Driving by their deep will of avenging their shooting, Danny and Ray, tow wacky policemen in Chicago, who during a mission were about to be murdered, as they have to take a vacation and after their return, they chase that corrupted drug dealer.
No more original or eventful than an average police TV show, so it must sink or swim on the moment-by-moment cleverness of the dialog and the behavioral talents of Hines and Crystal. Fortunately, these elements prove formidable.
Wisecracking their way through tough situations and bickering like an old married couple, Hines and Crystal succeed in creating a new buddy team that ranks with the likes of Robert Redford and Paul Newman.
A functional 1986 actioner about two wisecracking Chicago cops (Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal) and their vendetta against a Latino crime lord (Jimmy Smits).
This genre is so overpopulated that it hardly seems like we need one more example, and yet "Running Scared" transcends its dreary roots and turns out to be a lot of fun.
A breezily entertaining buddy-cop movie with too much cutesy shtick for its own good. Gregory Hines is OK, but Billy Crystal is never believable as a Chicago cop.
Time Out
June 24, 2006
Crystal and Hines do flavour the film with genuine warmth, and despite some cheap gags, work well together to produce some truly funny moments.
Another, thoroughly depressing demonstration of the extent to which television now dictates the style and the manners of so many of the movies we see in theaters.
Flipside Movie Emporium
January 24, 2003
Relentlessly competent in a TBS Saturday afternoon kind of way.
Arizona Daily Star
February 23, 2006
Has all the logic and transitional ease of a Pokémon-style card game played by 5-year-olds who don't understand the rules, so they make up their own as they go.
"Running Scared" tries to be a light comedy in a violent, comic-book world. That's a difficult juggling act, and director Peter Hyams doesn't pull it off.