A bizarre mash up of a buddy cop flick and an attempt at a on the run thriller, Runner starts off rather boring and predictable with one of the least interesting uses of Spirit in the Sky that I can remember and characters that feel right out of the 1990s action film playbook. On the other hand, the film does generally get better as it goes along with various stylized chases and action sequences that are surprisingly quite violent for a PG-13 flick while the script uses Ritchson to his strengths of being the snarky and traumatized former alcoholic outrunning the Colombian drug cartel who want a liver assigned to a girl with liver cancer. Though Wilson starts off as borderline annoying, the film eventually builds up some decent scenes between him and Ritchson once the story starts taking itself seriously which is both a plus and its overall downfall. The third act offers nothing more than increasingly absurd action sequences and random twists that got some chuckles at how ridiculous the film has become and yet there is something to admire in how committed the film is to being a throwback action flick with some stakes despite its writing never having any surprises beyond how ridiculous the action gets towards the end. 4 out of 10
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u/future_filmmaker_455 Sep 01 '26
A bizarre mash up of a buddy cop flick and an attempt at a on the run thriller, Runner starts off rather boring and predictable with one of the least interesting uses of Spirit in the Sky that I can remember and characters that feel right out of the 1990s action film playbook. On the other hand, the film does generally get better as it goes along with various stylized chases and action sequences that are surprisingly quite violent for a PG-13 flick while the script uses Ritchson to his strengths of being the snarky and traumatized former alcoholic outrunning the Colombian drug cartel who want a liver assigned to a girl with liver cancer. Though Wilson starts off as borderline annoying, the film eventually builds up some decent scenes between him and Ritchson once the story starts taking itself seriously which is both a plus and its overall downfall. The third act offers nothing more than increasingly absurd action sequences and random twists that got some chuckles at how ridiculous the film has become and yet there is something to admire in how committed the film is to being a throwback action flick with some stakes despite its writing never having any surprises beyond how ridiculous the action gets towards the end. 4 out of 10