One thing I’ve learned from watching action movies is to never let a ridiculous plot get in the way of being entertained.  Runner is such a movie, which involves a donated liver that can only be transplanted into someone with the extremely rare RH- blood type, or as they say in this movie, “RH null”.  How rare?  The internet tells me that only fifty living people are estimated to have this blood type.  This means that the odds of a donor suddenly becoming available are extremely high.  So when it’s revealed that two people with that same blood type both need the liver, well, I shrugged and rolled with it.

Runner stars Alan Ritchson (of Reacher fame) playing Hank Malone, a character cut from the same cloth as many other action movie heroes.  In short, he’s a former military man with a dark past.  When I saw a child in Hank’s truck, I immediately guessed she was dead.  Then, after Hank gets a call from his dispatcher Iggy, he goes to an AA meeting where he gets his one year token.  Hank’s drinking didn’t cause his daughter’s death, but played a role in it.

Hank’s redemption comes in the form of a sick little girl named Ellie (Scarlett Crabtree), who gets tired just talking to her mom Kate (Leila George).  Ellie is suffering from an aggressive form of liver cancer, and is in desperate need of a transplant.  Naturally, Hank will play an outsized role in saving her life, which happens to involve delivering a donated liver to her hospital

Hank is a “runner”, a guy that delivers things both legal and illegal for money.  Both of his initial assignments for the day try his patience.  He corrals an inebriated politician for a vote, then finds himself in the middle of a contested divorce between a couple living on opposite sides of the street.  The wife wants the Bentley, but her soon-to-be ex-husband will only give her the bird.  (Ha ha)  The wife refuses it, so it’s Hank’s.  Lucky him.  (I should mention that this story takes place in Australia, which the movie promotes as a tourist destination through copious  shots of gleaming buildings, waterfronts, etc.)

Things get interesting for Hank when Iggy sends him to the airport to pick up a package from Ben Bishop (Owen Wilson).  Ben is an organ donation courier and responsible for getting a liver to Ellie’s hospital.  As such, he must safeguard the organ at all times, leaving Hank no choice but to endure Ben’s jet-lagged ramblings for hours.

What’s troubling is that the hospital isn’t where Iggy told Hank to go.  That’s because Iggy is being strong-armed by Damián Zaldívar (Rodrigo Santoro), a member of a Colombian drug cartel, into deceiving Hank.  Damián also wants the liver, but not for money as Hank suspects.  (Even a movie like this one has a surprise or two up its sleeve.)   Damián and his motorcycle gang henchman will kill anyone who gets in their path, and prove it in short order by killing Iggy.

The ensuing chase is standard action movie stuff, but it allows for fun banter between Hank and Ben, who make for a classic oil and water buddy movie tandem.  The chase ends when Hank’s truck is t-boned in half, a funny sight gag followed by an apropos one-liner that Ritchson delivers perfectly.  (It’s in the trailer.)

Being ex-military, Hank’s resourceful and distracts the bad guys with an improvised explosion, only for everyone to collide at a nearby market.  This gives Ritchson an opportunity to flex his action hero biceps and take out almost all of the bad guys by himself.  Unlike his crew, Damián is unkillable and keeps popping up for more violent confrontations throughout the film.

In need of a car, Hank and Ben head to Hank’s ex-wife Monica’s house, which is conveniently within running distance.  Monica (Geraldine Hakewill) is stunned when she opens the door and finds Hank and Ben disheveled and covered in blood.  Thankfully, Ben has the gift of gab and breaks the ice by telling Monica that they need a car because Hank’s is on fire.  Monica is also ex-military and tells her new husband to get the keys.  (Thank you filmmakers for skipping the usual heated argument between the exes.)

Because Monica’s car is miles away, Hank and Ben bicycle over to retrieve it.  Having seen the picture of Hank’s child, Ben asks Hank about her.  Hank initially refuses, but Ben insists he wants to know more about him because he likes him.  (Nobody can resist Owen Wilson’s charm.)  Hank reveals that he served in Afghanistan, turned into an alcoholic after coming home and wasn’t there when his daughter needed him.  When Hank speaks to Kate and promises that he’ll do everything to ensure Ellie gets her liver, I believed him.

Damián and his gang of thugs reappear on cue when Hank and Ben get to Monica’s car.  Damián takes Ben and the liver with them, while leaving Hank to be killed by two henchmen.  Never fear, because there’s no way that Hank won’t find a way out of this, rescue Ben and get that liver to Ellie before everything’s said and done.

Recommendation

When you first set eyes on Alan Ritchson in Runner, you’ll understand why he’s headlining action movies and a TV show.  He’s a very large man, the largest person among the cast of Runner by far.  (The movie contains a joke about how he’s too big for a standard wheelchair.)  In addition to his largeness, Ritchson’s handsome, muscular and radiates action hero vibes at all times, even when he’s just eating a sandwich (a croque monsieur!).

