Video summary
The video review focuses on a new buddy action film titled *Runner*, starring Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson, which is currently exclusive to Amazon Prime. The reviewer begins by clarifying that this movie should not be confused with another film simply called *The Runner* that plays in theaters, noting that both titles are unfortunate examples of Hollywood's confusing naming conventions. While the reviewer expresses love for classic buddy cop films like *Lethal Weapon*, *Die Hard*, and *Rush Hour*, they argue that *Runner* fails to capture the chemistry essential to the genre. The film attempts to force a partnership between two actors who are tonally opposite, resulting in an unnatural dynamic that feels forced rather than organic.
The plot centers on Alan Ritchson's character, a Navy SEAL recovering from sobriety and the death of his child, who is tasked with transporting a vital organ in a cooler to save a seven-year-old girl. Despite the high stakes involving a dying child and a strict time limit for the organ's viability, the characters display a shocking lack of urgency. The reviewer criticizes the script for having the heroes take unnecessary breaks to chat or visit an ex-wife while being pursued by villains, completely ignoring the life-or-death situation at hand. This indifference extends to the action sequences, where characters suffer brutal injuries from tanks and glass shards yet continue fighting without any visible pain or concern, undermining the intended tension of the story.
Beyond the narrative flaws, the reviewer points out significant issues with the film's tone and production quality. The movie oscillates awkwardly between melodrama and goofiness, failing to commit to a single style like successful predecessors that balance grit with comedy. The soundtrack is criticized for featuring songs that feel out of place and do not match the scene's mood, further contributing to a disjointed viewing experience. Additionally, the reviewer notes that the film lacks the necessary elements to warrant an R-rating, as there is minimal swearing or graphic violence, yet it still manages to be incredibly frustrating due to its illogical plot points, such as a dangling sandwich subplot that never resolves. Ultimately, the review concludes that while the movie offers only mild entertainment for a specific niche audience, it feels like a generic, AI-generated script that was rushed to completion without proper care or attention to detail.
Read the full video transcript
Have you ever found yourself confused by
the title of a film? Occasionally having
a conversation with a friend or family
member about a film out and then you
realized, "Oh, that's not even the right
movie." I'm sure people have made that
mistake when it comes to Suicide Squad
versus The Suicide Squad. Those movies
thankfully came out a couple years
apart, so it was easier to figure out
where people were at. and only one of
them had a dumbass Joker that would
Anyway, The Runner is the film that's on
Amazon Prime exclusively and it sucks.
Runner is exclusively in theaters and it
sucks. So, don't get them confused. But
also, it's okay if you do because at the
end of the day, they both suck and you
don't need to waste your time watching
them. Let's get into the spoiler-free
review.
>> [music]
>> Allan Richson and Owen Wilson star in a
buddy action flick called Runner. Not
The Runner. Almost got you with that
one. Naming conventions in Hollywood are
great. And before I continue, I just
want to list off some movies that I love
in this genre so that I'm not just some
[ __ ] that's always ragging on films.
Lethal Weapon. I love all those movies.
You have a great dynamic between our
cops, the unhinged Mel Gibson, the more
calm and collect Danny Glover. Okay,
Rigs, where are you? Rigs Die Hard
three. He's got kind of a companion in
each one, but that's the one that really
brings him together with Samuel L.
Jackson's character Zeus. Phenomenal
film. I love all four of the Die Hard
movies. You heard me. All four of the
Die Hard movies. Rush Hour. Jackie Chan,
Chris Tucker, Match Made in Heaven. How
about Shanghai Noon? Jackie Chan. Owen
Wilson, who's in this film? Owen
Wilson's actually a great kind of
wingman for a lot of different actors.
Every time I see him with Ben Stiller, I
have a good chuckle. Zoolander is a
favorite of mine. Anyway, let's get to
the bad. Okay, Runner with Alan Richson
and Owen Wilson has no chemistry at all.
These guys are so tonally at opposites
with each other, you you couldn't make
it work if you forced it. And this movie
really tries to force it. And it does it
in the worst of cases. Let's get to the
plot. Let's let's let's break things
down for you. This movie is going to
focus on Alan Richson's character. Who
cares what his name is? It's Alan
Richson. He's a very chipsard down guy.
And he has himself a chip. As a matter
of fact, it's been one full year since
he's been sober. And since he's gotten
over the loss of his dead kid who's dead
than the deadest dog who ever died off
camera, he just has a photo up on the
dash up in that little what's that thing
called? The visor. up on the visor that
he can have a nice reminder of. He's a
runner, a divorce runner, Navy Seal guy,
as one is. And so his job is to go on
his Bluetooth headset and talk to some
douchebag who sounds like AI. I kid you
not. Uh, his name is Iggy. The only Iggy
I want to hear from is Miss Aelia. Okay,
first things first. I'm the real ass.
