I was talking to the gaming group a few weeks ago about a movie I had come across entitled Running Scared. They immediately admonished me for missing out on this film from 1986, which was a violent buddy cop tale starring Billy Crystal and the late great Gregory Hines. They wanted to know how I could have avoided coming across the film on one of the endless replays on cable back in the late 1980's to early 1990's.
But I wasn't talking about that film. I was referring to the movie of the same name which was released in 2006.
This seemed to endlessly confuse my buddies. Is the new film a remake of the original? Was Billy Crystal involved? Surely it was at least a cop buddy movie!
They had a hard time accepting the fact that the new movie might just have the same title, but it has absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Crystal's prior magnus opus. While the 1980's work was a comedy held together by a plot that called for the occasional gun fight, the most recent film is a depressing and violent gangster tale.
Another reason why the 2006 movie might be labeled as "depressing" is due to the fact that it is gawdawful. We're talking about a really, really bad movie here, folks.
The plot concerns a devoted family man who also works as a gofer for the mafia. When a drug buy turns bloody, his boss gives him the guns used in the shootout to be disposed of so they can't be used as evidence. But, for whatever reason, he keeps the weapons. This turns out to be a problem when the neighbor kid spots the gofer's hiding place and decides he wants to steal one of those guns. This results in a frantic nighttime search through the mean streets of the big city, with both the gofer and the mob looking for the kid.
Let me tell you, the plot is a real mess. Every time the action started to slow down, the scriptwriter tosses in another hackneyed cliche in order to keep things moving along at a brisk pace. The characters just have to go through one goddamn thing after another, and it was a bit too much. About half way through I was rolling my eyes and muttering "Oh, for Pete's sake!" to the screen every time yet another idiotic plot contrivance popped up. Throw in some really heavy-handed symbolism and you get entertainment that is insulting to your intelligence.
So this is a bad movie. Bad bad bad! But I do have to admit that it is put together really well.
The cinematography is top notch, the sets and locations used lend the right mood, and the cast tries their best with the crappy material. The combat sequences, while silly in the extreme so far as realism is concerned, are shot with a great deal of imagination and verve.
I decided to write this mini review due to a post over at Legion's Fate. Ctone dissects the combat scenes, and even has a fair number of pictures to illustrate his points. Worth a look.
Bottom line is that Running Scared (2006) isn't worth your time unless you are interested in the artistry that goes in to making a movie. If that sort of thing doesn't ring your bell, then you would be better served by checking out the buddy cop film that was released two decades previously.