Sadly Over-hyped

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

RUNNING RED is another straight to video action thriller from the team at PM Entertainment. This one stars the hulking and bearded Jeff Speakman as a Russian who defects to America and begins a new life, only for his past to begin catching up with him as he's tasked to assist some very shady types in a sinister job. What follows is low rent in the extreme, merrily ripping off footage such as the bus chase from RED HEAT (again!) and offering the usual gamut of brief martial arts interactions, explosions, and shootings. It's fair to say that Speakman is on autopilot here while Angie Everhart has the thankless role of his wife. It's one not of PM's best, that's for sure.

Be careful!!!! SPOILERS HERE!!!! Don`t read this if you haven't seen the film, and you are going to see it.Well, you are warned. What I wanted to tell you about this film is that is totally impossible how it starts!!! The film starts with some action in... Spain?? We can see how some Russian "marines" have to destroy a Chemical Plant where someone is manufacturing Chemical weapons. Of course, the "marines" kill everybody, and a MIG??? destroys the factory....Well, I can't believe this!! This is totally stupid!! Spain is a member of the European Union, very civilized, very Rich (number 8 of the world), and the situation described at the film is totally impossible!I feel ofended, i can't really believe that at this days, there is still people stupid enough to direct an stupid film like this one!And, please..... no one in Spain uses that stupid "hat" worn by the soldier who speaks with the secretary. Ah, of course, the name of the secretary is Maria.... is this an obsession? Not all the Spanish girls are named Maria (in spite of the fact that, for example, I have fallen in love with a girl named Maria :P)

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.

I saw an answer print of this film at the lab. I thought it was really well directed for a low budget action film. Also I thought Jeff Speakman was better than I had seen him before. All in all a nice effort by the filmmakers.