Drop this and let the whole world feel
ass. Subscribe. This guy's going to come
on the Bluetooth and be like, "All
right, mate. You got to go over here and
and and pick up this guy, mate. And then
you got to go over there and pick up a
bird, mate." And it was given me massive
shades of The Runner. That That's the
Galot You want to font film, remember?
They're different. They're different
[laughter] movies, but both of them
feature people running to places and
talking on headsets to [ __ ] Alan
Richson is about to get his greatest
running assignment yet, though. It's to
pick up a cooler carried by Owen Wilson
and he has to ferry them over to a
hospital so that a little seven-year-old
girl can get a brand new liver or she's
dead. Kind of like the runner. There's a
time frame on this because the cooler
can only stay chilled for so long. You
got to get that liver in someone before
it goes before it's worthless. Believe
me, as someone who's moved a lot of
livers around, I can attest it's a very
finicky project. Now again, as someone
who's moved a lot of these around in
different various body parts, I can tell
you there's a lot of money to be made in
this market. You want a fresh heart, you
want a fresh liver, you want a fresh uh
penis, it it comes at a hefty price. All
right? There's not a lot of there's not
a lot of dicks just floating around that
you can grab. Okay? If there's one in
there that's ripe for the taking, they
can get up to a million dollars. And so
there's going to be some villains on the
hunt for this thing. Now, what's their
purpose? Is it to sell it, or is it for
something else? Well, you got to watch
the movie to find out that answer.
[gasps] I could tell you, but maybe I
kind of want you to suffer through the
film, too. So, it's not going to take
too long for Alan Richson to spot a
tail. And he sees that there's bad guys
on his ass. So, he takes a left down an
alleyway and more guys approach him. And
we are off to the races. This is a
nonstop, no holds, bars, check notes,
PG13
action movie. That's depressing to say
out loud. What's more depressing is the
lack of care these jackasses appear to
have for that little girl dying in the
hospital. Because we have learned
throughout the course of this movie that
time is of the essence. So, they are
going to take as much time as humanly
possible to just walk and talk.
sometimes stand in place and have a
chat. You would think they have months
to deliver this [ __ ] thing, but
they're supposed to be there lickety
split. They're supposed to be there like
yesterday, okay? There's a grieving
mother over there and she's hot as [ __ ]
So get that thing to her and impress
her. Wait, this is a 2026 movie in the
action space. So all OF OUR STRONG
[screaming]
male leads
are roided the [ __ ] up and they have no
interest in a quick bang. Back in the
good old days with a Slice Stallone
film, an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, a
JeanClaude von Dam, high art picture,
there is always time for some softcore
penetration.
All right, you fight the crime, you go
back for penetration, you go back out.
It's as easy as one, two, three, four,
five, six, nine.
[laughter]
You get what I'm saying? Penetration,
short for penetration. We don't care so
much about the plot though in these
films, right? We we're here for the
action spectacle. And in that
department, you're probably going to be
let down too because although there's
there's a decent amount of it, most of
it's just the director kind of throwing
the camera around trying to get that
visceral style where it's it's moving
around with the action. Sometimes it
works to a great effect. Other times it
just looks really bad. And again,
there's really no stakes to any of this
because I don't feel that sense of
urgency from our characters. Here's an
example. There's a point where their car
gets wrecked and they have to go find an
alternative vehicle. So Richson says,
"Hey, why don't we pop by the ex-wife's
place?" They go over there. They're
spackled with blood, shirts ripped, they
look a mess. wife answers the door and
she doesn't blink an eye. She doesn't
look at these two vagrants and go, "Oh
my god, what happened? Are you okay?"
No, it's just another day at the races,
I suppose. And on top of that, Alan
Richton isn't in a hurry. He's not like,
"Hey, hey, sweetie. I know it's been a
long time. We talk on the phone still,
but this is crazy. I'm showing up your
door, but we really need your car.
There's a little girl in the hospital.
She's going to be dead in a matter of
minutes if we don't get to a vehicle and
get to that hospital. we have what she
needs in this cooler. No, instead he's
just like,
"Hey, is Rich here?" I don't know what
the guy's name is. The dude that she's
currently sleeping with, "Uh, this is
just, you know, huh, you look good. You
look uh you look rested." It's like,
what what are you doing? Tell her what's
going on. This is so annoying. I was
constantly frustrated at this stuff. And
also Alen Richson for this this super
sharp, super awesome fighter, he's sure
dumb as [ __ ] because he doesn't pick up
on the like most obvious of things. For
instance, when he's talking to a guy
that he thinks he can trust but
obviously is the bad guy. Like, are you
serious, dude? This is the most obvious
crap ever. Or at another point, when he
tries to get the bad guys off his scent,
so he leads them across THE STREET.
