Running Scared, 2006

Review without spoilers: (My main problems were with specific parts and things that could be, or are spoilers, and a better review ill be given farther down this post) This movie is fast paced, hardly ever letting up. The problem I have is it seems to have gone through at least 2 people who disagreed with each-other on what kind of movie they should make. Some one wanted a gangster/shoot-em-up action movie, and they mostly won over, and probably had the script last, allowing them to make the most changes, but it seems like someone who wanted to make a psycho-thriller/horror or something along those lines, got to do a scene, the credits, and may have forced their way in a bit throughout the movie, though not really noticeable (except in one very out of place scene). It also seems that not a single character took an English class. It takes a lot of swearing to get me to care in the slightest but when you say the exact same swear every sentence, it starts to get extremely annoying. This movie wasn't complete garbage, I was fairly entertained, it was just disappointing. +SPOILER ALERT+ The remainder of the review contains parts of the movie that may be or are spoilers. You have been warned. I have already mentioned the swearing, which is probably the lowest of my complaints. Something else that got to me, on the end of someone wanting this to be a horror, not an action movie was the scene with the kid in the bathroom of the pedophiles'/sick people's house. While he is talking on the phone, there is a strange, almost demonic shadow of what appears to be some kind of human-like creature, who creates the motion of eerily scratching the opaque glass with long spiny fingers. This creature would have been a great addition, except that nothing even similar to this appears, or is even hinted to until the animation during the end credits. It was completely out of place. The creators of this movie also seem to think that if a twist ending is good, two is better. First off, the twist ending has to be good to start with. All of this killing, and crime, and rushing around, and when the main character is about to be killed he reveals a wire. Apparently he has been an undercover cop for 12 years, and he is the only one that knows about it. Fantastic. I was being drawn in finally, and then they have to kill it for me. Then the main character, is heavily implied to die of blood loss, including his wife going to a funeral. She goes home and says that she never wants to have to go to his funeral again, and there he is fixing their car! Everyone is happy, all the kids are their, they are the perfect family in a perfect world, with not a care anywhere, laughing it up with their great fortune. What is this? The entire movie has been completely dark, and now an instant change to the complete contrast for a few seconds before the credits. Did they feel they HAD to have a happy ending? Which brings me to my next point, I found no reason to care about a happy ending. I never got any kind of connection with any of the characters. They didn't make you really feel for any of them. Well, that's not entirely true. You feel for the main character at first thinking "Oh what a great dad! He's got problems, but who doesn't" but as the movie goes on I feel he was lucky to have what he had. You feel for the kid with the gun at first. He was heavily abused, give him some slack, but then he goes out prancing about with a gun, hiding it in a toilet with his friend. I don't care about what kind of stress he was under, I can only forgive so much stupidity. Even the reasons to feel for the characters seem cookie-cutter, cheap shots at the audience. My favorite part of the movie was the credits, and that wasn't because "Finally the movie is over!" surprisingly, to tell you the truth the movie was fairly entertaining. The reason I liked the credits was it essentially replayed a lot of the movie in a concise way from the point of view of the kid with the gun's imagination. It was very "Lewis Carroll-esque" I guess you could say. It fit with the bathroom scene too, as well as the main title if you watched it on DVD. This movie has entertainment value, but leaves much to be desired.

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a great film, exciting and suspenseful with a few unforgettable scenes. the kid (Oleg) played by Cameron Bright is great here and he is in for a bright future. a tough, violent movie made with great expertise.

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