the same quirky enjoyment as those two films. The problem with RUNAWAY is that it never reaches deeper than a playful level, amounting to nothing more than great but shallow entertainment. Selleck provides a thoughtful performance, coming across as a real, feeling person instead of the expected Rambo-esque tough-guy stereotype. Another surprise is the debut appearance of Simmons as the campy evil genius. Simmons previously made a name for himself as the lead singer for the popular rock group Kiss.