September 17, 2026 · Watch the trailer
Action films are expected to have ridiculous premises at this point. The willingness of an audience to suspend disbelief from a narrative perspective helps make incredible set pieces feel more believable when heroes narrowly avoid explosions and villains seem to miss all of their shots. Building an unbelievable world helps put everything else in perspective.
The faith-based film company Angel Studios has continued to expand its genre horizons with its acquisition of “Runner,’” an outlandish, set-piece-heavy action comedy that feels as if it were clearly made for another studio and modified to fit Angel’s relatively wholesome brand of cinema. The film follows retired Navy SEAL Hank Malone, now working in Australia as a runner in a very similar style to the classic Jason Statham action franchise “The Transporter.” When a seemingly routine organ transplant delivery becomes infiltrated by a drug cartel, Hank finds himself tasked with getting the organ to its destination while avoiding an endless stream of heavily armed villains.
An exceptionally middle-of-the-road premise for the genre, “Runner” feels like it had a wet towel tossed on top of it in order to maintain a PG-13 rating despite its clear intentions toward more gruesome violence.
Endless villains are taken out over the course of its 97 minutes, shot at close range with an almost comical recoil and virtually no blood spatter. Many look more like they were yanked backward by a tight rope than shot at close range with a shotgun.
Ritchson brings his towering frame and normal stoic presence to the role of Hank, the emotionally isolated protagonist at the core of “Runner.” While Ritchson does not portray Hank much differently than he does the title character in Prime Video’s “Reacher,” there is a commanding presence to his performance that makes the character exceptionally believable within an otherwise incredulous world.
While not completely in the same movie from a tonal standpoint, Owen Wilson brings levity and a moderately fun dichotomy to the role of Ben, a medical courier trying to get the organ to the hospital on time. His chemistry and banter with Ritchson, while slightly stilted, work fine here, although a better-written script could have heightened both the comedic and emotional through lines of the film.
To be fair, a lesser actor in the same role would have made the extended scenes between Hank and Ben feel overly tedious and plodding. Wilson’s natural charm gives off just enough warmth to loosely tie together the threads surrounding the film’s numerous set pieces.
Most of the supporting cast is understandably so thinly written that its lack of character work and depth makes sense within a B-tier action thriller. Yet “Runner” tries harder than most films of this type to pull at the emotional heartstrings of its viewers and find a less contrived sense of humanity than one might find in any of Statham’s recent shoot-’em-up films.
The action set pieces in “Runner” feel choppy at times, perhaps due to post-production editing and the cutting of its most gratuitous moments of violence. The film unquestionably has the highest body count and level of brutality of any Angel Studios film, despite implicitly suggesting its gorier moments rather than explicitly showing them. The combination creates the odd sensation of watching an action movie constantly pulling its punches at the exact moment of impact.
Visually, the film feels like the brightness and contrast were artificially turned up one or two notches too high, as the color palette of “Runner” has an overly bright hue that takes it just beyond realism. Some of the car chase scenes feel as if they were pulled apart and restitched together using artificial intelligence as much as anything, further contributing to the occasionally disjointed visual construction.
While certainly not among the year’s best action films, “Runner” is a lighthearted, turn-off-your-brain action comedy that may be worth catching at home several months from now, though it is easily skippable as well.
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