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Run Chrissie Run
Released by: Umbrella Entertainment
Released on: February 7th, 2018.
Director: Chris Langman
Cast: Carmen Duncan, Michael Aitkens, Shane Briant, Red Symons, Nicholas Eadie, Annie Jones
Year: 1984
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The Movie:
Directed by Chris Langman, a prolific Australian TV director and the man behind Kylie Minogue's Locomotion video, 1984's Run Chrissie Run! introduces us to high school student Chrissie (Annie Jones) and her mother Eve (Carmen Duncan). Their seemingly very normal suburban life gets rocked when an Irishman named Michael Riley (Michael Atkens) shows up at their house one night with a gun. Chrissie goes to sleep, while Eve and Michael talk about their shared past and the money she has, and then they sleep together.
The next day, in a bit of a panic, Eve picks Chrissie up from school and takes her on the lam after buying a shotgun. It turns out that Eve was once part of a terrorist group in her native Germany that robbed a bank and that she's still holding the cash. There are men out looking for Michael, and his ties back to her put her in danger. Eve thinks they're safe after they rent a secluded cottage in the middle of nowhere… until a pair of IRA agents - Terrier (Shane Briant) and Pitt (Red Symons) - and a hired Australian thug named Toe (Nicholas Eadie) looking for Riley show up and essentially hold Eve and her daughter hostage, using then as bait to get the man they're looking for.
Also known as Money Hunters and Moving Target, this one takes a little while to really get going. The cover art makes it look like some sort of trashy Mad Max knock off or home invasion thriller, and while there are slight elements of those qualities here, the key word is slight. We do get a scene where Eve gets into a car chase with Toe and his punk pals, and the IRA men do invade her home, but this is much more of a dramatic thriller and any sort of exploitation or genre picture. Which is fine, if the movie gives us interesting characters to latch onto - for the most part, however, this one does not. It does built to a pretty satisfying conclusion with some decent action in it towards the last twenty-minutes or so, but prior to all of that, it's a little bit of a slog.
Most of this is because we never really feel like we know Chrissie or Eve all that well. We do get some background information on Eve's past and her relationship with Michael, we know they have a past together and were at one point romantically involved, but it never grabs you the way it should. As to Chrissie? As fine as Annie Jones' effectively cold performance is, she's a one note character. We don't dislike her, but neither do we really like her either - she's just sort of there and any sympathy for her comes not from her character traits but from her situation.
Nicholas Eadie as the dimwitted punk Toe steals most of the scenes that he's in. He's definitely the most interesting of the bad guys in the film and it's no wonder that it's his image that's plastered all over the box art for this release (and for most of the VHS covers that were used for various international home video releases).
Video/Audio/Extras:
Run Chrissie Run! arrives on DVD from Umbrella Entertainment in a 1.33.1 fullframe transfer clearly taken from a tape source. While there aren't any ugly tape rolls or tracking lines, as stable as the image is it's pretty flat looking with soft detail and semi-faded color. It's probably safe to assume a tape master was all that was available to Umbrella for this release. It's watchable enough, just keep your expectations in check.
The only audio option on this DVD is an English language Dolby Digital Mono track, there are no alternate language tracks provided nor are there any closed captioning or subtitle options. Dialogue is a bit muffled sometimes, a little tough to understand, but the track is free of hiss or distortion with properly balanced levels.
The only extra on the disc is a video promo trailer that plays after the movie has finished. There are no menus offered on the disc.
The Final Word:
Run Chrissie Run! is no lost masterpiece, in fact it's reasonably predictable with a dragging middle piece and lackluster character development. Still, things ramp up nicely in the last twenty-minutes or so at least in terms of action and suspense. Far from essential viewing, you could also do a lot worse. Umbrella's release of this Ozploitation obscurity is tape sourced and light on extras, making this one that completists will probably appreciate but that casual viewers may want to skip.
