Runner

Movies like this like to give their leading man a sympathetic foible like a lost daughter, a divorce, a substance-recovery journey or an unusual hobby. Runner deals out all four.

This is about as generic an action-comedy hybrid as you can possibly get; while it won’t exactly make anyone forget the classics of that particular cinematic sub-genre, it has a certain weirdo charm that makes it far more watchable than it has any right to be.

Runner is a paint-by-numbers action-comedy that benefits from Alan Ritchson’s well-practiced stunt craft as well as Owen Wilson’s likable comedic stylings.

I’m reluctant to value brawn over everything else, but given the ignominious glut of straight-to-streaming background noise, it’s hard to root against a theatrical release that, knowingly or not, lands some truly cataclysmic punches with enough over-the-top silliness to force a smile. That some heart got lost in transit is, in this case, just fine.

A second-hand affair that runs out of gas almost as soon as it kicks into gear.

Director Scott Waugh, a former stuntman who has experience with this sort of thing thanks to his helming of such films as Expend4bles and Hidden Strike, stages the action in visceral fashion, and the low-key but charismatic Ritchson is the most impressive action star to come along in a while. But the brutality becomes off-putting after a while and a tragic plot element in the final act seems unearned.

Ritchson has instant credibility as a man of violence who swears “I don’t hurt people any more,” and doesn’t embarass himself as an ex-husband/grieving dad, either.

Runner is a solid genre throwback that delivers exactly what you’d expect: a good time. Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson have nice oil-and-water chemistry, the action is suitably revved up and the villains are despicable. Recommended. detroitcineaste

The platonic ideal of "mid." Generic concept, tried and true characters with cookie-cutter backstories and about as sanitized of a voice and tone as you could imagine. Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson clock in, but this is admittedly ho-hum work from them, when you look at other, similar offerings from their respective filmographies. It's a shame because there's some glimmers of talent from behind the camera: a couple of fun set pieces and bits within fight scenes and such. There's just not much else behind the eyes here, so to speak. Almost feels like a "pod person" type of movie. It looks like a movie, there's a beginning, middle and end, etc. There's just something off. Maybe it's that lack of a real, true USP. Maybe it's the lack of a real edge to the subject matter; the "squeaky-clean" veneer that's been globbed onto everything. I don't know. Something's just missing from this one and it's a little uncanny. Still, I've seen far worse.

Can’t they create different titles for movies released in the same year !! offered on the same viewing platform !! This flick cannot be compared to the excellent «The Runner», also on Prime…

(Mauro Lanari) Law and forensic medicine define "natural death" as any death that shows no signs of crime or external trauma. The premature death of a seven-year-old girl for lack of a liver transplant is recorded not as a "violent death" but as a "natural course": it takes a lot of guts to accept that the State should treat her lethal liver failure as a private biological fact exempt from investigation. In this Angel Studios movie, a massacre is unleashed to save the girl from a premature natural death, only to deliver her into a natural death perhaps not premature. Meanwhile, in her hospital bed, she summons an angel, and brutal action becomes an instrument of providence, while Ritchson, also a producer here, continues to pursue his faith-based movies and his holy war, promoting a militant, militarized, muscular vision of Christianity even on his YouTube channel, InstaChurch.

The truth is, Gal Gadot is not a great actress, she has limited range and falls flat when she has to hold the space and captivate an audience. I think she is low tier in general acting ability