Running Scared - Posted orignially @ www.commoncritics.com

Running Scared

Running Scared was a masterpiece. I loved every minute of it both time I have seen it. This picture has so many interesting twists and turns that it definitely needs to be seen a second time to pick up on all the minor details related to the plot. It is by far in my top 5 movies of all time, even with Paul Walker being the main actor.

The overall story is about a guy, Walker, who runs around with people involved in organized crime. A drug sell is busted up by some criminals who are then shot and killed. After they are all dead, except Walker and the son of the head of the organized crime, they realize that the dudes that busted up the drug sell were all cops, crooked cops. Walker is given the gun to throw away, but he keeps it as "insurance" against these guys in his secret hiding space. Walker's son and his next door neighbor, Oleg, are playing hockey in the basement and see the hiding spot. After Walker leaves, they inspect the hiding spot and see all the guns. Oleg manages to steal the one Walker just put in there and takes it home. Oleg comes from a very abusive home, and when his dad starts to beat his mom and him, he pulls out the gun and shoots his dad. Walker hears it and runs over there and realizes that it was his gun. He has an epiphany of sorts that the cops will find the gun, or Oleg, and he, as well as the rest of the mob he is working for, will be tied to the original shooting of the crooked cops. Not only that, but Walker will be killed for not disposing of the gun when he was told to in the first place. Then Walker starts "running scared". The story follows him as he tries to locate Oleg and the gun before the cops do.

The great thing about this movie however is the darkness that surrounds the entire movie. The darkness exemplifies the evil acts that you see committed throughout the movie. The movie floats through the night and takes the viewer to all the seediest places that normal people would never see or experience, especially in one night. Oleg runs to a park and sees a transient smoking some type of drug in the darkness. He approaches Oleg and forces him to help him steal some drugs from a drug dealer at the park. After that, Oleg runs into a hooker and a pimp and helps the hooker get away from her pimp that was trying to kill her. He is then caught by the cops released to his dad so that he will talk to his dad and confess that Walker gave him the gun. He gets away from his dad and hides in the back of a van and is taken to a couples house. This couple is heavily into kiddie porn and tries to kill Oleg like they have killed quite a few others. Walker on the other hand meets with the mob in a shady strip club at one point, runs into a poker game in the projects in New York, and ends up at a ice hockey rink with only black lights on as they discuss killing him. As far as experiencing that shadier side of things, Oleg wins.

The one thing that I loved about the movie is the lighting. Everything that society looks down upon was done in dark lighting. The only normal lighting seen in the movie was at the diner where they eat a few times, at Walker's house, and after the incident is over and Oleg and Walker are heading home. Its also interesting to not the dirt and the grime that is associated with the darkness in the scenes. The park where Oleg first runs to is covered with litter and graffiti. The diner and Walker's house are not clean, but normal looking. Sure things are out of place, but it's normal to have a little bit of a mess here and there. To emphasize the light relating to the evilness of the acts performed, the director switches it up when Oleg runs into the kiddie pornographers. The house he goes to is eerily clean and neat and super bright; brighter than the entire movie so far. This is the direct opposite of everything the viewer has seen thus far in the movie and it is highly noticeable. This again goes to show how the lighting in the movie exemplifies the darkness of the events surrounding our main characters.

Other than that, I was a huge fan of the camera angles, the shakiness, the quick cuts, the image flashes, quick 2x speed scenes, and the flashback/rewind sequences. It keeps you on the edge of your seat and makes it difficult for the viewer to look away for even a second. The movie was very fast paced, very suspenseful, very violent, very gory, but VERY good. I was surprised when reading about the movie that the director had expected an NC-17 rating at first, but was shocked when it received a R rating instead. That tells you what kind of movie it is, ie. not for kids.

After all is said and done, I would give this movie a 8.5-9 out of 10. It is brilliant. SEE IT!