Black Cat Run

I've actually got to give Frank Darabont some massive props here. He was coming off The Shawshank Redemption (1994) getting 7 Oscar nods and could have picked any project. So what did he do? He decided to produce one of his earliest screenplays, written back in the mid-80s when he was still struggling. Now I'm sure he wasn't handling it in detail, but the fact he stuck by his old script is awesome. Four convicts (including Peter Greene and Kevin J. O'Connor) escape from a chain gang and take a sheriff's daughter hostage. This doesn't sit well with Johnny Grissom (Patrick Muldoon), her boyfriend who takes off after them in his muscle car. If you can get past the first half hour where they are doing white trash Romeo and Juliet, there is a lot of fun to be had here. There are some fantastic car chases and KNB even delivers some bloody shootouts and roadway fatalities. The cast is good (if you can get past everyone thinking Texans sound like deep south folks) and Greene is a good villain (this was right before he nosedived his career thanks to hard drugs). Chuck Russell was going to direct at one point (he is an exec producer here), but D. J. Caruso does an admirable job in his feature debut. It premiered on HBO, which is a shame as it probably would have looked great on the big screen.