Running Scared

2006 Directed by Wayne Kramer

Every bullet leaves a trail.

After a drug-op gone bad, Joey Gazelle is put in charge of disposing the gun that shot a dirty cop. But things goes wrong for Joey after the neighbor kid stole the gun and used it to shoot his abusive father. Now Joey has to find the kid and the gun before the police and the mob find them first.

Paul Walker Cameron Bright Vera Farmiga Chazz Palminteri Karel Roden Johnny Messner Ivana Miličević Alex Neuberger Michael Cudlitz Bruce Altman Elizabeth Mitchell Arthur J. Nascarella John Noble Idalis DeLeón David Warshofsky Evangeline

Alternative Title

Bek neatsigrezdamas

action crime drama thriller

122 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Todd Gaines ★★★★½ 14

Brian O'Conner stars in this modern day Grimm's fairy tale about the adventures of a little Russian-American Charlie Bronson, a desperate man who is in way too deep with the Mob, a missing gun, and multiple Big Bad Wolves. An opening straight outta King of New York. A nut-shot. A crackhead with a semi-unhealthy obsession with the Duke. A whacked-out hobo. Going down on Mrs. Bates. The chic that gets naked a lot on Banshee. A strip club. A MacDaddy pimp-slap. Between the eyes Southland style. A variation of the word Fuck used at least 328 times. A creepy apartment. An even creepier couple of creepers. Two sick-fucks get what they deserve. A Usual Suspect's priceless MasterCard moment. Flaming cock.…
Review by DirkH ★★★★ 6

RIP Paul. This was easily your best film.
Review by Harry Ridgway ★★★★½ 6

Running Scared has style and pizzazz coming out of its ears. Both narratively and visually, the film oozes vigour and panache with each twist and flashy transition. But the film is quiet about this - ensuring it ostensibly appears to be conventional. A crime/thriller that focuses on sleazy gangs sounds run-of-the-mill and Running Scared adopts this ordinary visage so the underlying, expressionistic, bubbling and novel style of Wayne Kramer's product is much more jolting. Gripping, hypnotic and yes, definitely scattered, but I say this as a compliment. There is so much going on and so many reversals of rhythm and tone, but it's done in a way that isn't convoluted, but is gripping and digestible.
Ever since his passing, I've…
Review by 𝑤𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑢𝑚 ★★★★

d͟o͟n͟'͟t͟ ͟f͟u͟c͟k͟ ͟i͟t͟ ͟u͟p͟
I was way too young when I first watched this haha. At least about 10 or 11 years old. I remember it being so fucking edgy and in yo face disgrace.
After the Fast saga I had to watch Paul Walker’s best performance and yes it’s still his best in this film. And of course Vera was amazing too. All the hyper realistic violence blasting holes in the screen and cuss words all the way to kingdom come will make you ratchet as hell when you finish lol. The break neck speed of the plot paces well with the 2hr runtime showing you all kinds of filth & grime in the underworld of the city’s bowels. It’s almost…
Review by Jacob Knight ★★★★ 2

Like Tony Scott made his own version of JERSEY SHORE, with a wild, mescaline freak out filtration of Grimm’s Fairy Tales washed through a scummy, breakneck crime picture. Very loud. Very much for me.
Review by Ryley Mann ★★★★ 3

Great
I'm kind of in shock and awe of this movie. What I expected to be a dark and serious crime drama is in actuality a very original unpredictable batshit insane over the top intense bad ass action thriller( that is dark and will make you go wtf). And I kind of loved it. It certainly has flaws, but it does a lot of things right.
The story follows mob enforcer Joey. After a drug deal involving undercover cops goes wrong, he is assigned to get rid of one of the guns used in the crime. However, when that same gun is used by a little boy in an attempt on his abusive father life, it's up to Joey to…
Review by Andy Summers ★★★★ 1

Sometimes you get an unexpected surprise from a film. Running Scared is one of those films that's sat on my DVD shelf for years unwatched. The shadow of the Fast & Furious franchise has always hung over Paul Walker's filmography for me. The petrol-head franchise has never really been my thing, and of the films that I've seen from him, I can't say I've ever been that impressed, until now.
Running Scared is a dark, gritty, violent, thriller with a few twists. Walker is decent here as a low-level hood with Mafia links thrown into a shitstorm when a gun used in the murder of a dirty cop finds it's way into the hands of a young Russian kid who lives…
Review by DirkH ★★★★ 1

I don't really know why I like this film. It's flashy, tries too hard and is overtly dumb and silly and it has got Paul Walker in it who, well, can't act really.
But still.....there are some wonderfully crafted twists and turns which make this film almost an Urban Fairytale with larger than life characters and an almost fantastical plot. The visual style, while rather annoying at first, actually slowly grows on you and in the end the excellent parts make for a very enjoyable whole.
Review by matt lynch ★★ 1

i should be able to get behind something this digressive and silly and loaded with exuberant sleaze but there's no real pulse here, just a series of empty vignettes. at least something like SIN CITY, which i find equally boring and garish, has the power of Frank Miller's stupid personality. somebody should take this script back in time to 1975 and give it to Fernando Di Leo.
Review by Jordan Rowe ★★★★

