Charles Coleman (Taye Diggs) grew up in a tough neighborhood and never had things easy. His girlfriend, Eve (Jennifer Tao), became pregnant when they were 17. However they embraced the idea of having a family, and Charles even put himself through law school at night, while his wife became an EMT. Charles is now a respected city judge, who shows compassion for those who appear in front of his bench. The Colemans’ 23-year-old son, CJ (Joseph Belk), is following in his parents’ footsteps, planning to become a police officer. While he is driving to his first day at the police academy in his father’s BMW, he is racially profiled by a pair of white police officers (Luke Hemsworth, Gianni Capaldi), who mistakenly shoot and kill him, and then cover things up.

Charles is devastated, but trusts that the justice system will work as it’s supposed to, and that the officers will be held accountable for their actions. With some help from his form Internal Affairs friend Horace (John Cusack), Charles discovers that CJ was not the first innocent victim to be killed by these police officers. He presents this information to the officer in charge of the investigation, but is told that the case has been closed and that no wrong-doing has been found. The Colemans feel betrayed—they can’t believe that the same people they have worked for most of their lives are now sweeping things under the rug and are claiming their son was a delinquent. So Charles decides to take matters into his hands. He seeks out one of the other mourning fathers whose son was killed by the officers, a gangster-turned garage owner Javier (George Lopez). Together they plan to take the law into their own hands and get justice by any means possible.
 

River Runs Red is a solid drama that starts off a little slow, but really picks up by the end for a tense and exciting action-packed final act. The film takes a little too much time to set up the situation and characters. At the start of the film there’s an unnecessary flashback to Charles in law school—I didn’t even realize at first that it was supposed to take place in the past as Taye Diggs wearing a baseball cap doesn’t really negate the fact that he still looks way older than all of his other classmates. The second act does a nice job of exploring the grief and devastation that these parents go through when their children are senselessly killed. In the Colemans’ case, they watch as the system they’ve always trusted in fails to give them the justice they deserve. While Javier, who knows how the justice system works from the other side, knows that he his powerless to get justice for his child. We also get a small glimpse into some of the guilt felt by Officer Von (Hemsworth) as he looks at his own son and thinks about the boy he just killed.

Taye Diggs and George Lopez both give strong dramatic performances as grieving fathers looking for justice. Diggs really feels like a guy who truly believes in his work, but is forced to go against all of that when the system fails him. The final act is easily the highlight of the film, when Charles breaks bad and becomes The Equalizer—I could have watched an entire film of just that character…judge by day, vigilante justice-seeker by night. Speaking of Breaking Bad, it was also great to see a grown up RJ Mitte in a small role as a police officer.

Cinedigm’s Blu-ray release provides excellent video and audio presentation. The picture looks nearly perfect, remaining clean and detailed, even in the darker scenes. The audio track provides clear dialogue while also providing a booming score, and bringing the exciting action to life in the final act. Unfortunately there is absolutely no bonus material included on the disc, not even the film’s trailer! The Blu-ray disc comes packed in a standard HD keepcase with a cardboard slipcover, and does not include a digital copy of the film. This release is also available on 4K UltraHD/Blu-ray combo pack and DVD.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:34:11)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio,
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

• There is no bonus material included on this release.

Final Thoughts:

River Runs Red provides a solid dramatic performance by lead Taye Diggs, who goes from compassionate judge to grieving father to vigilante. The film starts off a little slow, but the highlight is easily the exciting, action-packed third act. Cinedigm’s Blu-ray provides excellent picture and sound, but unfortunately includes no supplemental material. Due to the minimal nature of this release, I would suggest a rental before a blind buy.