River Runs Red

River Runs Red

In an unwarranted killing by the police, Judge Charles Coleman (Taye Diggs) faces what can be termed as a most unfortunate eventuality, trying to seek redress from people he works with. Charles switches to avenging mode, assisted by a retired cop (John Cusack) and a father (George Lopez) who also a victim of the unspeakable violence having recently lost his son due to a killing.

River Runs red discusses and addresses a very pressing problem that America is facing such as the issue of police brutality and the shooting of unarmed victims, in particular. Instead of sensationalizing the hot button issue, the dramatization of the plot makes the film a different piece altogether, quite literally two films in one.

The first two acts of the film facilitate the buildup of the storyline. It is laced with dramatics and conflict antagonism with just about every character in the film. A perfect case would be after two officers shoot slain Charles’s son when in search for justice, he loses the trust of his wife eventually leading to their family breaking down. This makes Charles have to pick between his wife or his life career, which is being a judge. When he opts for the latter, his workmates rise against him in a bid to conceal the murder.

It’s funny to observe how inside the city block there’s a random makeup shop where a couple of dog-men work, who feel completely out of place, and Hamura who comes off really cheesy. Why would a woman who owns her own establishment be worried about random low lifes? None of this sequence of insanity makes any sense. The last scene also had another degree of absurdness it was a cheap conniving wife yelling at her husband and kids.

What seems to be the most convoluted sequence had only followed self-destructive and pointless poses. Instead of working on the heist, there is a focus on a head office situation involving office chairs and table tennis instead of dealing with urgent business matters.

Another level of rascality that achieved new heights was Ving Rhames playing a father manager who treated his own children badly. How can a man who looks like Ving treat William and Jaden disrespectfully? I lost count of dead sexy nonsense present in this sequence. That Ving will ever play the cliff scouting location isn’t even about bones.

This crushed the entire hostage situation setting. There was purely no need for hamura to kill. Even more insane was Charlie getting affected by the stupidity of the situation. Why wouldn’t he and annihilate everything. Fees also scarcely used bonus scenes depicting the constructions of the model – Homura being thrown off the building instead. Which nowadays completely wipes the market of arrogance.

It claims to be a somewhat factual story, which I doubt because it seems more like an excuse to showcase yet another horrible penitentiary where ruthless gangsters of African American descent murder and rape each. As if we already do not have quite enough of them.

The lead character is this Miles ‘Cain’ Skinner (Rhames) who is in for life. An older drug lord, whose major activity outside of jail is his son, Ricky (Nipsey Hussle) later comes to jail for an accessory to murder charge. That seems to take most of his focus.

Cain however, to his surprise is still one bad motherf*cker. This one is particularly graphic. He receives a good amount of abuse but eventually overcomes his many adversaries, including a notorious gang like crip, Redfoot (Robert LaSardo), who walks in brandishing a knife without cuffs on. People restrain him right as he has a blade to Redfoot’s neck. How ironic. It is amazing how fights involving the Aryan Redfoot turn out to be little else than a plot diversion so that the Latino dominated narrative can come in.

Cain’s dislike for the turmoil is then further aggravated when he gets to know of his terminal illness which is a brain tumor and he only has a few months left to live. He has already begun confronting himself with reading the Bible in solitude, and now says to his son, “I caused my family a lot of harm, maybe that is why God cursed me with cancer. That’s how God works.”

He accepts the responsibility of lecturing young children who might be at risk of going to prison but his main objective is reunite Ricky with his family and make sure he does not follow his lifestyle of fame of violence and crime. At first, Ricky isn’t much of a student and even blames his father for everything. But, despite all that, he seems to get a little more aggressive over time. He then has to deal with his own problems, his own nemesis, JD Parker (Gillie Da Kid), whose clique has been able to wreak havoc on Ricky’s clique and vice versa, ending up in the same prison.

In a place where stabbings are common, it does come as a relief that when the two young men eventually do meet, they readily abide by the Queensberry Rules for a good long while before using their mini-shanks. By the time that happens, there is only time for a few last minute plot twists, and it is done and in your face. One is left wondering why they even trouble themselves in the first place.

No doubt the filmmakers would like you to relate to the story of a man lost in the world only to come back and seek redemption, but this film has very little of that redemptive feeling to it.

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