Review of Running Scared (2006) by Markb. — 31 Mar 2006

Writer-director Wayne Kramer previously gave us the romantic, Vegas-set crime drama The Cooler, which among other things is notable for featuring the most blatant deux ex machina ending I've seen in any film made in the last thirty years, which nevertheless worked nicely in context for three reasons: 1.

) Kramer was obviously AWARE that it was ridiculous, but plowed through anyway, 2.) even more than Woody Allen's acclaimed Match Point, The Cooler was a movie about blind dumb luck and so the twist was entirely in keeping with the theme, and 3.

) Kramer gets you to love and care about the William H. Macy and Maria Bello characters so deeply that you joyfully accept anything that allows them a happy ending. In his hyperactive, adrenaline-and-steroid-fueled thriller Running Scared, Kramer attempts to make an entire movie with the tone and feel of The Cooler's surprise climax, and you've got to admire the man's sheer chutzpah.

Paul Walker plays a low-life petty crook who spends an After Hours-like night in urban hell trying to retrieve a hot gun; in contriving his journey Kramer features tons of bloody shootouts and other methods for his scuzzball cast to decimate each other with, punctuated by uses of the F-word and its brothers, sisters and cousins that would make Tony Montana blush (I counted four variants on rhymes-with-truck in one sentence!) and numerous plot elements dealing with various types of child abuse.

Clearly there are two ways to respond to Kramer's methodology: you can either be thoroughly repulsed and offended by it (and if you were I honestly can't blame you)...or you can do as I did: take it as an astonishing black comedy and grin nonstop through its two hours.

(Humble advice for Kramer: if someone praises you for this movie being intentionally funny, and you didn't intend it that way...smile, take the compliment, and shut up! However, from noting who he dedicated his film to in the closing credits, I strongly suspect that Kramer may be taking himself far more seriously than I did.

) My personal tolerance level for movie gore isn't what it was 20 years ago, but Kramer is so wildly over-the-top in his presentation that Running Scared has much the same exhiliarating effect as the House of Blue Leaves finale of Kill Bill, Volume 1 and nearly ALL of Sin City.

And Kramer seems to have fashioned a movie that's pitched exactly at the level of Paul Walker's acting style: in movies like Into The Blue, Walker hilariously rattles-through-his-lines-without-using-punctuation-or-taking-a-breath-or-anything, and Running Scared is so maniacally paced that the subject and star are a perfect match.