Running Red

I guess that when it was obvious that considerable film footage from the Guvernator's Red Heat it was decided that Jeff Speakman's Running Red wasn't worth a theatrical release. It was deservedly consigned to direct to video status.

Footage from Red Heat may have been used but some of this plot is ripped off from the Sidney Poitier/River Phoenix movie Little Nikita. We get a Russian prologue here where Speakman is part of a hit team led by Stanley Kamel on refinery in Spain which is protected by mercenary Bart Braverman. Braverman personally kills Speakman's brother.

Flash forward to 13 years later, the Soviet Union has fallen and Speakman, Kamel, and Braverman are all doing well. Speakman is living the American dream with wife and daughter, but Kamel and Braverman have really found America to be a land of opportunity. Only Kamel has slightly more legitimate veneer to him.

Kamel summons Speakman to do a job which involves getting Braverman. Only he has quite a bit more in mind for him.

Plot taken from one film, scenes from another. Should tell you how original Running Red is. For fans of Speakman's martial arts skills only.

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.

I knew going into this movie, that I wouldn't be seeing a high dollar movie, so I wasn't expecting alot. I was pleasantly surprised. Even though the movie was undoubtedly low budget, it still had a sensible and followable plot. The action in the movie keeps you watching, waiting for the next action scene. even though the scenes are unbelievable as far as the real world goes, at least you didn't have guys with pistols (that never run out of rounds) outshooting men with full sub-guns.

All in all, this was a good renter. I would have never paid to see it at the theater, but I don't think that is why this movie was made. It was destined for DVD and VHS, and it's worth the money to rent it.

I'll be the first to say, that Speakman needs a good Box Office hit, again.

While Steven Seagal is my favourite action hero, Jeff Speakman is a close second. He has a powerful screen presence, a good voice and suitably calm manners for a man of action. He has made some excellent actioners in the past. His first starring role was in "The Perfect Weapon" which almost lived up to it's title - it was indeed nearly perfect. Two years later he returned on screen in "Street Knight", another excellent action film. Since then, he has starred in numerous low-budget actioners.

Although his later films are not up to the standards of the first ones, I have liked many of them. I even liked "Land of the Free"! I had a pretty good idea what to expect from "Running Red" but unfortunately it disappointed me in a few key areas.

Speakman stars as Gregori, a Russian professional soldier who's brother is killed by the enemy. Because of this and his sadistic commander, he quits the army and starts a new life in the USA. Now calling himself Greg, he has a new job and a family. His life gets an unexpected turn when his former superior locates him and asks him to kill three men or his family would get hurt.

The plot is nothing special but it isn't embarrassingly bad either. It's pretty much what one expects from these films. And the film does have some good points. The first one is of course Speakman himself, he still has a strong screen presence. Also he handles the scenes with his family pretty well. His wife is played by the beautiful Angie Everhart. While Everhart has already been in several low-budget films (like "Executive Action"), she still brings a touch of class to any production she's in. Also there are some other familiar faces in the cast you might recognise.

And now for the bad news. For an action film, there's surprisingly little action here. PM Entertainment has done excellent car chases before and they continue that tradition here. But the gun fights unfortunately lack the budget to make them special and considering Speakman's skills, there's very little fighting here. The lack of martial arts-fights is especially disappointing since Speakman's fast and furious fight scenes are always fun to watch.

Also, there are some scenes which are taken from other films. For example, the entire bus chase uses footage from Arnold Schwarzenegger/James Belushi-film "Red Heat" (an excellent film, by the way) and in some scenes you can actually see the James Belushi-character in his grey suit in the bus which Speakman is supposedly driving alone. I wish they wouldn't have used that footage at all and instead would have replaced the bus chase with a good fight scene.

One of things which was a personal disappointment to me was the score. Speakman's first films had a terrific music score ("The Perfect Weapon" by Gary Chang and "Street Knight" by David Michael Frank.

Anyway, the lack of plot, acting or originality probably won't surprise anyone and won't disappoint the target audience. But this film desperately needed more energetic fights. Some might think that the low level of violence and lack of nudity are good things but I couldn't disagree more. If you're a fan of Speakman and this is on TV, feel free to watch it. It isn't -that- bad. But if you want to see a good action film, rent Speakman's "The Perfect Weapon" or "Street Knight". This one gets only a 5.

I saw an answer print of this film at the lab. I thought it was really well directed for a low budget action film. Also I thought Jeff Speakman was better than I had seen him before. All in all a nice effort by the filmmakers.