So many studio films these days feel carefully plotted, and even those that shock and thrill audiences often locate their twists within the carefully prescribed confines of their genre. For those who appreciate the particular coarseness of American cinema, but still like a little danger and careening uncertainty in their cinematic diet, might I suggest writer-director Wayne Kramer’s Running Scared.
The film opened in February on the strength of leading man Paul Walker, and seemed a cinch to pull in a large swath of underfed action fans. But its debut booking in only 1,600 theaters and a marketing campaign that couldn’t successfully convey its rangy, idiosyncratic appeal submarined the movie’s commercial prospects, and it pulled in under $7 million domestically. Very diverse critical opinion — some loathed its deep, scandalous plot niches and over-the-top violence — certainly didn’t help matters; it was somehow as if every straightforward action fan telepathically picked up on the movie’s handcrafted eccentricity while potentially sympathetic arthouse fans read populist reviews dinging the movie as brawny, exaggerated and sadistic.
Walker stars as Joey Gazelle, a low-level mobster who finds his life turned upside down when a drug deal goes bad and he’s put in charge of getting rid of a hot weapon used in the shooting of a crooked cop. Before he can, however, the next-door neighbor’s kid and one of his son’s friends, little Oleg Yugorsky (Cameron Bright), finds and uses the weapon on his abusive father, setting off a charged dash through the night in which, alternately, Joey and his wife Teresa (Vera Farmiga), each try to find both Oleg and the gun before the corrupt Detective Rydell (Chazz Palminteri) or Joey’s own criminal family can turn on them. Twists come aplenty, but the movie’s best cards lie in its colorfully out-there supporting ensemble, which includes Johnny Messner, Bruce Altman and Elizabeth Mitchell.
Arriving on DVD in a fine 2.35:1 transfer that preserves both the aspect ratio and lurid color palette of the movie’s original theatrical presentation, Running Scared comes with an English 5.1 Dolby surround sound track and a DTS ES 6.1 surround sound track, as well as English and Spanish subtitles. A graphic novel from PJ Loughran which recreates the film’s climactic hockey-rink sequence is included, along with five minutes of comparative split-screen between Kramer’s storyboards and two finished scenes, as well as an audio-commentary track with Kramer in which he reveals, creepily, the herpes medication prescription in the medicine cabinet of a supporting character.
An 18-minute making-of featurette, meanwhile, includes on-set interviews with all of the principal cast plus producer Michael Pierce and production designer Toby Corbett, and impressively tips us off on a few amazingly non-CGI, practical camera set-ups and shots. Running Scared may have foundered at the box office, but there’s no reason not to give it a shot on DVD, and this nice disc allows for the jaw-dropping unease it induces to be more comfortably experienced at home. B+ (Movie) B+ (Disc)