Running Out of Time 2 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.0

Running Out of Time 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 30, 2022

Note: This version of this film is available on Blu-ray as part of Running Out of Time Collection.

Roy Huggins may forever best be remembered as the man who created The Fugitive, but one of his first follow ups to that now legendary series was the decidedly lesser known Run for Your Life, which, despite lasting three seasons, never seemed to quite capture the imagination of the general public the way that the plight of Dr. Richard Kimball did. Run for Your Life starred Ben Gazzara as an attorney named Paul Ryan who is given a dire prognosis due to a mortal illness, and who then decides to go for the gusto with whatever time he may have left. Ryan was most definitely a "good guy" in the mid-sixties television series mold that The Fugitive itself had exploited, a wanderer who would travel from place to place encountering the locals, briefly getting wound up in their personal dramas, resolving some earth shattering situation, and then moving on to the next destination. The first Running Out of Time film takes a somewhat similar foundational premise, at least insofar as the plot centers on a man who knows he's about to die and who is out for a little adventure of his own, though in this particular case, Cheung Wah (Andy Lau) is actually the ostensible villain of the piece, taunting a police inspector named Ho Sheung-sang (Lau Ching- wan) to play a "game" where Ho isn't quite sure what the rules are. Probably because the first film featured a focal character whose demise is a given within the very foundation of the plot, a sequel couldn't offer Cheung again, and so Running for Time 2 opts for the next best thing, bringing Ho back for another confrontational game of cat and mouse.

Both of the Running Out of Time films received international Blu-ray releases from Kam & Ronson Enterprises aimed at the Hong Kong market, and for those wanting a plot recap I refer you to Svet Atanasov's Running Out of Time II Blu-ray review of that version. Svet kind of echoes some comments on supplements on this release about the pretty obvious quality falloff in this supposed sequel, which couldn't help but suffer from the fact that one of the first film's two focal characters, and arguably the lynchpin upon which the entire plot hinged, "wasn't available" (so to speak) for this effort.

Running Out of Time 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Running Out of Time 2 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video. Both of the Running Out of Time films are aggregated in this release, and the insert booklet therefore kind of lumps them together in the following minimal and pretty generic information found in the insert booklet:

Running Out of Time and Running Out of Time 2 are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with original Cantonese and Mandarin 5.1, English mono (Running Out of Time) and English 5.1 (Running Out of Time 2) audio options. The films were restored by Fortune Star, who supplied the masters for this release.

I never owned the Kam & Ronson Enterprises releases from years ago, but judging solely on the basis of screenshot comparisons, Running Out of Time looks somewhat closer to the Kam & Ronson Enterprises release in terms of brightness (one of the differences I perceived in comparing screenshots between the releases of the first film), though the grading here seems variant to the Hong Kong Blu-ray, at least a times. I noticed none of the filtering or banding that Svet mentions with regard to the Kam & Ronson Enterprises release, but there are some of the same variations here in saturation that sound like they were also evident in that now long ago Blu-ray release. Detail levels are generally consistent throughout the presentation, though there are what look like actual focus pulling challenges a couple of times which materially affect fine detail, at least for a moment or two. My score is 3.75.

Running Out of Time 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Like the first film, the Kam & Ronson release evidently offered a 7.1 mix, while this disc features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 options in either Cantonese, Mandarin or English. I toggled back and forth between all three as I watched the film, and my sense is there's little to no difference between the two Chinese tracks, while the English track can sound just a tad brighter at times, something that's especially evident in higher frequencies. All three tracks offers good engagement of the side and rear channels in both the action sequences and underscoring. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout in all three tracks. Optional English subtitles are available.

Running Out of Time 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Frank Djeng


• The Making of Running Out of Time 2 (HD; 5:46) is an archival featurette produced during the film's shoot. Like several of the supplements on ___, this one comes with a kind of hilarious disclaimer that some original burnt in subtitles (presumably in French, per the other disc, though not delineated as such on this disc) have been "carefully blurred" so that superimposed English subtitles could be added.


• Hong Kong Stories (HD; 49:45) is a really interesting documentary by Yves Montmayeur that addresses some of the "mythology" of Hong Kong cinema while dealing specifically with the experiences of French screenwriters Julien Carbon and Laurent Coutiaud, who famously co-wrote the first film, something that's kind of unusual in the annals of Hong Kong movie making. In a variety of languages including French and English, but with English subtitles throughout since several pretty heavy accents are featured.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:41)


• Image Gallery (HD)

Running Out of Time 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

When even some of the supplements Arrow has either produced or licensed for this release aren't shy about mentioning the decline in quality in this supposed sequel, that is probably the best clue available for prospective viewers to set their expectation bars appropriately. There's undeniable entertainment value in this film, which probably can't help but end up reminding viewers on this side of the pond of magically infused caper entries like Now You See Me, and in fact this film might be better enjoyed if watched before the first film, since you really don't need any of Ho's ostensible "back story" to get what's going on in this film. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplements are very enjoyable, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.