Wednesday, February 26, 2014

RUN: POOR MAN'S PARKOUR


Parkour has become the rage these days. It's been featured on TV shows and movies like CASINO ROYALE and has even found a home in commercials. For those unaware, parkour is "...the activity or sport of moving rapidly through an area, typically in an urban environment, negotiating obstacles by running, jumping and climbing...". If you've seen someone running and jumping through things or flipping off of walls at a run, you've seen parkour.

Perhaps the best film to use parkour has been DISTRICT B13 which had people flying at tremendous speeds through a broken down district in France in the near future. That movie was an amazing film to see and displayed the sport at its best. Now a new movie has been released trying to duplicate that success but it falls a bit short, no pun intended.

Seventeen year old Daniel is on the run with his father non-stop. The duo rob places to get by and support themselves, Daniel using his skills at parkour to escape the fastest police around. One day Daniels father Mike (Adrian Pasdar) decides they've run long enough. It seems that years ago Mike married a woman whose brother Jeremiah (Eric Roberts) was unhappy with her choice. When she died after being shot and giving birth to Daniel, Jeremiah swore to make Mike pay. What he didn't know was that Daniel was born.

So Mike and Daniel return to the tough streets of New York with Mike hoping to make amends with Jeremiah. Daniel goes to school and gets caught up with another teen that just happens to be into parkour as well. While he disguises his abilities, Daniel falls for his friend's sister. All of this comes to a head later when the bad guys kidnap her and Jeremiah eventually captures Mike as well. Only Daniel can save the day but not before it's revealed that Mike's old friend and Jeremiah's right hand Luke had more to do with the whole story than first believed.

The movie here is well intentioned but falls short of its goal. The production values are on the lower end but you get the feeling everyone involved had higher hopes than what turned out. You have to give them credit for that. The parkour on display seems incredibly basic. It's sort of like comparing the high wire stunts in Chinese made martial arts films to the first karate displays offered in American made movies in the sixties. William Moseley as Daniel does his best but it's apparent he was hired for his parkour skills and not his acting ability. That said, he does his best and may turn out to do better work in the future; there is hope.

On the whole this movie is entertaining in an ELECTRIC BOOGALOO sort of way but not one that I'd add to my shelf. Still, if you had little else to choose from at your rental outlet or chance to see it on Netflix it provides a decent night's entertainment. Just go in knowing what to expect. Let's hope all involved progress from here.

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