Runner

CinemaSerf

The annoyingly verbose "Ben" (Owen Wilson) arrives in Brisbane aboard a private jet tasked with delivering a liver that could save the life of the young "Ellie" (Scarlett Crabtree) whose mother "Kate" (Leila George) is gradually climbing the walls. His ride to the hospital is to be provided by "Hank" (Alan Ritchson) who isn't best impressed that his passenger suffers from an excitable form of verbal diarrhoea - but that's just the start of his woes as they both discover that this organ is particularly rare and that the local branch of the Colombian drug-peddling mafia are determined to get their hands on it. What ought to have been a straightforward courier job quickly becomes an action-packed race across the country leaving wreckage, carnage and quite a few bodies in their wake. Naturally, as their battle for survival hots up, the two begin to bond a little - but what chance they can make it in time? Jeopardy? Well no, not really. Not with a young child lying in an hospital bed and this not sporting an "R" rating, but if you like shoot 'em up buddy movies with car chases, menacing grannies, plotting, scheming and a rare parakeet then this isn't the worst adventure movie you'll ever see. Indeed, it actually hits a little purple patch in the third quarter that is quite entertaining before a denouement that does drag things out a bit, but that doesn't actually deliver quite as expected. It's all forgettable fayre, but it killed ninety minutes in the cinema easily enough and I quite enjoyed it - even if I couldn't decide whether Wilson was simply annoying at being himself or just good at crafting a character that I'd have cheerfully fed to a large snake.