Running Scared

1986 "Two of Chicago's finest?"
6.5| 1h47m| R| en| More Info
Released: 27 June 1986 Released
Producted By: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Two street-wise Chicago cops have to shake off some rust after returning from a Key West vacation to pursue a drug dealer that nearly killed them in the past.

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Reviews

WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.
Thehibikiew Not even bad in a good way
Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype
filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
TownRootGuy When I'm watching it this is my favorite movie. If I'm watching, 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum', that's my favorite. The rest of the time I'm torn. This is one of the flicks I'd give an 11 if I could. It has very nice eye candy, good action, a great cast, excellent tunes AND the funny is the sh*t. Not sh*t sh*t, good sh*t. This is a must see for fans of buddy cop flicks. It is simply outstanding and I can watch it every year.
generationofswine It's not a great movie by ANY stretch of the imagination.If you want to get in there and over analyze it, then you'll not a plot line that is pretty far fetched. Typical 80s action movie plot. And threads that don't seem to fit and some over-the-top acting and cops clearly doing things that they would NEVER have gotten away with, even in 1986.But if you are looking at all of that than you also clearly don't understand that you're watching a comedy and a pretty entertaining one at that.Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal are absolutely amazing together, to the point that the viewer is almost depressed they weren't paired up more often. There is something hysterical going on between the two of them that seems to seep from somewhere off camera.It makes it a lot of fun to watch, because you get the sense that the pair were having a great time off screen and you, the viewer, is coming into a party that already hit full steam.It's like watching an Emilio Estevez movie, especially when he was younger and everything he did felt like you were watching a man that loved his work.It's always refreshing watching people that look like they are having fun and in a comedy like this it translates well and makes for a very entertaining show.
zardoz-13 "Outland" director Peter Hyams' "Running Scared" is a fast-paced, Chicago-based, buddy picture, police procedural melodrama. Interesting enough, "Running Sacred" is reminiscent of earlier thriller that Hyams helmed "Busting" (1974), with Robert Blake and Elliot Gould. Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines are cast as two unlikely but charismatic detectives in hot pursuit of a murderous drug dealer. Bristling with amusing wisecracks and agile shootouts, "Running Scared" is straightforward enough but predictable with our heroes doing very little that is ultimately surprising. Nevertheless, you've never seen Billy Crystal as macho as he appears here, and he never did anything like "Running Scared" afterward. Jimmy Smits is cast as a wannabe 'godfather' gangster, and he is reasonably vindictive. The memorable soundtrack featured songs performed by Klymaxx, Michael McDonald, New Edition, and Patti LaBelle. "Man Sized Love," "Sweet Freedom," and "I Know What I Want" were among the hits that "Running Scared" yielded.Everything starts with our plainclothes heroes, Danny Costanzo (Billy Crystal of "Analyze This") and Ray Hughes (Gregory Hines of "Waiting to Exhale"), on stake-out when they spot notorious cocaine dealer Julio Gonzales (Jimmy Smits of "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones") and his flunky Snake (Joe Pantoliano of "U.S. Marshals") in a low-rent neighborhood getting out of a Mercedes. A chase ensues. Our heroes nab Snake, but Julio manages to elude them until. They follow Snake to his apartment, and he admits that he is carrying $50-thousand dollars in an attaché case. Later, when Snake agrees to wear a wire and take them to meet Julio, things go south and Snake bites the dust. During this shootout, our heroes run afoul of a pair of DEA agents, Detective Frank Sigliano (Steven Bauer of "Scarface") and Det. Tony Montoya (Jon Gries of "Napoleon Dynamite"), and their superior, Captain Logan (Dan Hedaya of "Wise Guys") reads them the riot act and makes them take a vacation. The guys go about as far away from Chicago as they can possibly get and wind up in Key West, Florida, where they are amazed that everybody comes out to watch the sun set. One of the running subplots involves Costanzo's ex-wife, Anna (Darlanne Fluegel of "To Live and Die in L.A."), who likes to show up when Danny least expect her. Eventually, Julio abducts her so that he can recover his cocaine."Dogs of War" scenarist Gary DeVore and "Final Exam's" Jimmy Huston pile up the clichés in their thoroughly average screenplay. To his credit, Hyams doesn't allow the action to loiter, and we get a few rewarding action scenes, including a reckless chase on the L tracks through Chicago and a cool scene where our heroes are trapped in an undercover cop car made to look like a taxi cab as a garbage truck crushes them while they struggle to get out of it. As is the case, Hyams doubles up as the cinematographer and director. Dan Hedaya enlivens the scenes at police headquarters, but he never shouts at his detectives. Many of the critics who wrote about this movie during its initial release complained about the bogus snow on the streets. "Running Scared" boasts all the earmarks of a quintessential 1980s' police drama.
Scarecrow-88 The plot is simple: two veteran Chicago cops, Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines, are set to retire but before doing so wish to take down drug dealer, Jimmy Smits (and he's a force to be reckoned with, too). Peter Hyams always had a directorial flair, and the gritty streets of cold Chicago are his playground; better still, he has a duo with an undeniable chemistry, so comfortable with each other their work on screen doesn't feel forced but quite natural, as if the two have been actual partners for quite some time. This is the cop buddy comedy with lots of guns firing, bloody, bullet-ridden bodies, and wise cracks. In other words, this is the kind of movie right up my alley. Hines and Crystal are the kind of team that constantly, lovingly ridicule one another, while causing their boss (played by Dan Hedaya, enjoyable to watch as always) more than his share of migraines. I loved how they're forced to "apprentice" young cops, Steven Bauer and Jon Gries, and do so with quite a bit of reservation. Darlanne Fluegel (To Live and Die in LA) is Crystal's hot love interest, with the likes of Joe Pantoliano (Bound), Don Calfa (Return of the Living Dead), and Larry Hankin (Armes and Dangerous) turning up in a fantastic cast. This is the kind of cop actioner with lots of familiar faces in its cast offering colorful bit parts that just makes investing in the hunt for Smits all the more worthwhile. But Crystal and Hines together is the obvious reason to watch this little movie…they're too much fun. There's just nothing like seeing Crystal and Hines stuck in a yellow taxi cab (equipped with bullet-proof glass even), lifted off the street by a garbage truck, telling Smits (looking up at them from a comfortable position as they seem precariously trapped and ready to be crushed inside) that he's in trouble! Of course they escape within an inch of their lives. There's this big scene in a mall that has plenty of gunfire and bloody wounds. I like this one particular scene where Hines and Crystal find themselves absent pants (in their long johns!) rescuing an innocent from certain harm when captured by an intense Smits (with a machine gun); forced to return to headquarters without their pants, their fellow cops get a good laugh at their expense. I don't think it is necessary to establish that the script is loaded with profanity--as the audience for this sort of film and the actors in it should know what they're getting into--and the comedy is rather "salty", with plenty of street talk (this does take place in the city and is populated by urban characters). One of the funniest scenes to me has a priest and nun, familiar with Smits for his contributions to their ministry (!) under constant smack by Hines and Crystal who think they're imposters posing as members of the Church! Hyams understood the audience for this kind of movie and gives us what we want, and he doesn't interfere in what Crystal and Hines do best.