'Runner' Review
Release Date: 09/11/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Action. Comedy. Thriller.
MPAA: Rated PG13.
Distributor: Angel.
The Verdict: A Mistake
Runner is another one of those mismatched buddy action movies, like 2026’s The Wrecking Crew or In the Grey, a film that inspires a few laughs, assorted eyebrow raises, and the variable yawn. It’s an odd-couple movie about a beefed-up errand runner (Alan Ritchson) and a yappy medical courier (Owen Wilson) teaming up and racing against time, and bad guys, to bring a liver to a dying girl.
Ritchson’s Hank Malone is surviving on sobriety (he just got his one-year chip – Aces, bucko!) and the memory of his dead daughter. Wilson’s Ben Bishop is interested in oyster dinners and sultry dates with attractive women and is confused when his routine drop-off becomes interrupted by guns and explosions. The liver he is carrying, in a specialised medical transport cooler, is rare and priceless, becoming the object of obsession for local cartel member Damian Zaldívar (Rodrigo Santoro).
In the space of less than 12 hours, the two heroes become allies, regard the French language, have a shootout, get into a high speed chase, visit Hank’s ex wife Kate (Leila George, daughter of Vincent D’Onofrio), get into another chase, secure the organ container, protect a rare parakeet, and receive phone call after phone call from Hank’s handler, the dying girl’s mother, the bad guys, and the Brisbane hospital waiting on their arrival.
Runner handles a lot of action in its tight runtime, but also has gulfs of empty space and stale dialogue. This plot is the subject of a 30-year-old spec script and feels anchored down by clichés that may have been inimitable in the mid-90s, but feel dated, comparable, and quite mediocre through a modern lens.
I’ve seen it all before. And Runner did not excite me as much as it wanted to. However, it does make for an interesting travel commercial for greater Brisbane, Australia.
The premise is derivative, but that is forgivable because familiarity can feel comfortable. Runner falls flat not entirely because of its tired plot, but because it makes connecting with and caring for the characters an impossible task. Ritchson already plays the stoic, unbeatable golden-boy hero so well in Reacher. Hank Malone is a thin caricature, tapping into the goodwill pool that Ritchson has spent years cultivating. With his other recent projects like War Machine and Motor City echoing the same level of unflappable tough-guy performance, I worry the typecast jury will be out for blood. This man is too talented for that.
Wilson’s Ben Bishop tries to play it both ways, as the soft comedic relief and the grounded centre of gravity. The performance is fine; his character is just punching above his weight class. Santoro’s run as the lead villain, accompanied by a swath of goons on motorcycles or in black SUVs, feels so copy-and-paste you can taste the glue.
The film’s energy is its style, but it only kicks into gear for a quarter of the ride. When the action does start up, there is barely a scrap of exhilaration among the fireballs and bullets to keep me locked into the chaos. I mentioned the dated feeling earlier. The film is not completely devoid of excitement or fun. Scott Waugh’s direction wrings out a few interesting surprises. The uneven chemistry between Wilson and Ritchson, the contrivances, the B-movie plot, and the wobbly CGI all present Runner as an uneven action package. It’ll squeeze out a few chuckles, but nothing more.
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