«One-time watch: brutal, funny and not a minute too long.»
KinoDobirka editorial rating
6.5 / 10
What it is about
Hank Malone (Alan Ritchson) makes a living in Brisbane moving things nobody asks questions about. Ex-military, quiet, used to working alone.
One morning he gets a job he cannot turn down: deliver a donor liver to seven-year-old Ellie in three hours. Riding shotgun is Ben Bishop (Owen Wilson), a medical courier in a fedora who talks more than Hank thinks in a day.
Then the genre takes over. A cartel led by Damián Zaldívar (Rodrigo Santoro) wants the organ for his dying mother, and the girl's rare blood makes it worth more than gold. The police are not much help either. Somewhere in the middle of it all, there is a parrot.
What works
The duo. Ritchson and Wilson do not play mismatched partners by the handbook. One is a wall of muscle with the eyes of a beaten dog, the other is a man who knows where to find coffee even under fire. Their chemistry carries scenes the script cannot.
The pace. 97 minutes, no dead spots. Scott Waugh, a former stuntman (Need for Speed, The Expendables 4), understands the assignment: the audience came for chases, not reflection. The fights are shot so you can see who is hitting whom instead of a camera being shaken at you.
The balance. The film keeps joking while blood is on screen, and never pretends to be a big drama. But it does not turn tragedy into a punchline either: Hank carries his own loss, and it explains why he clings to someone else's child. Not deep, but honest.
The small stuff. A parrot that repeats the wrong thing at exactly the right moment. A truck driver who saves a whole scene with one line. Details like that keep a B-movie alive.
What does not work
The final third. The film starts as a story about whether you can save one child in time and ends as a warehouse fight with a villain who decides to explain his plan. The Hindu put it better: "serviceable thriller undone by an overwrought third act."
The logic. Count how many times the heroes could call the police, stop at a petrol station or hand the liver to another courier, and it gets a little sad. The film asks you not to think, which is a fair deal for the genre, but it breaks that deal loudly a few times.
The villain. Santoro plays a cartel boss as if he wandered in from a different movie: the motivation is there, the face is not. The rest of the pursuers are men with guns who appear exactly when the action needs a boost.
The humour. Some of Wilson's jokes land, some are just Owen Wilson talking in his own voice. In 2026 that is not enough for a full comedy, but it is enough for a smile.
What critics and numbers say
The world took the film exactly as it deserves: without rapture, but without contempt.
Rotten Tomatoes: 78% from critics (64 reviews, 6.1/10 average) and 89% from audiences (500+ verified ratings).
Metacritic: 55/100 from critics (15 reviews) and 5.4/10 from users (35 ratings).
IMDb: 6.2/10 (about 16.6K votes).
Letterboxd: 2.83/5 (30,846 ratings).
CinemaScore: A- from cinema audiences.
Box office: about $18M worldwide on a $35–45M budget. Opening weekend: $6.5M in 2,568 theatres, fourth place in the US.
Empire gave it 3/5 and called it "perfectly serviceable action baloney with just enough humour and emotion to keep you engaged." The Australian was closer to a compliment: "B-movie vibes", but fast, fun and funny. Peter Travers gave it 2/4: "go through the action-comedy motions without leaving much of an impression."
The spread is predictable: genre fans get what they came for, everyone else does not.
Editorial score: 6.5/10
6.5/10. Runner never pretends to be more than 97 minutes of chases, fights and liver jokes. For a film directed by a former stuntman from a script that landed on the 2023 Black List, that is a decent result.
If you expect Sicario with Owen Wilson, you will be disappointed. If you want something for a weeknight where everything explodes on schedule, you get exactly what you paid for.
This review was prepared with AI assistance based on trailers, published reviews and open film data. All quotes belong to the outlets named above; scores were collected on 25 October 2026.
Who it's for: Anyone who enjoyed Reacher and wants the same but with Owen Wilson, a parrot and no season-long buildup. Fans of body-movie mayhem who do not ask the genre for logic.
Spoiler breakdown
The film's big reveal is who sold the cartel the liver's route. It is not a stranger: it is Julie, the nurse whose brother was kidnapped by the cartel to force her help.
Ben dies from a cartel bullet on the way to the hospital. Hank reaches Damián and kills him, and the liver finally gets to Ellie. The girl survives.
In the final scene Hank allows himself a holiday for the first time in years and flies to Paris, the city his daughter dreamed about.
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