Running Red (1999)

Director:

Jerry P. Jacobs

Writers:

David C. Stauffer (written by) and
George Ferris (writer)

Release Date:

26 January 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Action

Tagline:

The business of killing just got personal...

Plot Keywords:

Independent Film

Cast

Jeff Speakman	...	Greg / Gregori
Angie Everhart	...	Katherine
Stanley Kamel	...	Alexi
Elya Baskin	...	Strelkin
Cassie Ray	...	Amanda
Bart Braverman	...	Mercier
Geoffrey Rivas	...	Díaz
DeLane Matthews	...	Stephanie
Robert Miano	...	Chambers
Laura Lemle	...	Aide
Christopher Boyer	...	Gorch
Kathleen Marshall	...	Waitress
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lisa Arturo	...	Fawn
Noah Blake	...	Sergei
Peter Koch	...	Dominic
Peter Kwong	...	Cheung
Steve McDaniel	...	Man in Convenient store getting hot dog
Bobby Tonelli	...	Cuban
Chick Vennera	...	Liquor Store Owner

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and some language.

Runtime:

USA:92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-15 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Germany:16 | USA:R (certificate #35685)

Company:

PM Entertainment Group

Movie Connections:

Edited from Red Heat (1988)

I wish I could figure out why I watch movies like this.

This movie, like so many others of its ilk, uses the retired soldier with skeletons in his closet. In this incarnation of this familiar set-up, the 'hero' is a former Soviet special forces soldier who fled to the U.S., with many of his comrades, after the fall of the old communist regime. The reasoning is he had done so many despicable things in the name of Mother Russia, that his life would certainly be forfeit if he were ever caught. Sound promising? I thought so.

Anyway, as often happens to ex-special forces officers trying to start a new life in the suburbs with their beautiful, super-model wife, child, white house with a picket fence, and an SUV, his old army buddies came looking for him to get a favor. Violence and mayhem ensue.

The one thing that makes this film particularly noteworthy, however, is the bus chase. I'm a big fan of chase scenes, and this one caught my eye. In fact, it caught my eye so much that I remembered it when, soon after and completely out of the blue, I watched a movie that I haven't seen in years -- Red Heat, with Schwarzenegger. The similarities were so striking that I waited for days until Running Red was on again, and I tuned in just for that chase scene. IT WAS THE SAME SCENE. I don't mean it was a similar chase with buses. I mean the editor from Running Red took the film from Red Heat and spliced it into his own movie!

I guess this kind of result should be expected from some low-budget fare, but the worst thing is that they included the part with Schwarzenegger destroying that famous fountain in Chicago, while the chase in Running Red was supposedly taking place in Detroit.

I guess this is a satisfying enough movie if you want to see some overly melodramatic acting with amusing violence, all of it kept low on the moralizing, but sometimes the laziness of film-makers in this genre astounds even me.