[screaming] AH, THIS MOVIE PISSES ME OFF
SO MUCH. It's not a turn your brain off
and enjoy the action because the
action's lame. And I saw some reviews
right before I went live. You're like,
"Whoa, I can't believe they got away
with a PG13 on this movie. It should
have BEEN AN R. [ __ ] YOU." WHAT? HOW IS
THIS AN R-rated movie? There's nothing
about this that screams R-rated. The sw
There's no swearing. The The violence is
barely there. It's a lot of just punches
and kicks and slamming bodies into
things. The only thing that amazes me is
how anybody gets up after this giant
tank of a guy rams his shoulder into
him, throwing him through a wall. Then
he takes like a glass plate, smashes it
over their head, kicks him in the face
four times, and the bad guy gets up like
nothing happened. What? [sighs]
I know there's an audience for this.
Jason Staithm has made 500 movies in
this same kind of vein. The difference
is Staithm's got style. Even when he's
phoned it in, the guy just oozes cool.
He oozes charisma. Okay. And he can act.
I liked him in uh in in his non-action
films. Snatch is one of my favorite
movies. It's in my top 100 of all time.
And Staithm's fantastic in it. Alan
Richson, I heard, is great in Reacher.
I've never watched Reacher, but
everything I've seen him in has been so
unimpressive. Like obviously he looks
like he's a troublemaker, right? He he
looks like a badass, but outside of
that, I I don't get any sort of charisma
from him. I get nothing from him. So
Owen Wilson being his like lackey, being
the guy he's supposed to exchange, you
know, volleys of conversation with, it
never works because he has nothing to
bring. Owen Wilson, incredibly charming.
He's still lovable. Even in this film, I
like seeing him. I haven't seen him for
a long time. He's fun to listen to and
even though the dialogue is not great,
he's putting it all in there and
Richen's giving him nothing back. And
nothing I hate more in a film than
leaving something dangle and not
finishing up such as the sandwich that
Richson tries to eat early in the movie.
Later, he goes back to it. He takes a
bite. And I was just waiting for the
sandwich arc to be completed, and it
never is. It's really frustrating. I was
more captivated by where the sandwich
thing was going to go than anything else
in the picture. Now, I don't think it's
a total miss. Like I said, there is an
audience for this and I think it's going
to be the same audience that watched
Jag, which was a TV show. I don't know
what it was about, but it went a long
time, I'm pretty sure. And a lot of old
people liked Jag. There was some old
people in the audience for this one. The
audience of four that I was in the
theater with, they seemed mildly
entertained. And I think that that's
what this movie brings to the table.
Mild entertainment. I was just waiting
for it to be over. I Oh, I brought up uh
Suicide Squad before. Remember that film
has like 85 different songs at the
beginning to try to, you know, set the
tone and get you pumped up. This movie
has a couple songs out of the gate, too,
that felt kind of similar to that. not
as egregious by like throwing 50 of them
at you at once, but there's a couple
there that just felt really out of
place. It didn't it didn't match what
was happening in the scene. And I think
they're trying to get this movie to
loosen up a little bit because tonally,
much like the other movie I saw tonight,
which I will talk about in the next
video, uh tonally it's a little all over
the place. It's very melodramatic at
times. It's very goofy at times. It's
attempting to be serious. There's just
too many angles and it's not finding a
great one. I mentioned some awesome
movies before. Lethal Weapon balances
the gritty action with comedy so well.
Die Hard does the same exact thing. Rush
Hour and Shanghai Noon, those go for the
sillier slapstick style, but they still
have some stakes to them. These movies
know what they are and they go allin. I
don't know what the heller is. I think
it thinks it's a straight to streamer
because that's what it felt like. And
I'm not shocked that there are two
movies in two weeks that have Runner as
their titles because they both feel like
movies that were generated by AI and and
they just were like, "Oh, these are both
really kind of bad movie scripts, but
they're at least done and we don't have
to do any work." Runner, a generic title
for a generic film. Let me know if you
had any interest in seeing this. Most
people I've mentioned it to were like,
"What? That thing that's on Amazon
Prime?" Like, "No, no, no, no, no, no,
no. That's that's the other runner." Oh,
okay. Well, yeah. Yeah. I was probably
just going to watch Halloween tonight
anyways. And I was like, "What
Halloween? The original or the the the
reboot of Halloween 2 that's called
Halloween?" And like, "Wait, what?
There's another Halloween? [screaming]
Let's just watch Alien and forget about
it." Alien or Aliens? Wait, they're two
different things. What? Hollywood naming
conventions are great. All right, that's
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all I got. Take care.
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