Running Scared

Running Scared follows Joey Gazelle, a low-level member of a New Jersey Italian crime family who has spent years keeping his criminal work hidden from his wife and son. When a drug deal collapses and several corrupt police officers are killed, Joey is told to make the murder weapon disappear. Instead he hides it in his own basement, where his young son and the boy next door, Oleg, see him stash it. Oleg takes the gun and uses it to shoot his abusive stepfather, a troubled figure connected to the Russian mob. Joey must now track down the boy and the weapon before the police, the Italians or the Russians find either of them, and the gun passes through several hands over the course of one long night.

Wayne Kramer directed and wrote the film, his second feature after The Cooler, placing it early in a career that continued with Crossing Over and Pawn Shop Chronicles. Paul Walker plays Joey, with Cameron Bright as Oleg, Vera Farmiga as Joey's wife Teresa, Chazz Palminteri as Detective Rydell, Karel Roden as Anzor and Johnny Messner as Tommy Perello, among a credited cast of 56 and crew of 117. Made for about 17 million dollars, the film took roughly 10 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7/10 from 1,203 votes, while the critics' rating stands at 5/10 from 131 reviews, so audiences rated it considerably higher than reviewers did.