Propelled by lightning-fast pacing and stylish camerawork, "Running Scared" is a tense, thrilling action film with always-high stakes and a great central performance from Paul Walker.
Review by Dawson Joyce ★★★★½

A modern day Grimm fairy tale with a neo-noir twist, Running Scared is one of the most intense, fast-paced, and underappreciated action thrillers in recent memory, with excellent cinematography, wonderful performances (particularly from Vera Farmiga and the late Paul Walker), slick and stylish direction from Wayne Kramer, and a high-in-stakes story that has plenty going on but is never convoluted.
Review by Max Coombes ★★★★ 3

I understand that some German Expressionist filmmakers moved to the United States around the time of the Third Reich and began producing film noir, so if there was ever an expressionistic cinema in the US it would have emerged sometime during the 1940s and 50s (Reverend Harry Powell's shadow on the wall in the bedroom), but Running Scared is American Expressionism done consciously and concisely half a century later. It's an action movie and also a horror movie and a send-up of tough guys Talking Shit. It's an anthology of contemporary American myths and fairytales. It hates America and it loves to see people dead, but it is never satisfied with bodies just hitting the ground- Running Scared only settles…

Recent reviews

Review by Murdoch MacNeil ★★★½

I love this movie and I love Paul Walkers characters blatant disregard for his sons safety. Take a drink every time he leaves his kid in some sketchy parking lot.
Review by Majestyk ★★★½

Entertaining and full of energy, Running Scared is nothing new, but what it brings is a nice, well told story about the search for a gun. But to me, it felt like a nightmare realistic version of Alice in Wonderland with Oleg. The things he has to go through are scary, with the highlight ( or lowlight depending on how you see it) is the family he joins. A disturbing scene without showing anything really.
The movie tries to bank on Paul Walker. And to be fair, this is Paul Walker's best film and best role without a doubt. He is believable as the tough guy with a good heart. But Vera Farmiga is even better. It's a great role…
Review by Jeremy Nichols ★★★

what the fucking fuck.
this is one of those movies that im shocked isnt shown at midnight at various theaters across the country.
shot in a style remincent of a constant panic attack and unintentionally makes the audience believe that paul walker might be psychic.
I do not have the writing chops nor the critical skill to convey how insane a b-plot in this movie featuring Vera Farmiga is
Review by Colette Willard

I have not stopped thinking about this movie and I don’t think I ever will.
Review by Jesus Alfaro ★★½

At times, I just didn't know if Paul Walker's character was suppose to be a good or bad guy. That russian kid using a gun that he shouldn't use as if this was a Seasme Street episode and that ending can just piss off!
Review by JacobMix ★★★½

A ridiculous film that is somehow still awesome. Part of it is that I think the filmmakers realized that the story doesn’t make a whole lotta sense, so they decided to style the shit out of it. And actually the style is part of my complaint. Some of the style was overkill, but then again, the entire movie is overkill. The whole child killing couple had no business being in the movie, but because it leads to Vera Farmiga getting to kill somebody it is fantastic. And since I mentioned her, Vera is a goddamned treasure. As the Flight of the Concords say, “She’s so hot she’s making me sexist!”
Review by Holmes Reviews ½

Fucking garbage. And does not age well at all. I don’t have the energy or patience to rant about it.
0.5/5, avoid it.
Review by esece93 ★★★½

Damn. You might or might not like it, but the transitions and effects are definitely going to blow your mind.
I actually liked it. It's intense, doesn't let you rest for a second and reminded me of Crank and Good time (I consider Crank way superior, even if they are not exactly the same movie).
Solid 7/10
Review by KimKong ★★★★★

Apart from the lame ass happy ending, this adrenaline driven, gratuitously violent, enormously brutal, grim and dark labyrinthine fairy tale film was a slap to the face to yours truly as never would I have though that a film with Paul Walker in the leading role could have been so fucking great...ignored by the audience and trashed by the critics, director Wayne Kramer took the average cop thriller genre and elevated it to another level of audacity and ingenuity.
Review by sdenisch ★★★★

This is easily Paul Walker's best performance in his unfortunately short career. It always throws me for a loop when the movie introduces the creepy pedo/serial killer couple it's such a really unexpected dark turn.
Review by LordStandley ★★★★½

This is so damn underrated! Still holds up. Too bad Paul walker didn't make more films like this instead of being the F&F franchises bitch.
Review by Ben Murray ★★½

RUNNING SCARED tries very hard to be edgy. The editing reminds me of a student film. Lazy writing, grating performances & an agressive sense of American patriotism don't help.
Screaming WHERE'S MY GUN, WHERE'S MY GUN as loud as you can for 2 hours isn't really my thing.