RUN & GUN (2022)

RUN & GUN (2022)

Tagline: Nope.

(Action, Thriller, RV Living) [R]

You know what really bugs me is when people call em’ motorhomes instead of recreational vehicles…but what’s even worse is when old people call them all “Winnebago’s”. 

In this one, Ray decides to leave a life of crime and meets a single mother with a son. He is considering starting a family with her, but his past has caught up with him. Ray gets talked into doing one last job for crime boss Grayson to collect a package. He ends up getting shot and is being screwed over. Now he is on the run and must turn to the skills he tried to keep dormant to survive. 

One thing I thought that was pretty cool about this movie is that they go into the “Mandela Effect”. This occurs when a large mass of people believe that something occurred when it did not. This seems to occur now days mostly in relation to politics. Specific cases of this might be called MDS or TDS, however, the “Mandela Effect” itself actually refers to Nelson Mandela who millions of people thought passed away in a prison in the 1980s, in reality, he didn’t pass away until 2013. This also happens in pop culture like the idea that most people believe the comedian Sinbad was in a genie called "Shazaam", only no such movie exists. 

This film isn’t really known for being a comedy but there are a lot of funny lines in it. There is also a good bit of interesting exposition. I will also say that the main protagonist gets shot fairly early in the movie, and for people like me that sometimes imagine how much a gunshot might hurt to walk around on, it’s almost painful to watch. 

The pacing is rough for most of this thing and the after the opening sequence we do get a few lulls in the action and dialog where things don’t seem to really be moving along. The good news is that all of that is short-lived and the pace does end up getting back to its namesake “run & gun”. 

Acting wise we get some pretty decent performances, but admittedly I am not a fan of the main protagonist Ben Milliken as Ray in this. He isn’t terrible, I just wasn’t a fan. Mark Dacascos (JOHN WICK:  CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM) is pretty awesome as Brando. Richard Kind plays Grayson who is a crime boss and for me, he is probably the actor that mailed it in the most for this flick. It’s hard for me to take him seriously because he’s done some high-profile voice work and kind of looks like a cartoon character. Janel Parrish is solid as Faith. I do wish she would have had more screen time, but it is what it is. I am not familiar with a lot of Parrish and Milliken’s roles but they were both in a 2020 movie called MIGHTY OAK which kind of sounds dumb, so I never saw it. That doesn’t mean it is dumb, it just sounds dumb. We get a really good performance out of Alison Thornton (@aligthornton) who plays Tara. She is one of those actresses I think people might want to keep an eye on. 

There are a few unfortunate sequences where things happen that seem way out of place. One in which a character is tied up by the hands with a zip tie, but when the right time to escape comes he is easily able to just bit through it. 

Overall though this movie is actually pretty fun. It also has a pretty decent score and soundtrack. I have to give this one a 5 out of 7. It’s not going to end up in my TOP 10 for 2022 or anything, but I still thought it was pretty good even with a few plot points missing. I realize that probably sounds nuts, but I am going by what we did get on screen and how interesting and fun it was. It does feel like they thought we were going to get a part 2 at least, so we will see how that goes.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF GLASS HORSE FILMS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.