The world of drugs and their context in the world remains as addictive as ever to film-makers and never more so in the new thriller RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL, written and directed by Jason Cabell.
Nicolas Cage and Laurence Fishburne head the cast as drug manufacturer and supplier respectively in a tale of drug trafficking between Colombia and America, as a variety of shady characters try to keep everything under a wrap or two.
As is the case, and complication, it isn’t just the darker elements that are having to deal with the issues, in particular one DEA officer, (Leslie Bibb) whose own family is compounded by the overdosing of her sister and her husband, when their young daughter tells the school bus driver she can’t wake either of them up.
Cage has to go down to Mexico to ‘sort out a problem or two’, whilst Fishburne is determined to keep his own business affairs in order and can’t help but be increasingly addicted to the merchandise he is desperate and determined to profit from. Inevitably, a lack of trust continues to divide the lines…..
The multi-stranded narrative has been covered before in another similar-themed film, Steven Soderbergh’s TRAFFIC, although in the case of this film it is a little more erratic and low-brow with only a few elements to guide the audience.
Some of the character arc style can be traced back to Robert Towne’s TEQUILA SUNRISE (1988), which focused on the people involved with the world of drugs and contextualised what it all means. The action is reminiscent of Dennis Villeneuve’s SICARIO, given the female agent who has comparisons with Emily Blunt’s gutsy character in that film.
Much of the film’s appeal will be down to Cage and Fishburne who come with a good track record in this type of movie and both remain eminently watchable. Bibb is also good in the role of the determined but troubled agent tracing the path of the drugs as they go from border through border.
All in all, RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL is passable with a few expected twists.
Running With The Devil will be available on Digital Download from 4th November and can be pre-ordered here.
