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PLOT: A bit player hoodlum in New Jersey has to retrieve a hot gun when it's 'borrowed' by the little boy next door. His race to find the child (before the really bad guys do) involves Russian mobsters, American mobsters, dirty cops, filthy language and plenty of stupendously over-the-top bloodletting.
Running Scared is an unlikely story about kids and criminals. The script is so stupid that at times you'll want to roll your eyes in the dark; you won't, though, because you might miss some of the action.
A blend of implausible events, nicely choreographed violence and profuse profanity, Running Scared is filmed in spectacular Hyperactivision.
Okay, we just made that up, but some of the camera work and editing here are so intense and super-speedy that the experience of watching the film becomes a huge adrenaline rush.
Running Scared begins with mind-boggling violence as a drug deal is hijacked by masked men -- masked men who have sadly underestimated their victims.
When the dust settles, our hero Joey (Paul Walker of The Fast And The Furious fame) is instructed to hide two handguns on behalf of his mobbed-up colleagues.
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Joey, being a family man from Jersey and all, cleverly hides the guns at home. His own 10-year-old son and his son's best friend see the hiding place, and the best friend, who lives next door, takes one of the guns and uses it on his abusive stepfather. The stepfather is attached to Russian gangsters. The child runs away.
The gun connects Joey and his pals to the death of dirty cops, all of which means that two separate groups of mobsters and at least one bad cop (Chazz Palminteri) are all after the child (Cameron Bright), the gun, some money and, ah ... whatever. Who can keep up? This one plays like The Sopranos meets Night Of The Hunter.
On his side, the little boy with the gun runs away from his abusive home and smack dab into a crack addict, a violent pimp, evil cops, killer pedophiles (and worse yet, killer pedophiles in Hoboken), the bad stepfather all over again, an explosive suicide, various shootings, thefts and betrayals and a homicidal hockey team. In one night.
It could happen.
Running Scared involves many things to which you wouldn't want to expose your children, including all that bloody violence, extreme bad language, shots of Brazilian-waxed naked women that will only give them strange ideas and extensive use of da Joisey style double negatives, and you don't never want dem to be wit' chew when dey hear dat. Mindless violence and stupid violence: There is a difference. Really.
BOTTOM LINE: Writer/director Wayne Kramer (The Cooler) has an O. Henry sensibility when it comes to story and a sort of Attila the Hun sensibility when it comes to directing. He swoops down with his camera and everything goes boom. In an exhilarating violent kind of way, you understand.
(This film is rated R)