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Running Scared

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Running Scared (2006)

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Reviews Counted:126

Fresh:50

Rotten:76

Average Rating:4.5/10

Consensus: This film runs with frenetic energy punctuated by gratuitous violence but sorely lacks in plot, character development and stylistic flair.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for pervasive strong brutal violence and language, sexuality and drug content.

Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins

Genre: Action/Adventure

Theatrical Release:Feb 24, 2006 Wide

Box Office: $6,651,790

Synopsis: Not the 1986 Billy Crystal-Gregory Himes buddy cop movie of the same name, 2006's RUNNING SCARED is writer/director Wayne Kramer's (THE COOLER) take on the violent gangster crime genre. Paul Walker... Not the 1986 Billy Crystal-Gregory Himes buddy cop movie of the same name, 2006's RUNNING SCARED is writer/director Wayne Kramer's (THE COOLER) take on the violent gangster crime genre. Paul Walker (THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS) plays Joey Gazelle, a low-level Mafia thug who finds himself in the middle of a drug deal gone wrong, with a hail of gunfire and some dead undercover cops as the net result. Fleeing from the scene, Joey is charged with getting rid of one of the steel snub-nosed revolvers used to kill the cops. Instead, he stashes the gun in his own basement, just in case he ever needs insurance against his own gang. Unfortunately, Joey's 10-year-old son, Nicky (Alex Neuberger), and his best friend, Oleg (Cameron Bright), see where the weapon is hidden. Oleg, whose Russian mob-connected stepfather is physically abusive towards him and his mother, steals the gun to exact revenge. Shooting his father in the shoulder, he runs away with the "hot" gun. This forces Joey to embark on a nightmarish 18-hour journey to locate Oleg and the gun before his own gang, the Russian Mafia, or bad cop Detective Rydell (Chazz Palminteri) finds them or the true link between the gun and the crimes. In a film dedicated to directors Sam Peckinpah, Walter Hill, and Brian De Palma in the closing credits, Kramer splatters the screen with a level of violence that would make those masters proud. Drained of bright colors, stylish, and feverishly fast-paced, RUNNING SCARED is one bloody thrill-ride. [More]

Starring: Chazz Palminteri, Paul Walker, Cameron Bright, Ivana Milicevic

Starring: Chazz Palminteri, Paul Walker, Cameron Bright, Ivana Milicevic, Johnny Messner, Vera Farmiga

Director: Wayne Kramer

Director: Wayne Kramer
Screenwriter: Wayne Kramer
Producer: Brett Ratner, Andrew Pfeffer
Composer: Mark Isham
Studio: New Line Cinema

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Jun 6, 2006

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • Running Scared (New Line)
  • Slick, fast-paced and brutally shocking, this gritty actioner will jolt your senses like nothing else you've ever experienced. Struggling mob hand Joey Gazelle (Paul Walker) finds his life turned inside-out when a "hot" weapon he's in charge of concealing goes missing. With two mafia families and a team of crooked cops watching his every move, Joey sets out on a chilling, bloody pursuit, maneuvering his way through a horrific web of creeps and criminals, praying he can retrieve the gun and make it home to his family -- alive.
  • Source: Warner Home Video
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    Reviews for Running Scared

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    41 - 60 (sorted by date)
    Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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    Since The Target Audience Is A Mature One, Why The Matinee Ending?

    Full Review Source: Outtakes With Fiore | comment Comment
    02/26/06
    Fiore Mastracci
    Fiore Mastracci
    Outtakes With Fiore

    The action movie is the cheese sandwich of film genres, but efforts like 'Running Scared' remind us all too rarely that they don't have to be Kraft Singles on Wonder Bread.

    Full Review Source: Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas) | comment Comment
    02/25/06
    Jonathan R. Perry
    Jonathan R. Perry
    Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas)

    A film with ADD.

    Full Review Source: Beaumont Journal | comment Comment
    02/25/06
    Danny Minton
    Danny Minton
    Beaumont Journal

    an over-the-top thrill ride that seems to have been cobbled from the stylistic excesses of Guy Ritchie, the flip violence of Tarantino and the story outline of Scorcese's After Hours

    Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
    02/25/06
    Laura Clifford
    Laura Clifford
    Reeling Reviews

    Hello, cheesy fun! [It's] a roller coaster of a thrill ride.

