Obi-Norm
Lifetime Total
1+
IMDb Member
21 years
Reviews
Running Red (1999)
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.
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.