7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Two Chicago police detectives who feel gun-shy about the danger of their jobs contemplate retirement in Florida. They just can't shake the allure of their work, especially when their pursuit of a notorious drug dealer turns personal.
Starring: Gregory Hines, Billy Crystal, Steven Bauer, Darlanne Fluegel, Joe PantolianoCrime | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Can you imagine a time when casting Billy Crystal in a comedy was considered risky? Everyone has to start somewhere, and Crystal had never made a studio film when director Peter Hyams came up with the unlikely pairing of Crystal and Gregory Hines as Chicago detectives in the 1986 action comedy Running Scared (which should not be confused with the 2006 pulp noir of the same name starring the late Paul Walker). Hines, who was best known as a virtuoso of tap dancing, got top billing, due to his greater exposure in such films as The Cotton Club and White Nights, but the chemistry between the two actors was so spontaneous and electric that they instantly became equals, as if they had been the long-time partners they were portraying, even though they had never worked together previously. Hyams was directing his first comedy, but he was smart enough to trust the cast that he had hired. Much of what makes Running Scared a classic of buddy cop movies was improvised by Crystal and Hines on the spot. In the commentary newly recorded for this Kino Video Blu-ray release, Hyams points out numerous moments where he simply asked one or the other of his stars to invent something—and it's in the movie. It was also Hyams who changed the location of the much-revised screenplay by Gary DeVore (Raw Deal) and Jimmy Huston (My Best Friend Is a Vampire) to Chicago, where the streets and skyline would provide a visual contrast from the usual police story venues of L.A. and New York. The Windy City obliged the production with one of its coldest winters on record, testing the endurance of both the cast and crew, as they filmed elaborate scenes outdoors, including a never-before-seen—and, as far as I know, never since duplicated—chase on Chicago's elevated train system, locally known as "the El". The bone-chilling conditions for which the city is famous may have made shooting a chore, but they "read" in the performances and provide a palpable incentive for the allure of retiring to Florida, which is a key part of the plot. Long before Danny Glover's Sgt. Murtagh spent four Lethal Weapon films debating whether to turn in his shield, Crystal and Hines had already weighed the options.
Hyams served as his own cinematographer on Running Scared, as he has on most of his films. Although he did not oversee the transfer used for Kino Video's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, he observes on the commentary that the presentation looks accurate. He also notes many specific elements of lighting, color palette and even exposure that renew one's appreciation for the challenges of accurately translating film into digital data. Even without Hyams' reassuring endorsement, the quality of the image on Kino's Blu-ray would be evident. The source material is in excellent shape, with no obvious damage or wear-and-tear. The image is detailed and sharp, although it should be stressed that "sharp" for a Hyams film isn't the same thing as for a film by, e.g., Michael Bay. As Hyams notes in the commentary, he loves darkness, shadow and silhouette, and he frequently softens lights by wrapping them in gauze or other filters. Anyone looking for crisp, hard edges in a Hyams film will be disappointed, but the detail is there nonetheless—in the station house, on the city streets, on the piers and sidewalks of Key West and, most impressively, in the climactic sequence in the ornate State of Illinois Building, which is a demonstration piece on how to convey a sense of monumental scale with a carefully lit and focused 2.35:1 frame. (None of the sequence was done with effects.) The Chicago scenes are predominantly gray, to match the color of the sky (gray being the color that is most likely to appear overhead during a Chicago winter), while the Key West sequence is an orgy of warm pastels that results in an interesting contrast when Hughes and Costanzo return to Chicago wearing their vacation outfits. Odd flashes of color like "Snake's" hair, or Costanzo's various official sports caps and shirts, or the too-new yellow of the taxicab that becomes their unmarked cop car, pop out of this landscape, which is by design. Because all of the extras are in standard definition, Kino was able to devote most of the BD-25 to the film itself, which is only 107 minutes long and has a 2.0 soundtrack. The result is an average bitrate of 23.95 Mbps, which, while nothing special, is certainly up to the demands of the film's action scenes. The black letterbox bars help conserve bits, as does the fact that Hyams shoots in anamorphic Panavision and lights sufficiently to maintain a fine-grained image.
The film's original stereo track has been encoded as lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. It's a strong presentation of the musical soundtrack by songwriter Rod Temperton, whose single, "Sweet Freedom", sung by Michael McDonald, is the only hit song that Hyams ever had from a film (and, as he confesses in the commentary, was included over his objection at the insistence of his music supervisor). Several other songs play memorable roles, including the title track sung by Fee Waybill over the opening credits and "Man Size Love" by Klymaxx, and both these and Temperton's synth-dominated instrumental score play with broad dynamic range and solid bass extension. The dialogue is clear, and while the gun battles don't have Michael Mann-style reverberation, they make enough of an impact to create excitement.
MGM's 2001 DVD of Running Scared contained only the trailer and the so-called "outtakes" listed below. Kino has added a vintage featurette, which is welcome, even though much of it overlaps with the outtakes, plus a series of EPK scenes that are merely excerpts from the film. Still missing are the music video for Michael McDonald's "Sweet Freedom", in which Crystal and Hines appeared, and a hilarious teaser that hasn't been seen since MGM's laserdisc release of the film, where Crystal and Hines, as Hughes and Costanza, shoot up the wrong apartment for a bust, then casually walk away.
After the success of Running Scared and its soundtrack album, efforts were made to reunite Crystal and Hines for a sequel, but none of the proposed scripts were deemed good enough by either actor. Each proceeded with a successful career in movies and TV and on Broadway, although Hines's was cut short by his untimely death from liver cancer at age 57 in 2003 (a loss that Hyams still finds too painful to discuss in his commentary). Running Scared remains their only pairing, which gives the film the glow of a magical one-off that could never be repeated. Kino's Blu-ray presentation is excellent and highly recommended.
1984
Remastered | Paramount Presents #19
1982
2012
1996
Special Edition
1985
1997
35th Anniversary Edition
1987
Collector's Edition
1988
1991
1990
1983-1987
Retro VHS Collection
1989
1977
2004
1992
1987
1998
1974
2019
1998