    Full Review Source: Internet Reviews | comment Comment
    02/25/06
    Steve Rhodes
    Steve Rhodes
    Internet Reviews

    More like 'Running with Scissors.' A terrible, awful, hilarious misfire. Folks, a new camp classic is born.

    Full Review Source: Bangor Daily News (Maine) | comment Comment
    02/25/06
    Christopher Smith
    Christopher Smith
    Bangor Daily News (Maine)

    This film is so over the top at times that it takes one's breath away.

    Full Review Source: Greenwich Village Gazette | comment Comment
    02/25/06
    Eric Lurio
    Eric Lurio
    Greenwich Village Gazette

    Running Scared keeps ratcheting up the intensity, but to what end?

    Full Review Source: CinemaBlend.com | comment Comment
    02/24/06
    Joshua Tyler
    Joshua Tyler
    CinemaBlend.com

    Ethnic stereotyping, moral qualms and plot improbabilities aside, you just wish a movie like Running Scared wasn't so anxious to be exciting all the time: It gets so monotonous.

    Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
    02/24/06
    Liam Lacey
    Liam Lacey
    Globe and Mail
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    The only things more abundant than gunshot-riddled corpses are the ridiculous plot twists and the laughably bad lines of dialog...it's likely to be the most fun at a bad movie you'll have for a while.

    Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com | comment Comment
    02/24/06
    Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
    Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
    TheMovieChicks.com

    The clunky happily-ever-after ending is a bit too nicey-nice but with all of the wall-to-wall action, ultra-violent gunplay and over-the-top writing it is an amusing ride.

    Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
    02/24/06
    Robin Clifford
    Robin Clifford
    Reeling Reviews

    May be the first original screenplay that unfolds in a setting so grim, despairing and yet slightly hallucinatory that it could’ve been adapted from Grand Theft Auto.

    Full Review Source: FilmStew.com | comment Comment
    02/24/06
    Brent Simon
    Brent Simon
    FilmStew.com

    There's clearly supposed to be tension between Joey's good and bad sides. Sure, he's a mobster, but he's also a family man, which makes him... gray. (Not black and white = very sophisticated.)

    Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
    02/24/06
    Allison Benedikt
    Allison Benedikt
    Chicago Tribune

    [Director Wayne] Kramer, who showed such promise as a filmmaker with The Cooler, takes a couple of giant steps backward with Running Scared.

    Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
    02/24/06
    Louis B. Hobson
    Louis B. Hobson
    Jam! Movies

    In the opening minutes of Running Scared, a drug deal goes bad and takes the entire movie with it.

    Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
    02/24/06
    Geoff Pevere
    Geoff Pevere
    Toronto Star
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    It's way too violent and perversely excessive for many tastes, but there's more to its outrages than meets the eye, and that second look is well worth taking.

    Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
    02/24/06
    Maitland McDonagh
    Maitland McDonagh
    TV Guide's Movie Guide

    [It's] generic pulp with some serious plot holes and more crane shots than any film needs.

    Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
    02/24/06
    Daniel Eagan
    Daniel Eagan
    Film Journal International

    There is a child at the center of this ultraviolent story, and the devices used to keep us on tenterhooks regarding his survival are appallingly manipulative.

    Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
    02/24/06
    Moira MacDonald
    Moira MacDonald
    Seattle Times

    A ferociously energetic piece of filmmaking, Running Scared makes the seedy Vegas milieu of writer-director Wayne KramerWayne Kramer's first feature, The Cooler, look as tasteful as The Sound of Music.

    Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
    02/24/06
    Justin Chang
    Justin Chang
    Variety

    Running Scared is for people who like movies, who don't need to have a movie mean something in order to enjoy it and who can delight at the sheer craft of a story designed only to shock, amuse and hold an audience.

    Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
    02/24/06
    Mick LaSalle
    Mick LaSalle
    San Francisco Chronicle
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic
     
     
    41 - 60 (sorted by date)
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    Latest News for Running Scared

    February 22, 2007: Box Office Guru Preview: Jim Carrey Aims to Terrify Moviegoers
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    Tyler Perry's follow-up to "Diary of a Mad Black Woman," "Madea's Family Reunion" had no trouble leaping to the top of the box office in its first weekend,... More...

    February 24, 2006: "Scared" Director Seeks "Evil
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