Are movie stars okay? Between the recent explosion of celebrity spokesperson roles (such as Ben Affleck finally doing Aflac commercials) and a steady growth in star-driven straight-to-streaming fare, actors the general public would consider “successful” seem to be hustling for work — any work — harder than ever. Owen Wilson, for example, has recently appeared in a big-budget Disney movie (“Haunted Mansion”), played a high-profile character within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and is soon set to return to his scene-stealing role in the “Fockers” franchise. So why is he in Angel Studios’ “Runner?”
Truth be told, Scott Waugh’s action thriller, co-starring Alan Ritchson (“Reacher”), is actually pretty entertaining, with the good sense to clock in at an efficient 98 minutes. But there’s something dispiriting about the middle-tier existence of a skillful meat-and-potatoes crowdpleaser like this, which is neither polished enough to hold up against proper studio fare, nor scrappy enough to thrive as Roger Corman-style exploitation. Supported by Waugh’s muscular direction, Wilson and Ritchson work well together in a chase film whose thinly sketched premise barely sustains its wall-to-wall action sequences.
