Directed by Peter Hyams for MGM and written by Gary DeVore in 1986, Running Scared is the story of two Chicago police detectives, Ray Hughes (Hines) and Danny Costanzo (Crystal). As is often the case with eighties movie cops, Hughes and Costanzo tend to bend the rules a bit, but they get the job done and for that reason, they get away with a bit more than they should. Despite the occasional lawsuit levied at the department on their behalf, their boss, Captain Logan (Dan Hedaya), he trusts them enough to train some new recruits and to take on a high profile case: Julio Gonzalez (Jimmy Smits). Julio is out to take over the city's underground cocaine trade and he's ambitious enough to make that happen.

Hughes and Costanza, however, are up for the challenge. They know there's more to this than just a greedy coke dealer doing this thing, because every time they bust him and it seems like a sure fire conviction, the next day he's out on the street again. After one such incident, the guys are undercover checking out a basketball game when they see a known crook named Snake (Joe Pantoliano) make a deal with Gonzalez. They chase them down and a nasty shoot-out occurs, at which point Logan really has no choice but to force the two hot headed cops to go on a vacation. Things need to cool down before they can go back on the streets. He knows it, and they know it. So as buddy cops do in buddy cop movies, they take off for a little R&R together to the sandy beaches of Florida. Of course, once they get away from it all, they start to like it, and when they find the money to buy a dive bar, once they return to Chicago it's to give notice. With only a few weeks until they're off the force, the two cops make it a point to bust Gonzalez for good, but that's not going to be easy, particularly once Costanzo's ex-wife, Anna (Darlanne Fluegel), gets pulled into things in a bad way.

Like a lot of buddy cop movies made before and after, Running Scared isn't so concerned with crafting realistic situations or capturing the gritty, dangerous life of a cop in the big city so much as it is in creating likeable characters and creating tension, and often times humor, from putting them into situations both dangerous and ridiculous. The script from DeVore, no stranger to tough guy movies having written both Raw Deal and The Dogs Of War earlier in the decade, offers ample opportunity for both of those criteria to play out while Hyams' assured and sometimes fairly stylish direction and approach to visual storytelling ensures that it all plays out at quick and snappy pace and that it looks good too. Add to that some great location photography that creates an interesting urban environment for the Chicago scenes to play off of and some interesting contrast from the genuinely relaxed, chilled out vibe of many of the Florida scenes and the movie stays intriguing to the eye.

As far as the likeable characters aspect of the equation is concerned, Crystal and the late Hines not only handle this really well, but they make it look easy. They had a great chemistry together in this picture, the kind that ensures we have no problem buying them not only as partners but as friends too. There's a warmth and a sense of genuine humor to their snappy banter and playful style and they really make this work. Supporting performances from the seemingly always crotchety Dan Hedaya and a weasely Joe Pantoliano are also a lot of fun and help to round out the cast while a young Jimmy Smits makes a really good villain in the film. As solid as the directing and the script are, the cast are every bit as good and every bit as important to making this work, and make this work they do. Running Scared is a really fun, entertaining buddy cop movie, a classic of the genre.

Video:

Running Scared arrives on Blu-ray from Kino in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer from in the film's original aspect ratio of 2.35.1. There is a bit of obvious film grain here, as you'd expect, but for the most part the source used for this transfer is otherwise very clean. In fact, there's virtually no print at all. Some scenes do look softer than others, and that does appear to be a stylistic choice, but color reproduction is strong and while skin tones look lifelike and accurate. The image is free of any compression artifacts and there aren't any noise reduction problems or edge enhancement issues to gripe about. Detail and texture both quite strong and black levels are good. Shadow detail is also pretty strong here. The picture quality here is top notch.