marais-alexander This film and films like it (Training Day, Reservoir Dogs, Smokin' Aces, Domino, etc.) belong to their own categories. I don't view them as just "crime" films. They are almost something more nightmarish. They are darker, grittier, and often set in a more heightened reality. Yet it never feels too over the top to not be believable, which the scenarios in this film (although plentiful, this makes Gotham City look like Paradise) sadly are. Whether it's a crack-addicted hobo, a sadistic Mafia family, crooked cops, pedophile serial killers, children in peril, a man on the run, a wife turned vigilante, these are all sadly everyday realities. This is a scary movie, not as in horror, but in terms of just being so damn creepy. But it's also a hell-fired, ultra-violent entertainment extravaganza that pulls you in and almost makes you laugh to keep from crying at how sadistic it gets. Wayne Kramer, a native South African, seems to take the South African lifestyle with him. You would almost think the setting should be Joburg instead of Jersey. Either way, if you can handle gore, you're in for a big, dark, surprisingly artful and even heartfelt adventure through hell. Enjoy at your own peril.

videorama-759-859391 This Tarantino'esque film really delivers. May'be this is better than a Tarantino flick. This fresh film, one exhilarating ride for the viewer, never lets up, has great plot points, that keeps the story running, and really intensifies it parts. It has heavy doses of violence, great shootouts, in the beginning and near the end, and has wonderful performances from actors who really give it their all. This includes gaunt jawed, face lifted Palminteri, as a crooked cop, involved in hijacking a lot of moolah, from a drug shipment, in the first shootout, leaving a few mob guys plenty pi..ed. You'll love how Chazz gets it. Paul Walker is good as the lead. He actually acts, although his wise guy accent, comes apart, here and there. He plays second rate thug/family man, Joey Gazelle, who disposes of guns for the mob. Of course, deep down, he's a nice guy, though. When the neighbours abused kid, steals a gun from Walker's private stash to use on his abusive pig of a Russian father, the same gun that was used to kill a dirty cop, hours prior, hell night begins for Walker, who must retrieve it, before the cops do. So we have a great situation movie, with Walker trying to track the kid, Oleg down, where over the course of the night, the gun ends up in different hands, making Walker's job harder. Should of hid it in a safer place, Paul, preferably with a lock on it. Oleg has a very eventful night, encountering some really seedy ugly sorts (shouldn't go out at night) but none more evil than a paedophile couple who kidnap him, but I won't even go into that. This is what despoiled the quality of the movie, by I forgive Kramer for bringing such a larger than life, if a little bit excessive, action thriller to the table, one that repels at times, but only cause of it's themes. This movie is a great nights viewing. The climax where Walker's held face down on the icy ground of a ice skating rink, where his face is used as a human hockey puck, is very violent indeed, and climactic, and what use of location, than a ice rink. Running Scared is a prime example of what exciting action movies are made of. That's if you like shootouts and violence, but also if you wanna be weirded out a bit, too, where you may very well, find yourself drained out, at the end of this wild and exciting ride, that could have Tarantino, a touch envious.

proterozoic Two corrupt policemen are dead after trying to rip off a drug deal in a hotel room; the top gangster's lieutenant is told to DISPOSE of the murder weapons. He goes home. In his basement, Dumb Lieutenant hides the guns behind a false plywood wall that doesn't lock and isn't attached to anything - seriously it looks like it's just leaning there, waiting to blow over in a draft. He is seen by his ten-year-old son Nicky, because he didn't think to check behind some boxes.But we're getting ahead of ourselves - before Dumb Lieutenant goes downstairs, he corners his woman somebody in the laundry room for some hot character development. The first thing we see of her is ass; it takes about 12 seconds before we see her face.The face belongs to Vera Farmiga, who is a fine actress and the only character who wasn't crippled by stupidity, but I could feel fake enthusiasm emanate from her.Their lovemaking pauses, as he looks up and meets her gaze. Her fingers rest lightly on his cheeks, as her eyes say, "We're gonna get through this scene."(He eventually calls her "Mrs. G," clearing up her status. Unless you missed the fact so far that his last name is "Gazelle." "The name is Gazelle. Joey Gazelle.")Back to hiding the guns - Dumb Lieutenant's about to impregnate his wife with his designer stubble, when she stops him abruptly, saying "No no no, Nicky is here." Where? "Oh, upstairs with his creepy friend Oleg." Dumb Lieutenant goes to the stairs and calls out to Nicky, hearing no reply or any sound of any kind. He draws no conclusions from this. Maybe he's still got hearing damage from the shootout. This would explain why he misses a loud crashing sound from the basement as he's opening the door. He goes downstairs and sees cans of paint stacked like goalposts, and two hockey sticks lying on the ground. Then he sighs, and doesn't look around to see if the boys were still there before popping the lid off his hiding place, where a mound of guns is just literally sitting there. He stashes the new guns without unloading them.Other people are stupid, too.Nicky's creepy friend from next door has an abusive Russian dad who sits and rewatches a John Wayne movie and flies into a rage over John Wayne getting shot, and talks about how awesome John Wayne is and how Duked The Duke is Duking. The dad is photographed in the dark, in mad flickering edits, with a hollow grin and bugged-out eyes. He could almost be menacing, but then he rants about how no one disrespects The Duke, not in my house! Who get money for this family, who put food on table? Oleg's dad has an inexplicable boner for John Wayne, and he can't pull it off. Every time he gets close to being genuinely scary, he true-grits his teeth and delivers another line about John Wayne.It's not just people or the plot - dumbness infects underlying fabric of the film itself.It looks like it was made by the Wachowskis' slowest student. It's over-cut and over-edited. Everything flickers, zooms and shakes. There are reenactments of things like gunshots where you follow the trajectory of the bullet, really fancy. However, they often immediately follow a scene where the trajectory is already made totally clear. It's hard to know if these recaps are there because they thought we wouldn't otherwise understand what happened, or because they felt that it's just how they shoot movies these days.Did I mention how badly the character-building went with Oleg's dad? The abused wife brings him a pizza to the TV room. He stares at her with giant vicious crazy eyes and says, "IT'S THICK CRUST" He then starts talking about John Wayne.These aren't spoilers. These are only the first 20 minutes.I wrote this far with the movie on pause at 24:20. I will now resume it, watch it to the end and write, below, if it gets better.---It got worse.

kai ringler First off the pedophile scenes are very creepy so if u don't care for this on screen .. don't watch. other than that the rest of the movie was just fine to me. lot's of action, Paul Walker plays a character who must dispose of a gun used that killed someone,, and once he accepts this assignment he spends the rest of the movie, either trying to get rid of it, or hiding from all the bad guys that want him dead. lot's of action in this one,, I felt this was Paul Walker's finest performance to date, because he got to play a total single lead character, whereas in his other movies he was mainly supporting in his roles. this movie has lot's of action, and gun play very interesting themes throughout, if you can get past the pedophile stuff then it's a good movie.