RUNNING RED is another straight to video action thriller from the team at PM Entertainment. This one stars the hulking and bearded Jeff Speakman as a Russian who defects to America and begins a new life, only for his past to begin catching up with him as he's tasked to assist some very shady types in a sinister job. What follows is low rent in the extreme, merrily ripping off footage such as the bus chase from RED HEAT (again!) and offering the usual gamut of brief martial arts interactions, explosions, and shootings. It's fair to say that Speakman is on autopilot here while Angie Everhart has the thankless role of his wife. It's one not of PM's best, that's for sure.

This movie, like so many others of its ilk, uses the retired soldier with skeletons in his closet. In this incarnation of this familiar set-up, the 'hero' is a former Soviet special forces soldier who fled to the U.S., with many of his comrades, after the fall of the old communist regime. The reasoning is he had done so many despicable things in the name of Mother Russia, that his life would certainly be forfeit if he were ever caught. Sound promising? I thought so.Anyway, as often happens to ex-special forces officers trying to start a new life in the suburbs with their beautiful, super-model wife, child, white house with a picket fence, and an SUV, his old army buddies came looking for him to get a favor. Violence and mayhem ensue.The one thing that makes this film particularly noteworthy, however, is the bus chase. I'm a big fan of chase scenes, and this one caught my eye. In fact, it caught my eye so much that I remembered it when, soon after and completely out of the blue, I watched a movie that I haven't seen in years -- Red Heat, with Schwarzenegger. The similarities were so striking that I waited for days until Running Red was on again, and I tuned in just for that chase scene. IT WAS THE SAME SCENE. I don't mean it was a similar chase with buses. I mean the editor from Running Red took the film from Red Heat and spliced it into his own movie!I guess this kind of result should be expected from some low-budget fare, but the worst thing is that they included the part with Schwarzenegger destroying that famous fountain in Chicago, while the chase in Running Red was supposedly taking place in Detroit.I guess this is a satisfying enough movie if you want to see some overly melodramatic acting with amusing violence, all of it kept low on the moralizing, but sometimes the laziness of film-makers in this genre astounds even me.

I knew going into this movie, that I wouldn't be seeing a high dollar movie, so I wasn't expecting alot. I was pleasantly surprised. Even though the movie was undoubtedly low budget, it still had a sensible and followable plot. The action in the movie keeps you watching, waiting for the next action scene. even though the scenes are unbelievable as far as the real world goes, at least you didn't have guys with pistols (that never run out of rounds) outshooting men with full sub-guns.All in all, this was a good renter. I would have never paid to see it at the theater, but I don't think that is why this movie was made. It was destined for DVD and VHS, and it's worth the money to rent it.I'll be the first to say, that Speakman needs a good Box Office hit, again.

I saw an answer print of this film at the lab. I thought it was really well directed for a low budget action film. Also I thought Jeff Speakman was better than I had seen him before. All in all a nice effort by the filmmakers.