Directed by:
Kyle RankinScreenplay:
Kyle RankinCinematography:
Darin MoranComposer:
Mondo BoysCast:
Thomas Jane, Radha Mitchell, Isabel May, Eli Brown, Treat Williams, Barbara Crampton, Cyrus Arnold, Joel Michaely, Tom Williamson, CG Lewis, Cindy Vela (more)Plots(1)
Zoe Hull, 17, has some unresolved issues. She’s not coping well with the recent death of her mother, sometimes chatting with her mom as if she’s still there. She resents her ex-military father for his seeming lack of emotion, but wears his army jacket every day like armour. Her best friend Lewis just asked her to prom, wanting their relationship to become something more than she can handle. All Zoe wants is to get through the last few weeks of her senior year and leave – off to college and a fresh start. Instead, her high school is attacked by four nihilistic, gun-toting students, who plan to make their siege the worst school shooting in history. The killers quickly gain control and round up survivors at gunpoint – turning an active shooting into a hostage situation and keeping police at bay. The ringleader, Tristan, captures the events via internet livestream, gaining the worldwide fame he craves. Using the skills her dad taught her, Zoe manages to escape, but risks her life to go back inside. With no plan and running on instinct, she saves who she can, until realising she may be uniquely prepared not just to help others run and hide, but to face down the shooters and fight. (Venice International Film Festival)
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Reviews (3)
I had no idea about the film until I accidentally came across a trailer for it on YouTube. After watching it, I can honestly say that it’s a solid watch. Sure, the logic sometimes goes out the window, and that can be quite glaring at times. On the other hand, the pacing is excellent, and there are some good action sequences. The characters are mostly decent (Isabel May is outstanding), and I was pleased to see Thomas Jane in a memorable supporting role as the original Punisher! The ending is also resolved interestingly. It’s decent for a single watch. I give it 6/10.
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The 81% on IMDB is either paid or they have a bug in the database, because this was really bad and this time I agree with the 14% given by critics. Run Hide Fight was supposed to be some variation of Die Hard, but it's more of a parody than a tribute and most of the time I felt embarrassed. Teenage terrorists (really!) attack a school and livestream the whole show. The first stumbling block is that there are only four of them, so you can forget about any action scenes except for the first intrusion, there is nothing at all. The female lead is likable, but that's about it. The villains overact to the point of pain, there is no respect for them, they don't have any interesting plan and the whole movie is just running around the school, without anything interesting really happening. It's not action-packed, it's not suspenseful, it's not entertaining, it's not even brutal, and above all, it's two hours long, so most of the time you just wish for it to end. Thumbs down from me and a movie for kids. Story**, Action**, Humor>No, Violence**, Enjoyment**, Music***, Visuals***, Atmosphere**, Tension**. 3/10.
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Is it possible to keep a movie review separate from the filmmakers and their problematic aspects? Definitely yes, or rather it is possible not to notice them at all if the given filmmakers don’t try to show off. Unfortunately, the creators of Run Hide Fight couldn’t help themselves. Through most of the film’s runtime, they serve up a formally solid genre flick that chugs along well enough, with a bit of suspension of disbelief, i.e. if we turn a blind eye to the lapses in internal logic in the interest of spectacle. At times, it’s even likably emancipatory and progressive, while the binding of motifs of social hierarchy from high-school movies with a feminine variation on Die Hard also works (if you want to root for it). Understandably, there is nothing here that is comparable to Van Sant’s Elephant, Villeneuve’s Polytechnique, Johnson’s The Dirties, Poppe’s Utøya: July 22 or any other film that deals more in depth with only going through adolescence in a group of classmates, whether that is something from the numerous Scandinavian productions on this theme or the works of John Hughes. Run Hide Fight rather ranks among the genre flicks targeted at teenagers, giving them not only a combination of (melo)drama and trash, but also an engaging context, such as in The Hunger Games, How I Live Now, Danny’s Doomsday and tons of niche teen content on Netflix. And in this context, Run Hide Fight works fairly well. Thanks to its brisk pace and excellent female lead, it succeeds in distracting from the conspicuously half-baked nature of the screenplay and the minor red flags on the viewer’s part that come up in several scenes that could raise questions about the filmmakers’ intentions in terms of ideology. _____ Except the filmmakers didn’t want to stick only to subliminal messages and laid their cards on the table in the most stupid way – with an ostentatiously bombastic agitprop song plonked down in the closing shots. Then it comes as no surprise that the producers include not only the ultra-conservative talking head Ben Shapiro, but also the controversial producer Dallas Sonnier, who does not in any way conceal his right-wing attitudes. The above-mentioned elevation of the work above personal attitudes is not meant as a call for self-censorship. On the contrary, it merely points out the fact that thanks to such separation of the work from its creator, we can enjoy Polanski’s films, because he doesn’t turn them into pamphlets aimed at absolving him of his guilt. After all, even thorough familiarity with Sonnier’s problematic personality cannot similarly tarnish the qualities of his best-known productions, the original projects of S. Craig Zahler. That is because they are not conceived primarily in ideological terms and, furthermore, with their complex and multifaceted morals, they fiercely subvert strictly conservative and other glorifying interpretations. _____ Run Hide Fight does not give voice to any extreme or ultra-right views. It “only” foists on viewers the alibi-esque attitudes of the American gun lobby, which continues to promote lax gun-control legislation despite the terrifying number of domestic terrorist attacks and school shootings. The antagonists, and the main female protagonist, are depicted precisely in line with the standard arguments of conservative commentators, with the talking heads of Fox News at the fore. They always repeat that the shooters were evidently mentally ill and that no one is to blame for their actions, while on the other hand, they like to use the slogan that the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Concealed behind these attitudes is an utter lack of interest in any sort of systemic solution at the expense of the current status quo. Run Hide Fight shows the same ignorance with respect to finding a way out of the crisis of violence and explicitly affirms these views. Therefore, one of the film’s juvenile terrorists takes the form of a ridiculously cartoonish madman, but it’s also why the central antagonist never reveals his intentions. None of them do, because the film’s creators have no intention of addressing the issue. Rather, they are content only with the excuse that he is a pompous sociopath who envies the popular kids for their sunny dispositions. The ideology is most conspicuously and atrociously manifested in the character of the terrorist-nerd. In the scene where he reveals his motivation, and especially in the protagonist’s reaction, the filmmakers deliberately downplay the issue of bullying, which was talked about as a systemic problem and trigger in regard to the Columbine shooting. After all, only the references to that massacre 21 years ago further confirm that the film’s creators strictly turn their gaze away from the breeding ground of contemporary violence in far-right ideologies and xenophobia. It would be desirable to refer to the above-mentioned limitations of Run Hide Fight in relation to other films on a similar theme and defend it as an escapist genre flick that doesn’t aim to say anything. But, again, its creators shoot themselves in the foot when, in an official statement from the Venice Film Festival programme, the director and screenwriter declare that, on the contrary, the film involved a discussion on a pressing current issue. With their genre fantasy completely cut off from reality, the filmmakers merely open themselves up to questions about responsibility, tact and the degree of empathy on their own part.
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