Review: Running With the Devil

A DEA agent (Leslie Bibb) investigates the drug-related deaths of her sister and her sister's husband. A drug boss (Barry Pepper) deploys The Cook (Nic Cage) to look into who has been messing with his shipments, with an enforcer (Cole Hauser) accompanying him. Laurence Fishburne and Adam Goldberg play a couple of drug-snorting, hooker-banging lowlife pushers, whilst Clifton Collins Jr. and Natalia Reyes play a farmer and his wife, and Peter Facinelli is another DEA guy.

 

2019 crime-drama from writer-director Jason Cabell is like a cut-rate “Traffic” but directed by Paul Schrader (“Hardcore”) on speed or something. Cabell (a former Navy SEAL who only co-directed one film before this) is trying to do it all in 90 minutes as well. The result is a pretty big failure, with poor Laurence Fishburne’s worst performance to date as a seedy, hooker-banging coke fiend in a film that’s already got Nic Cage. The film just hasn’t got the running time appropriate to deal with the scope of characters here and none of the actors are on their game here.

 

Barry Pepper and Clifton Collins Jr. probably come out the least tainted, but the former isn’t in the film enough and the latter just looks a bit weird married to a woman (Natalia Reyes) who looks young enough to be his daughter. Indeed, Reyes is 17 years younger than Collins and it’s noticeable. Still, at least their performances are respectable (Leslie Bibb tries hard but her character is poorly written), whilst poor Larry is overacting, looks in completely horrible shape, and is first seen jerking off at a peep show. I’m all for actors stretching themselves, but watching a hammy, miscast Fishburne all strung out and debasing himself just isn’t an enjoyable or interesting experience. Adam Goldberg is similarly miscast and humiliates himself for no one’s entertainment. By contrast we have the normally gonzo Nic Cage playing it dour and dull as a cook who is clearly gonna turn out to be more than just a cook. I’m not a fan of wacky, scenery-chewing Cage, but who in the hell wants to watch Cage playing dour, serious, and low-key? He’s a walking corpse here, bringing absolutely no investment to the part whatsoever. He’s not low-key, he’s vacant. It’s interesting to see Leslie Bibb try to play something different for a change, but she’s not exactly a great choice and her character is so poorly written one feels like a lot of her footage ended up on the cutting room floor. Poor Cole Hauser looks like he’s here by court mandate.

 

A dull, poorly cast film with a sprawling story and not enough time to afford it any depth. Barry Pepper, Laurence Fishburne, and Nic Cage are all lucky that they have made worse films over the years. Pretty lifeless, I don’t even think fans of this sort of story will enjoy this.

 

Rating: D+

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