DVD Release Date: June 6, 2006

Cast:

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By Trey Livingston

In Running Scared, there’s not really anyone running around scared, so much as their people shooting, fighting and dropping the f-bomb a bunch (not that there’s anything wrong with any of that). Running Scared is released on DVD after a dismal run in theaters way back in February. Here’s to hoping it gets the audience it deserves on DVD.

THE MOVIE
Joey Gazelle (Paul Walker) gets rid of guns for the mob. A drug deal between his crew and another goes sour when masked thugs try to bust it up only to get themselves busted by Joey and his crew. Things get even worse when it turns out the masked thugs are really dirty cops. Joey is charged with getting rid of the gun used to kill the cops, only instead of throwing it into the river he keeps it locked up in a whole behind the wall in his basement, something that his son’s best friend Oleg (Cameron Bright), sees him do. Oleg takes the gun used to kill the cop, shoots his abusive father and takes off, sending Joey over the edge, willing to do anything to get the gun back before the cops, or even worse, the mob finds out what he’s done.

This movie is unrelentingly gritty, intense, fast paced, and hard-hitting, leaving no room for you to catch your breath. It’s filled with twist after twist, each one more insane than the last, that you’ll be shaking your head at the sheer audacity of them all. This is Paul Walker’s best performance ever, not to outdone by the great performances by pretty much everyone else in the movie. The characters are fully-fleshed out through actions rather than boring scenes of dialogue and the action is on par, if not better, than most big-budget summer fare (especially impressive considering its $17 million budget).

If David Blaine had to hold his breath until a kick-ass movie came out this summer, he’d still be holding it. If you want something that will take your breath away, then skip out on going to the movie theater, walk to your local video store and pick up Running Scared.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
The movie is presented in the glorious Widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio, yet it still doesn’t fill big enough to capture all the movie’s brutality. The digital transfer is flawless, which may hurt the experience of this movie rather than help it. There’s a CGI-ed moment where you actually see the film dissolve that emphasizes exactly what I’m talking about: Running Scared wasn’t meant to be seen so clearly, this is a raw movie better served viewed on a damaged film print than the clarity of a DVD. That said, if you ever get a chance to see a film print of the movie, take it.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound rocked my living room when I watched it, I can only imagine how those with the capability will use the DTS 6.1 Surround Sound. It puts every speaker, especially the sub-woofer, to use.

PACKAGE & LAYOUT
The package is your standard single-DVD plastic case, with gritty images showing various parts of the movie.

Inside, there’s a graphic novel by a guy name PJ Loughran whose artistic style matches the film perfectly, but instead of adding to the story in some way like the graphic novel contained with the The Punisher DVD, this graphic novel simply recaps the bloody, ice rink climax of the film. Nothing special, but it does let you go about the climax at your own pace if you thought the one in the film itself happened to fast.

SPECIAL FEATURES
The extras on this DVD are incredibly lacking, it seems like they could have gone into great depths at how they created such a massive feeling movie for such a small price but instead all we get are:

• A behind the scenes documentary – Starts off with the usually everyone saying how great everyone else is and how they’ll never be apart of a project like this ever again. Then it gets into some really interesting stuff about the Grimm Fairy Tale lore that lies underneath most of the characters, the look of the film, how they did certain shots with very little CGI where it looks like they used lots and how they lit the ice rink at the end of the movie. All that’s very good and all but it just barely scratches the surface
• Storyboards drawn by writer/director Wayne Kramer – They’re storyboards of the two most pivotal and intense moments of the movie shown side by side with the actual movie footage. Interesting if your at all curious how the little drawings translate to film.

DON’T BE SCARED TO RUN AND PICK THIS UP
Sorry, was that too corny? Whatever. This movie is an absolute blast – a swift kick to the ass for moviegoers that have been bored with an over abundance of special effects and cliché storytelling. The movie is great, the extras are lacking; for any fan of Paul Walker this is a must own, for any fan of action movies, this is a must rent before you make your final decision. I always suggest holding out for about a year if a DVD is released and there’s no deleted scenes or sequel in the works, but usually when you have as bad as a theatrical run as Running Scared did, the DVD is packed with all that cool stuff right out of the gate. However, as is the case with this movie it seems that those in charge of DVD ran away before giving it the due the movie deserves.

DVD Film Score: B
DVD Sounds and Visuals Score: A-
DVD Packaging and Layout Score: B-
DVD Extras Score: C
DVD Overall Score: B

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