“Fear Nothing, overcome everything.” That’s the tagline to Simone Bartesaghi’s new parkour thriller RUN, and while that’s a great motto for parkour as one attempts to push and enhance their skills, it really doesn’t define how the majority of this film plays out.
William Mosley, famous for playing Peter Pevensie in the Chronicles of Narnia series, stars as Daniel, a talented traceur (one who practices parkour) who lives with his father and uses his skills to pull off robberies so that the two can survive. Constantly moving around, the two eventually move to New York where Daniel’s father Mike (Adrian Pasdar) has some dark history. On his first day of school Daniel meets Mark (Craig Henningson) and soon Daniel is accepted into his little parkour posse. This is the first time Daniel has made real friends and also finds himself a love interest in Mark’s sister, Emily (Kelsey Chow). Eventually, Mike’s past comes back to haunt him, which is his fault, and soon Mike, Daniel and everyone Daniel has come to cherish find themselves in trouble as the mob starts to come after them.
Outside of some of the sweet stunts (Tempest Freerunning expertly handled those) and cool shots that are exhibited throughout the film, there wasn’t much I actually liked about Run, but upon further review I actually think the story wasn’t that bad. Sure, it was cliché and nearly obnoxious how quickly the romance between Daniel and Emily formed, but the way Bartesaghi used the father/son thieving element and worked parkour into that was a smart move, allowing them to have a small chance of survival as they scrape up a living while trying to avoid being caught by both cops and gangsters.
As mentioned above, there wasn’t much I liked about Run and, in fact, there were a few things I hated about it. Firstly, I thought the acting was pretty bad. Half of this is a result of the awful deliveries from the performers while the other half has to do with the terrible dialogue. The dialogue is very elementary and the acting isn’t convincing at all, and this goes for the seasoned professionals like our lead Mosley, who did have some good moments, and Eric Roberts as well the young amateurs.
Secondly, and this is what pissed me off the most, was that the way the film was edited they cut some of the cooler parkour angles out. What I mean by this is that every so often we would get a GoPro first person POV shot of someone following their friends and running, but right as that person was about to jump or do a trick they would cut away to something else. Why?! You just got me so excited and then took the fun away from me. It would have been cool to see someone do a jump onto an edge and stick-it rather than cutting away to somebody else running in a different direction.
The one part I actually did like in the film was their choice of training spots. There is a fun montage in the film where the crew goes and runs around on Roosevelt Island to train and the reason I liked that is because I have gone there to practice as well and have done parkour in some of the spots they actually showed. To that extent I commend the location scouts for choosing a spot that’s actually used and fun for parkour.
I wanted to really enjoy Run. As a fan and former practitioner of parkour I’m always seeking out new feature films that utilize it as a backdrop to the story and while Run certainly does that for part of the time, the overall execution of the film is poor and disappointing. I think this movie could have been great under at least a mediocre director and with a stronger cast. If you want to watch a movie to see cool stunts and fast paced thrilling action, Run won’t be that film. Instead this movie moves a little slower, isn’t as explosive and has a huge romantic element to it that, while sweet, makes everything about the film become extremely predictable. If you’re going to watch a movie with parkour in it there are significantly better options out there and this likely wouldn’t even make my list of recommended parkour features.
The disc:
I don’t have a 3D TV so I can’t review that aspect of the film but the blu-ray looks fine. There isn’t anything special about it and this isn’t the type of film you need to see in that format unless you are an HD purist.
There is only one special feature on the disc, which is surprising, and that is called “An Inside Look: The Making of Run” which is 5:14 min in length. This short bonus feature shows some behind the scenes footage of the stunts, regular shots, and then some commentary from Adrian Pasdar, Kelsey Chow and William Moseley. Thankfully the end credits are comprised of professionals doing really cool stunts so that at least makes up for the lack of a stunts special feature.
Movie review: Poor acting and terrible dialogue make this potentially cool parkour action thriller a wasted effort (3.5/10)
Disc review: 3/10
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