Action film “Runner”: Knocking used to be better

The 1980s and 90s have been back for a long time (or never left): in fashion, in music (Robyn!) and also in cinema. Retro charm and memories sell well, certainly because of the pop culture socialization of millennials, perhaps sometimes because the world used to be simpler. Scott Waugh seems to know all this, because his adrenaline orgy “Runner” is a film-turned-anachronism that seems to have been beamed straight from the 90s.

Ex-Navy Seal works there – of course! – Hank (Alan Ritchson) as a runner, a courier for sensitive to dubious cargo. When he is supposed to pick up a donor liver at the airport, which a terminally ill girl is waiting for in the Brisbane hospital, events come to a head. The medical courier Ben (Owen Wilson) gives him a chop, and soon there is a bang and a crash because the local mafia under cartel boss Damián (Rodrigo Santoro) and the hired, tattooed biker gang are also interested in the priceless organ.

This puts you right in the middle of a story that fits on a beer mat and takes no prisoners in any way. This Hank, played by a Hulk-like huge Alan Ritchson, has - of course! – has a difficult past and is anything but the “gentle giant” as his boss calls him. The taciturn man beats up, shoots or stabs his opponents with a bicycle saddle that would make the Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallones and Jason Stathams of the world pee in their eyes with joy. The fact that he is once even literally described as a “great American action hero in top form” is one of more than a few waves of the bazooka.

“Runners.” Director: Scott Waugh. With Alan Ritchson, Owen Wilson, and others. USA 2025, 98 mins.

“Runner” doesn’t take itself very seriously and uses the tools of classic boys’ action cinema without any great ambition for innovation. Of course, Hank and Ben make an unlikely buddy couple, and of course there is Damián, a suitably nasty antagonist asshole with a mother complex. You can find it all under-complex or stupid in its over-affirmative exaggeration, including the emotional sound design and rock music during the fight scenes. But hey: this nonsense is always fun!

Without any real rest breaks, the two heroes race in a jeep along the Gold Coast through the capital of the Australian state of Queensland, which the film casually makes you want to visit - perhaps the next travel destination? A race against time, as the girl is in danger of dying, the evil ones gaining the upper hand and the organ dying in the damaged cool box.

Above all, the action in “Runner” is retro, in the best sense of the word. Here everything still seems hand-made, real cars crash and explode on real streets - a nice counterpoint to the CGI butchers in the blockbuster franchise, which are often tiresome in their immensity and artificiality. What particularly stands out is a chase scene towards the end, in which the camera switches back and forth between the racing bodies and creates an astonishing immediacy.

The showdown is also an old-school analogue spectacle. If you've ever wanted to know how to accurately dismantle the inside of a hospital, "Runner" is also recommended. Shards, shattered doors and walls, a blood-stained mess down to the bones. Everything is there and so beautifully arranged with clear fronts and motivations. It's crazy how much nostalgia for easier-to-grasp times such an entertaining action joke can trigger.