Running Time

Very enjoyable, oddball little shortie. When Carl got out of the pen after five years for theft, he and his idiotic best friend went directly into another heist. From the very start nothing went anywhere except the wrong way for these bungling losers. These stupids even hired a junkie as the getaway driver. Gad! When this caper went totally awry I thought Carl and his buddy should have had a lot more trouble getting away from the crime scene. They merely ran down pretty much deserted streets with no one chasing them even though three shooters were only seconds behind at one point. Although fun to watch the entire thing was just too unbelievable; no way these jackasses could have escaped the area without giving themselves away. Anita Barone was fine as the broken hearted hooker who badly needed to put her trust in someone.

"Running Time" is more a cinematic stunt than a movie. It provides intellectual diversion but little emotional involvement. All of the edits in this "continuous take" project are obvious, but it is great fun to watch Bruce Campbell do what he does so well. Anita Barone is especially good in what is essentially an underwritten part as Janine, the whore with the heart of gold. As an added bonus, the movie is shot with all-Steadicam and gave me both a headache and an upset stomach. I haven't had both of those while watching a film since "Galaxy of Terror"! I soldiered on 'til the end because I wanted to see what happened next, so I'll declare "Running Time" a cut above a mild diversion.

It seems obvious to me that the creators of this film realized early on that they were working with script that is cliche, predictable and wholly uninteresting. So, instead of trying to make the story itself interesting, they decided to shoot it in what they must have believed to be an interesting way. Long takes, few cuts, real time, real mess.

These sort of films may be attention grabbing from an experimental veiwpoint, but don't offer much in the way of good storytelling. Movies are traditionally cut and edited the way they are for a very good reason...it works. While some may consider this style of filmmaking challenging and artistic, I think lazy is more on point: strap a steadicam operator with a rig, have him run around following the action for an ungodly amount of time and it only takes you two days to edit, wow!

The negative effects of shooting a film in such a way far outweigh the possible benefits. Sickening camera shifts (think Blair Witch), stagnant camera angles, and uneven acting performances are all inevitable results. Plus, it seems to me that the value of such extended takes come as a result of their scarcity. P.T. Anderson understands this, and while he almost always incorporates a long take or two in his films, they serve as juxtapose the more traditional shooting style and, are therefore interesting.

While "Running Time" may be a fascinating filmmaking exercise, this bizarre and ineffective shooting style, when combined with a poorly written script make this movie practically unwatchable and certainly unenjoyable. It appears as if the creator of this film was making it solely for himself and not for a viewing audience, which is fine, but these sort of pieces are better suited for film school projects than feature film releases.

Nicely made black and white movie with some very nice acting.

Carl (Bruce Campbell), once a popular highschool student gets released from prison after serving 5 years for a heist gone bad. Outside, his friend and partner Patrick awaits his release so they can go rob a bank, but when he meets the girl he left behind in highschool 15 years ago he stands with a difficult choice of having to choose the money or her.

The movie was just over an hour and since it seemed very live we get to see all the actors really putting in a great effort to make this movie good.

Made in the same all-in-one-take method that Hitchcock (who is thanked in the end credits) created for ROPE, RUNNING TIME is actually more inventive on some levels. Hitchcock shot his film on a stage at Warner Bros., but Becker's is made out in the streets of Los Angeles. Granted, Hitchcock didn't have the highly mobile, lightweight camera equipment available to Becker, but it couldn't have been easy shooting RUNNING TIME (amusing, punning title) from moving cars and on Los Angeles streets.

The script is taut and well-written, and occasionally quite amusing as the hold-up men squabble amongst themselves during the robbery. The movie is also unexpectedly romantic in a tough, ultra-film-noir manner (the hero and heroine have sex before they recognize each other from high school).

Becker also varies the style impressively at times, from a rock-steady, documentary-style approach at the beginning, to a more surrealistic sequence during the robbery, as the camera shifts wildly from one perspective to another.

The film didn't have much theatrical distribution, and is evidently available on video only from the director, but video stores should stock it. This is one of those movies whose reputation will increase in the years to come.