Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

Running with the Devil Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 20, 2020

In the previous decades, way back when in Apocalypse Now and moving on through Boyz n the Hood, The Matrix, John Wick, and so many other memorable roles in great films, did Laurence Fishburne ever imagine that, in 2019, he'd be masturbating on camera, looking through a peep show window while furiously dumping quarters into a slot to raise the closing shutter once more? As awkward as the scene may be, for the audience and perhaps for him, too, it's probably the most memorable sight in Running with the Devil, a spiritless, otherwise paint-by-numbers drug film with "twists and turns" and a multitude of characters played by a collection of great actors. But even an A cast can't save a D(rugs) script. Not in this instance, anyway.

The plot is simple but crude and spawns too much sprawl and too many characters who are haphazardly constructed and given precious little time to blossom as human beings rather than, figuratively speaking, button-pushing props. When a drug kingpin, played by Barry Pepper, realizes that he is receiving watered down product, he sends two of his top lieutenants, a cook (Nicolas Cage) and a man known as "The Executioner" (Cole Hauser), to South America to follow drug production and ensure the product's purity. Later, a vice addicted drug pusher (Fishburne) becomes involved. Meanwhile, when one of Fishburne's druggie friends, played by Adam Goldberg, is caught snorting dope and dropping off dead and dying hookers at the local emergency room, he's corralled, tortured, and turned snitch by a cop (Leslie Bibb) who has recently lost family to overdose.

Slow, rhythmless, a lack of engagement: running this one is not. Running with the Devil is a lethargic movie that's content to copycat superior fare with a cast that's not particularly interested in dosing up any special performances. Fishburne and Golberg seem to have some fun in a shared scene early in the movie, but for the most part the picture is stiff and lifeless with potential visible through the cracks that never manifests in full glory on the screen. Beyond a few workable efforts (and a few terrible visual effects), the A-cast accomplishes little of note, working around a script and screen time that affords them little opportunity to shine, anyway. The movie seems more interested in putting characters on the screen rather than building them, in placing them in reactionary situations rather than allowing for organic construction within the story, which is itself just a little directionless, too.

Writer/Director Jason Cabell show not necessarily a lack of talent but rather a lack of vision and a palpable insecurity, seeming content to mooch off of superior fare on the script side while trusting his superbly talented cast to carry the movie and mask its technical shortcomings on the camera side. Cabell struggles to inject originality into the film. It's not lazy, it's just grossly underdeveloped and derivative. As a feature debut, with this much star power, things could be worse...but at the same time much better.

Running with the Devil Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Running with the Devil's 1080p AVC Blu-ray presentation is clearly sourced from a lower grade digital shoot. The production lacks the crispness, clarity, depth, dimension, and stability that higher end images enjoy. It's workable, but it's not all that enjoyable. Basics are in good working order. Clarity is such that viewers will see all of the grime and nastiness in a bathroom in the film's first shot with ease and nearly tangible clarity and complexity. Basic facial and clothing features are fine, from high end suits to dense winter gear. City streets and club interiors present with satisfactory, even sometimes stellar, clarity. But the picture struggles to find a real sense of life. Whether in-camera or post production, it's just not a particularly attractive film. The Blu-ray simply presents it with basic source fidelity. Colors are fine, unremarkable but offering a steady level of consistency and punch. Contrast is never pushed too far, either, maintaining a pleasing status quo. These are not egregious characteristics; the image can top out at about 4.0, but it's the severe compression artifacts and thick banding that drop the score down. While neither are ever-present, they do appear with great intensity and shot destroying density when they do. It's a give and take image; this is not a top-tier studio production despite the impressive cast. Set expectations low and the transfer will probably surprise. Set them high and it will disappoint.

Running with the Devil Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Running with the Devil trots onto Blu-ray with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack; Quiver Films has foregone any lossless option. Despite the less-than-ideal encode, the track proves fairly impressive to open, beginning with pleasantly deep and intense tones, accompanied by widely engaging score. Popular music to follow over the opening titles plays with quality stage engagement and fidelity. However, the track loses its lossy luster thereafter. It turns to shallowness where everything seems dialed down several notches, lacking in intensity, presenting with what could be described as "low effort." Width remains and there's some modest and occasional depth through the rears, but the track rarely engages with forcefulness following the open. A few musical instances seem bolstered -- a military checkpoint scene around the 52:45 mark -- but expect music to generally play flat and gunfire to hit with a thud. Gunfire lacks punch and ambient fill is minimal and rarely immersive, even in would-be high sonic intensity locales, such as a dance club. Dialogue does stay grounded in the center but could use a jolt in vitality. The track does enough to carry the film's sonic essentials but listeners should expect little more than crude command of audio essentials.

Running with the Devil Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Running with the Devil includes a single extra: the film's Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 1:45). No DVD or digital copies are included. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

Running with the Devil Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Running with the Devil puts together a serviceable, but completely uninspired, story. It struggles with direction and lacks spirit and creativity. It's derivative of so many other, better films and on par with countless others smashed together into a glob in the levels below the Traffics of the world. The cast is interesting but the characters they play are not. They are stock at best and entirely forgettable at worst. Fishburne's bookend scenes are the most memorable, for various reasons. The movie otherwise has no real redeeming value. Quiver Films' Blu-ray delivers flawed but adequate video and audio presentations. Extras are limited to a trailer. Rental.