Running Scared on blu-ray

Paul Walker (THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS) plays Joey Gazelle, a low-level Mafia thug, who finds himself in the middle of a drug deal gone wrong, equalling a hail of gunfire and some dead undercover cops as the net result. Fleeing from the scene, Joey steals one of the revolvers, used to kill the cops and stashes it in his own basement, in the chance that it may one day prove useful against his own gang. Unfortunately, Joey’s 10-year-old son, Nicky (Alex Neuberger) and his best friend, Oleg (Cameron Bright), see where the weapon is hidden. Oleg, whose Russian mob-connected stepfather is physically abusive towards him and his mother, steals the gun to exact revenge. Shooting his father in the shoulder, he runs away with the gun. This forces Joey to embark on a nightmarish 18-hour race to locate Oleg and the gun before his own gang, the Russian Mafia, or bad cop, Detective Rydell (Chazz Palminteri). In a film dedicated to directors Sam Peckinpah, Walter Hill, and Brian De Palma in the closing credits, Kramer splatters the screen with a level of violence that would make those masters proud. Drained of bright colours, stylish, and feverishly fast-paced, RUNNING SCARED is one bloody thrill-ride.

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Hellboy on Blu-ray

In the ongoing deluge of comic-book adaptations, Hellboy ranks well above average. Having turned down an offer to helm Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in favor of bringing Hellboy’s origin story to the big screen, the gifted Mexican director Guillermo del Toro compensates for the excesses of Blade II with a moodily effective, consistently entertaining action-packed fantasy, beginning in 1944 when the mad monk Rasputin–in cahoots with occult-buff Hitler and his Nazi thugs–opens a transdimensional portal through which a baby demon emerges, capable of destroying the world with his powers.

Instead, the aptly named Hellboy is raised by the benevolent Prof. Bloom, founder of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, whose allied forces enlist the adult Hellboy (Ron Perlman, perfectly cast) to battle evil at every turn. While nursing a melancholy love for the comely firestarter Liz (Selma Blair), Hellboy files his demonic horns (”to fit in,” says Bloom) and wreaks havoc on the bad guys.

The action is occasionally routine (the movie suffers when compared to the similar X-Men blockbusters), but del Toro and Perlman have honored Mike Mignola’s original Dark Horse comics with a lavish and loyal interpretation, retaining the amusing and sympathetic quirks of character that made the comic-book Hellboy a pop-culture original. He’s red as a lobster, puffs stogies like Groucho Marx, and fights the good fight with a kind but troubled heart. What’s not to like?
By Jeff Shannon

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