Black Cat Run

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.

This is a very good action movie. I watch it everytime it is on tv. Lots of action,car chases,guns,and a hot guy (Patrick Muldoon). This movie is about a guy who tries to save his girlfriend from criminals and the police is chasing him cause they think he killed people the criminals did. See this movie!

I really like this movie.It is always nice to see the very hot and handsome Peter Greene play the mean,nasty villain and of course the very beautiful Amelia Heinle.I can't forget Patrick Muldoon.He was hot in this movie also.

Lots of action and I love the cool cars.The only part of the movie I had a problem with is when Johnny Dale backed out of the garage through a brick wall being so close...*L*....Overall the movie was awseome and full of excitement.

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.

Black Cat Run has a plot that could be written on a napkin, and drives down a well-traveled road, but generates more excitement than many "better written" movies. It's a chase film -- the hero tries to overtake and rescue his captured girlfriend before he himself is caught by pursuing policemen. But in it car stunts that we've seen many times before seem fresh and exciting, and the bad guys, who are almost as uniformly menacing as the monsters in a horror movie, are still authentically scary. The closest parallel is Spielberg's Duel, in which the characters are monotoned, the plot is straightforward and simple, but the thrills are real. In both cases, the director deserves the credit for knowing how to pace, time, frame, and present simple material in order to involve the audience emotionally.