Ritchson’s performance in Runner isn’t noticeably different from his Jack Reacher persona, but that comes with the territory.  He’s no different from Liam Neeson or Jason Statham, another one-man army who brings mayhem when the situation warrants it.  He can deliver a pithy one-liner well-enough, but that’s not his calling card.  What separates Ritchson from the typical action movie hero is his natural sincerity.  Despite his imposing physical presence, he presents as a sensitive guy who genuinely cares about other people.  Ritchson’s character in this movie previously had a wife and family, and I had no trouble believing it.  Ritchson may look superhuman, but he’s relatable and approachable in a way that action movie heroes rarely are.

To keep things from getting too serious and grim, the movie pairs Ritchson up with Owen Wilson.  His loosey-goosey, off-the-cuff personality is the perfect counterpart to the predominantly taciturn Ritchson.  Wilson has been playing the comedic wingman for decades, bringing out the best in his co-stars for decades, including Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers), Jackie Chan (Shanghai Noon) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki).  Wilson is hilarious in the fish-out-of-water role, lightening the atmosphere and providing comic relief while the action shifts into crazy territory.  His performance as Ben Bishop is squarely within Wilson’s wheelhouse and he knocks it out of the park.  I always enjoy watching Wilson cut loose and he’s great in this movie.

The rest of the cast is fine.  Rodrigo Santoro is too good an actor for this material but that doesn’t prevent him from turning his “generic Latino villain” character into a memorable one.  Leila George and Geraldine Hakewill make the most out of their throwaway roles as the distraught mom and ex-wife, respectively.  Goran D. Kleut’s scraggly biker will inspire nightmares.

I haven’t seen director Scott Waugh’s previous films, but Runner proves he can make an exciting action picture.  The movie is well-paced, with enough action to give you your money’s worth.  Waugh uses what I call the “Go Pro technique” for several action sequences, which gives them a kinetic, video game quality that heightens their absurdity.  The concluding car chase feels like it was inspired by the Mad Max films, which is appropriate given the Australian setting.  The script by Miles Hubley and Tommy White made me laugh enough to forgive a huge plot hole that should have demanded a rewrite.  Lastly, the insane WWE-inspired ending was a fitting callback to the Eighties action films that inspired this one.

Lastly, Runner originally would have had an R rating, but was edited by Angel Studios to get a PG-13 instead.  The studio said that they trimmed the language and violence so that the movie would be more accessible to general audiences, which makes sense.  However, given what I saw, I’m very curious as to what was taken out.

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

Analysis

I have no problem with the premise of Runner being implausible.  To summarize, the head of a Colombian drug is in desperate need of a liver, so her minions kill one of the fifty potential donors in the world, who just happens to live in Hawaii.  Their plan then involves kidnapping a doctor whose sister works at the hospital where the organ will be delivered.  The doctor’s sister also works at the same hospital, and the bad guys threaten to kill her brother unless she relays logistics information back to them.  Upon doing this, the bad guys then kidnap Hank’s dispatcher Iggy and threaten to kill him unless he reroutes Hank to a different location where they can steal the liver from him.  Given that a liver can only survive outside the body for 8-12 hours, everything has to go perfectly in order for this plan to work.

If you think about all of the above for a minute or two, obvious questions arise.  How did the drug cartel know that a potential donor lived in Hawaii?  How did they know that the liver would be earmarked for a little girl in Australia?  How did the head of the cartel survive the long plane ride from Columbia to Sydney?  How will the kidnapped doctor be able to perform a successful liver transplant by himself within the very unsterile biker gang hideout?  The movie doesn’t try to provide plausible explanations for any of that, and if tried it would have ground the movie to a halt.

However, considering how much the Colombian drug cartel would have needed to know in order to pull this operation off, how did they not know that the container wasn’t bullet proof?  To me, that would be a critical piece of information that would determine how aggressive their actions would be.  If one stray bullet could damage the liver, you obviously wouldn’t use guns anywhere near it.  Not in this movie.  The bad guys fire every possible type of gun when they’re in close proximity to Hank and Ben.

Since this is a silly action movie, I’m fine with overlooking this critical detail.  Silly action movies require gun battles and fiery explosions as a matter of course, and not having them would make for a much different movie.  However, it is weird for a movie with so much knowledge of organ donation and procurement to ignore the sensitive nature of the object itself.

Respect for the funny guy

Whenever I see Owen Wilson in a movie or television show, he immediately elevates my mood.  Like many successful comedic actors, his performances are unlike any other.  Wilson’s loopy, rambly delivery and easygoing presence is always funny regardless of whether he’s telling a joke or not.  Wilson’s onscreen personality has always struck me as a stoner, even though he’s too sharp to be stoned.  

