RUN & GUN
Directed by: Chris Borrelli
Starring: Ben Milliken, Richard Kind, Mark Dacascos, Brad William Henke
After narrowly escaping death by his former drug queen employer, Ray has turned his back on his life of crime and violence and reformed as a family man, settling down in the suburbs and taking on a white collar job. However his past comes back to haunt him and he is blackmailed into taking on "one last job"…
The setup for Run & Gun isn't particularly new - we've seen this sort of screwball scenario before where a "simple job" spirals out of control. However there is a lot of room to manoeuvre in that premise and for the most part, director and writer Chris Borrelli gets the ingredients right.
We meet Ray as he is about to be hanged by one of his boss's henchmen, and we get a good idea of his skillset - which includes a healthy dose of luck. Flash forward 12 months and Ray is in a steady relationship which is starting to turn serious and he's holding down a steady job. So, of course this is the moment that he finds out that his new life has been blown apart thanks to an old acquaintance. Ben Milliken does a great job selling Ray as someone who is genuinely seasoned in violence despite other actors towering over him. He's not an action hero but is called upon to put his body on the line in order to get out of a very sticky situation.
Richard Kind is a very recognisable character actor who is able to make head honcho Grayson both quirky and threatening without being over the top about either trait. His brother Brando is played by the always awesome Mark Dacascos, in a non-fighting role but Still very menacing. Despite his protestations, Ray is stuck working for these two, and its apparent that suburban life has affected Grayson as much as it has Ray, but in a very different and twisted way.
When Brando's lackey, Perry, gets injured, it forces Grayson to utilise Ray in making an exchange - a bag of $400K for a mysterious package that Grayson is very keen to get his hands on. It seems like a simple job….so of course its going to go horribly wrong!
All of this leads to the films biggest and best surprise, actor Brad William Henke, who gives an amazingly good double-barreled performance as Billings. He is something of a revelation here, and very believable in being more than a match for Ray.
Chris Borrelli may be new to the director's chair but you wouldn't know it. He is a seasoned writer (I was quite surprised to learn which films he'd written screenplays for as I've seen virtually all of them). As I said at the top of the review, this premise is pretty well worn but it’s the incidentals which may this entertaining and relatively fresh. The characters are well written and not prone to monologuing (except for Grayson, but that's expected, and his speech regarding the nature of the package is based on a fascinating internet conspiracy theory.
THE VERDICT
The set up may be familiar, especially to DTV fans but the ingredients are of a better quality than we may be used to. Chris Borrelli does a great job on his directorial debut and Ben Milliken is very good as the loveable rogue, Ray. Star of the show though is Brad William Henke, who pulls off a great role among some heavy hitters.