Runner (M) – 98 minutes

Totally believable (NOT!) comes this thrilling, high-octane, comedic actioner set in and around Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

It concerns a runner, namely a person charged with transporting goods (potentially legal and illegal) from place to place – in essence, a driver for hire.

In this case it is ex-military American strongman Hank Malone (Alan Ritchson), who knows how to handle himself.

He returned from Afghanistan all messed up, having taken to the bottle.

Along the way, he lost his marriage and his precious young daughter.

Now one year sober, he is not big on talking.

The runner is given jobs by his handler, Iggy, who is forever pushing him. Iggy is a voice at the end of a phone line, inevitably enthusiastic, but also most irritating.

Among Hank’s more unusual assignments is the call to hand over a highly valuable bird from a separated husband to his wife, with whom he is warring. And that doesn’t exactly go down well.

But more to the point, he is asked to pick up a medical package at Brisbane airport and travel with it a short distance.

As it turns out though, Hanks gets far more than he bargained for.

The package is, in fact, a liver drawn from a donor with an extremely rare blood type.

It is carried in a small, refrigerated esky by incessant chatterbox Ben Bishop (Owen Wilson), who is every bit as annoying as Hanks’ regular phone handler.

Ben intends to accompany the liver to its recipient in a Gold Coast hospital.

She is very sick seven-year-old girl Ellie Baker (Scarlett Crabtree), who will die without a transplant.

Both the fact that Ben intends to tag along and the liver’s intended destination are news to Hank, who has received different instructions from Iggy.

Just why Iggy ordered the medical package to be driven to an alternate location soon becomes clear.

Damián Zaldívar (Rodrigo Santoro) is the brutal son of a ruthless cartel head, intent on stealing the liver for his mother, who is in dire need of it for herself.

Heavily armed Zaldívar and his henchmen will stop at nothing to get their hands on the vital human organ.

And, not to put too fine a point on it, Zaldívar is extremely trigger happy.

But with time of the essence (otherwise the liver will be useless from a transplant point of view), Hank is not someone to be messed with. He is up for the challenge.

Still, he and Ben are set to encounter many obstacles, as Ellie’s mother Kate (Leila George) grows increasingly desperate.

Written by Miles Hubley and Tommy White, Runner was included in the 2023 Black List of the most liked unproduced Hollywood screenplays.

The Black List has produced gems such as Slumdog Millionaire, Spotlight and The Revenant, but Runner is not in that same league.

It goes by the adage nothing exceeds like excess.

It is deliberately way over the top. Think car chases and extreme violence – hand to hand combat, gunfire and explosions.

But there is also no shortage of humour drawn from the preposterousness of it all.

It draws part of its strength from buddy comedies such as Lethal Weapon (1987), in which opposites attract.

Hank Malone can’t stand Ben Bishop from the moment he meets him. Hank merely tolerates Ben because he has to, but then the dynamic changes. 

Ritchson is potent as the muscular silent type who can metaphorically run through brick walls.

Wilson plays the irritant card well. His character is supposed to grate and he does. But Wilson also manages to transition him well to someone with heart and moral fibre.

Santoro is savage as the thug doing a whole lot of chasing, while George shows resilience as the mother frantic to save her daughter.

It would be easy to pick holes in the script in terms of credibility, not the least of which would be how could Hank possibly survive such an ordeal.

So, the trick to get the most out of Runner is to suspend belief and run with the heightened tension evident throughout. In fact, it is a stressful film to watch.

Director Steve Waugh, a former stunt performer, knows how to attract our attention and time and again goes all out to do so.

There is even a late twist in the plot that most won’t see coming.

Familiarity with the sparkling locations is an added bonus, while the soundscape is evocative.

Importantly, despite its outrageousness, Runner is able to maintain a level of emotional resonance, which in itself is quite something.

Rated M, it scores a 7 out of 10.