eSJayBee
03-05-2006, 01:07 PM
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Last week,I decided to go see Running Scared. No, I don’t mean the 1986 movie with the same title starring Billy Crystal. I mean the recent R-isn’t-bad-enough-of-a-rating Paul Walker movie filled with the coarsest of coarse language, nudity and enough violence to last you the rest of the winter and spring.
The story starts off with Joey Gazelle (played by Paul Walker) and his Italian colleagues in a drug deal gone sour. Masked men interrupt the deal and get shot down by Joey and the Italians. After the smoke’s cleared, they find out the masked ones are dirty cops; they’ve just become cop killers. Joey’s Italian friends tell him to get rid of their guns used to kill the dirty cops. Joey take the guns back home and hides the weapons in the basement. His young son, Nicky (Alex Neuberger) and the kid’s Russian neighbour-friend, Oleg (Cameron Bright) happen to see this. Oleg takes one of the dirty guns back home and shoots his abusive father, injuring him. Oleg runs off with the gun. Now to avoid being pinned for killing those dirty police and to avoid being killed by the Italians for messing up, Joey must recover all the slugs, retrieve the dirty gun and find Oleg before he can tell the cops where he got the gun. All in a single day.
The movie’s got a dark atmosphere to it, even during the day. It’s akin to Underworld: Evolution. The director (Wayne Kramer) has given this film a remarkable visual style. Their manner in showing flashbacks is certainly different than what Hollywood’s shown for the past decades. The big fight in the hockey rink near the end of the movie is also handled in a very unique manner. Normally, it would have been boring but the whole scene is done in the dark, under a black light with all the markings on the ice, puck and hockey/mob henchmen glow.
Given the fact that this story takes place in the span of an entire day, you’d think the story summary above would have a hard time being squeezed in but Kramer has written and directed it just right to fit it in perfectly and still provide a sub-plot involving Oleg being kidnapped by a couple of murderous pedophiles which throws Joey’s wife, Theresa (Vera Farmiga) into it as the heroin. A small number of the other secondary characters all have their own portion of the movie’s running time to flesh out their characters. All without dragging the movie along longer than it needs to be.
This movie is definitely for a mature audience. Every third word spoken in this movie is foul language. There is frontal nudity and sexual acts. The married pedophile couple are handled in such a revolting and creepy way. But its violence is what really stands out. A stereotypical pimp beating the tar out of his whore. A filthy, addicted, bum shoots up a nasty, public bathroom for drugs. Never have I seen a movie that puts in three actions that leave me holding my manly pride in protective fear.
The story works well until the ending where it seems to go for a surprise change which attempts to try to make the story smart when it really didn’t need that extra bit at all. In fact, the extra bit kind of wounds the whole story in general. Still, if you are into these kinds of violent movies then this is worth a watch or two. Particularly because of the interesting premise and visual style.
Final verdict: 4 out of 5 stars
Last week,I decided to go see Running Scared. No, I don’t mean the 1986 movie with the same title starring Billy Crystal. I mean the recent R-isn’t-bad-enough-of-a-rating Paul Walker movie filled with the coarsest of coarse language, nudity and enough violence to last you the rest of the winter and spring.
The story starts off with Joey Gazelle (played by Paul Walker) and his Italian colleagues in a drug deal gone sour. Masked men interrupt the deal and get shot down by Joey and the Italians. After the smoke’s cleared, they find out the masked ones are dirty cops; they’ve just become cop killers. Joey’s Italian friends tell him to get rid of their guns used to kill the dirty cops. Joey take the guns back home and hides the weapons in the basement. His young son, Nicky (Alex Neuberger) and the kid’s Russian neighbour-friend, Oleg (Cameron Bright) happen to see this. Oleg takes one of the dirty guns back home and shoots his abusive father, injuring him. Oleg runs off with the gun. Now to avoid being pinned for killing those dirty police and to avoid being killed by the Italians for messing up, Joey must recover all the slugs, retrieve the dirty gun and find Oleg before he can tell the cops where he got the gun. All in a single day.
The movie’s got a dark atmosphere to it, even during the day. It’s akin to Underworld: Evolution. The director (Wayne Kramer) has given this film a remarkable visual style. Their manner in showing flashbacks is certainly different than what Hollywood’s shown for the past decades. The big fight in the hockey rink near the end of the movie is also handled in a very unique manner. Normally, it would have been boring but the whole scene is done in the dark, under a black light with all the markings on the ice, puck and hockey/mob henchmen glow.
Given the fact that this story takes place in the span of an entire day, you’d think the story summary above would have a hard time being squeezed in but Kramer has written and directed it just right to fit it in perfectly and still provide a sub-plot involving Oleg being kidnapped by a couple of murderous pedophiles which throws Joey’s wife, Theresa (Vera Farmiga) into it as the heroin. A small number of the other secondary characters all have their own portion of the movie’s running time to flesh out their characters. All without dragging the movie along longer than it needs to be.
This movie is definitely for a mature audience. Every third word spoken in this movie is foul language. There is frontal nudity and sexual acts. The married pedophile couple are handled in such a revolting and creepy way. But its violence is what really stands out. A stereotypical pimp beating the tar out of his whore. A filthy, addicted, bum shoots up a nasty, public bathroom for drugs. Never have I seen a movie that puts in three actions that leave me holding my manly pride in protective fear.
The story works well until the ending where it seems to go for a surprise change which attempts to try to make the story smart when it really didn’t need that extra bit at all. In fact, the extra bit kind of wounds the whole story in general. Still, if you are into these kinds of violent movies then this is worth a watch or two. Particularly because of the interesting premise and visual style.
Final verdict: 4 out of 5 stars