Wilson always looks like he’s grooving to a tune only he can hear, almost like he’s attending his own private party.  Sometimes he invites someone else along for the ride, like Ben Stiller or Vince Vaughn, and the two create buddy comedy magic while bouncing off each other’s vibes.  He and Vaughn were brilliant together in Wedding Crashers, and even made the horrible The Internship watchable.  When he flies solo, he often plays a befuddled and clueless everyman, as was the case with Midnight in Paris, Marley & Me.  His voice acting in the Cars movies, particularly the first one, is top notch.

In Runner, Wilson’s solely responsible for the comedy side of this action-comedy movie, and he brings the comedic sensibilities he’s well-known for.  There are several moments in the movie that only Wilson could have made them funny.  There’s a running gag about a parrot that Hank has been stuck with.  When Wilson’s Ben learns that the bird can say peek-a-boo, he’s thrilled by this revelation.  Wilson makes this bit and his character endearing and funny because he’s a grown man who still allows himself to feel unbridled joy at the simple things in life.

Another classic Wilson routine is how he tries to befriend others by casually sharing too much information in an offhand way.  In the movie, Hank and Ben suddenly find themselves without a car.  Hank takes them to his ex-wife’s house, and the plan is for Hank to ask for her car.  Realizing that there’s lingering tension between Hank and his ex, and that their appearance isn’t helping matters, Ben goes off on a funny ramble before delivering the punch line that’s in the trailer.  The line is funny by itself, but it’s much funnier when it follows Ben’s convoluted wind-up.  Wilson’s performance in the scene is so typical of him that I wouldn’t be surprised if director Waugh let him improvise it on the set.

Wilson’s ability to free-wheel is what makes him ideal for being the co-lead or sidekick in an action movie.  This was noticeable to me in the Loki series, where he plays off Tom Hiddleston’s much more serious performance.  Wilson’s performance serves in the same capacity in Runner, balancing out Ritchson’s very serious demeanor by serving as the audience’s surrogate.  And he more than compensated for Jackie Chan’s limited acting ability in their two Shanghai movies.  (I wonder why they never did a third one.)

Wilson’s problem, if I can call it such, is that he’s easily taken for granted.  He’s in a similar position as his contemporaries Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd, in that he primarily gives the same performance every time out.  This is exactly what audiences want, but it leads to Wilson and the rest being seen as having limited range.  When someone like Ferrell stretches with a dramatic role, his fans don’t show up in theaters to see it.

I don’t know if Wilson wants to be seen as more than the funnyman that he is, but after seeing him recently in Loki and now Runner, I have a newfound appreciation for what he does.  He has very distinct comedic sensibilities, and his rhythm as an actor brings a unique vibe to whatever he appears in.  In other words, Wilson is one-of-a-kind, and I’m glad he’s still doing his crazy thing in movies.  The world would be a much darker place without him around to liven things up.

Remembering when

This was a fun exercise.  I tried to remember what was the last live-action buddy movie I saw in theaters and was stumped.  I initially thought of Zootopia 2 (2025) which has Judy (the bunny) and Nick (the fox) in the traditional buddy movie roles, but it’s animated.  Tenet (2020) has John David Washington and Robert Pattinson in the buddy roles, with plenty of gunfire, explosions and chase sequences, but it’s science-fiction.   Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) was out.  

Several recent movies would have made the cut if I’d seen them.  Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024) and Bad Boys For Life (2020) did not because I’m boycotting Will Smith movies from here on out.  I don’t know if Uncharted qualifies (2022).  I never saw Stuber (2019), starring Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista, because it looked mediocre and also came out the same weekend as Spider-Man: Far From Home and Crawl.

After consulting The Numbers, I found that the last live-action buddy comedy I saw in theaters was 2016’s Central Intelligence, starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart.  I really enjoyed the movie and was surprised that there never was a sequel, given that it made $127m domestic.  Before that I recall seeing Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) and 22 Jump Street (2014) in theaters and being entertained by both.

Some box office analysts insist that studios abandoned genres like comedies, romantic comedies and action movies in favor of superhero movies.  There’s some truth to that, because medium-budget films have mostly disappeared from the theatrical landscape.  But I’m not convinced that action-comedies were a superhero casualty because solo action movies starring Liam Neeson (Taken), Jason Statham (The Transporter), Keanu Reeves (John Wick), Denzel Washington (The Equalizer) and Matt Damon (Jason Bourne) continued to be released at a steady clip despite the CGI-fueled superhero boom that began with X-Men (2000) Spider-Man (2002).

As someone who grew up seeing action-comedy movies in the Eighties and Nineties, I’m mystified that the major studios have let this genre wither and die.  Thirty or forty years ago, a movie like Runner would have starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Billy Crystal and cleared $200m domestically easily.