Black Cat Run - Tödliche Hetzjagd

I've actually got to give Frank Darabont some massive props here. He was coming off The Shawshank Redemption (1994) getting 7 Oscar nods and could have picked any project. So what did he do? He decided to produce one of his earliest screenplays, written back in the mid-80s when he was still struggling. Now I'm sure he wasn't handling it in detail, but the fact he stuck by his old script is awesome. Four convicts (including Peter Greene and Kevin J. O'Connor) escape from a chain gang and take a sheriff's daughter hostage. This doesn't sit well with Johnny Grissom (Patrick Muldoon), her boyfriend who takes off after them in his muscle car. If you can get past the first half hour where they are doing white trash Romeo and Juliet, there is a lot of fun to be had here. There are some fantastic car chases and KNB even delivers some bloody shootouts and roadway fatalities. The cast is good (if you can get past everyone thinking Texans sound like deep south folks) and Greene is a good villain (this was right before he nosedived his career thanks to hard drugs). Chuck Russell was going to direct at one point (he is an exec producer here), but D. J. Caruso does an admirable job in his feature debut. It premiered on HBO, which is a shame as it probably would have looked great on the big screen.

It was a 6* movie until the end when it just crapped all over itself. I gave it 5* because I lasted till the credits, but it is not that good :) If you don't mind that people that couldn't crawl in one scene, are straight up sprinting in the next, and lots of unrealistic stuff like that, if you don't mind that logic has nothing to do with the actions taken by the protagonists, then you might enjoy this.

I wish I chose something else.

"That boy's dumber than a barrel of hair," actually an unexpectedly funny line from the movie. Some one-of-a-kinds. This movie isn't necessarily a mystery (as IMDB listed), not necessarily an action/drama as stored at Movie Gallery, and surprisingly by the laughs I got, isn't necessarily a comedy. It will not win any awards, but it's a bunch of entertainment in one box! Did anyone take Smokey and the Bandit seriously - besides people who went out and bought black Trans Ams - but, it was great for two hours of looks. And so is "Black Cat Run." Warning: Overwhelming shoot 'em in the head violence, but there's lots going on here and the gore just comes and goes - not as revolting as you would guess. Jake Busey adds more than his annoying character takes away. There were a couple of reviews I ignored when I gave this movie a dance. If you even remotely like squealing tires, dusty car chases, or a guy fighting for his girl, dance a little baby.

I've read the other reviews posted here so far, and pretty much agree with all of them, both good and bad. It isn't an Oscar movie and yeah, there are some silly -- and typical -- violations of physics and logic in places. Despite those flaws, I really enjoyed this one a lot. All the characters felt real -- at least, real enough for an action movie. Some very droll lines sprinkled around, although not enough to recommend it simply on that basis. The pacing was good and I never knew for sure what was coming next. I felt like the movie had a good sense of itself and held its direction throughout.

The one thing I want to call out, though, which nobody else has mentioned, is the luscious soundtrack. Some really tasty, slow guitar on top of businesslike chord structures. It's not flashy, but it is soulful and sweet. Great sounds and the mixing was spot on: the music was there when it should be but never stepped on any dialogue. Great job!

I wouldn't mind having this soundtrack, and I never say that.

Okay, so maybe the budget wasn't quite that miniscule, but you can tell this isn't one of the pictures that would be "big" enough for a Joel Silver or a Jerry Bruckheimer to bother with. But that's fine, because even with the tried-and-true action sequences, the execution is well-done and fast-paced. Frank Darabont contributes some solid character development, a real change for an action picture, so anybody out there with ADD may want to fast-forward through the first third. Of course it won't make any sense without the initial set-up, but since when did that bother the majority of the audience this flick is aimed at?

And to paraphrase the old saying, what's the most important thing about a low-budget action flick? Casting, casting, casting. You'll never find nastier or more dependable villains than the ones that Peter Greene (THE MASK, PULP FICTION) and Kevin J. O'Connor (DEEP RISING, THE MUMMY) specialize in. Not to mention Russell Means, for that extra touch of "desert ethnicity." Patrick Muldoon and Jake Busey were castmates in Paul Verhoeven's STARSHIP TROOPERS, and character favorites Rex Linn, Jeffrey DeMunn and Lois Chiles round out the lineup. Can't go wrong with a roster like that.

Not a movie that pretends to be anything but what it is, so when you want high-speed chases and shoot-'em-up, blow-'em-up-real-good sequences, fire up the VCR with this one, pop the popcorn and have at it.