The new movie "Runner" is another example of how Alan Ritchson is the new #1 action movie star. Starting with the Amazon Prime series "Reacher", Ritchson has now made 5 action movies in the last three years.
The logline for Runner: A former soldier turned elite courier must transport a life-saving liver to a critically ill young girl within hours, but when a ruthless cartel targets the organ, he and his unlikely partner are forced into a deadly race across Australia to stay alive—and complete the delivery.
This idea is a good one, along with adding Owen Wilson (Ben Bishop) and Ritchson (Hank Malone), who rides with Malone to avoid a group of drug cartel criminals who want the extremely rare liver (due to a rare blood type) to a hospital in Brisbane, Australia, to save the life of a child. The action scenes are well done, but nothing we haven't all seen before. Throughout this film, Wilson and Ritchson have very good chemistry during all the many action scenes, which include car crashes, chase scenes, and the many physical fights that Hank Malone has, dominating the many criminals trying to kill him and Bishop and steal the liver that is stored in a special case to keep it at a constant cold temperature.
The side story is Hank Malone's own child, who died of leukemia some years earlier, causing him to become an alcoholic, leading to his divorce and his job as a runner, transporting items around Australia. Malone did make progress, earning his AA 1-year sobriety coin, but unfortunately his ex-wife moved on and married another man.
There are some impressive special effects and action scenes at the end of this movie, and a few surprises that I did not see coming, but not enough to turn this from an average action movie into a great one.
I agree with the moderate 69% Rotten Tomatoes rating and give this movie a marginal recommendation mostly for the action scenes.
Movie Reviews From a Screenwriter's Perspective
Friday, September 11, 2026
Friday, September 4, 2026
Movie Review: By Any Means
The new movie "By Any Means" is loosely based on the murder in 1966 of Vernon Dahmer by the KKK, who was a prominent civil-rights advocate and Mississippi NAACP leader. The FBI hires Greg Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg) to obtain information about this murder, "by any means", using Scarpa's Mafia experience to torture witnesses to get the information they needed. This is the essential problem with this movie: way too many scenes of people being tied to chairs and beaten in the face and the legs with fists and baseball bats.
Why would the producers not know that this many scenes of human torture would never be considered any level of entertainment? Wahlberg, once again, is perfect in his role as an extremely disgusting and unlikeable lowlife who has no decency or morals. Scarpas too many scenes of extreme violence and torture trying to obtain information became old after the first scene with him beating the legs of a man with a baseball bat way too many times. By the end of this movie, the scenes of human torture became unbearable to watch. Had the interrogation scenes been reduced by half, this movie would have had a chance to be considered an above-average movie.
The FBI hired agent Wayne Strider (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) to ride with Greg Scarpa into Mississippi, creating an extremely volatile relationship throughout this story, leading to a fist fight between the two of them based on disagreements over the violent methods Scarpa uses to obtain information. Both actors are good in their roles, but unfortunately, this kind of story we have seen way too many times before. There is nothing new here, with a story that is, at best, only average, with the only revelation about the FBI using a Mafia hitman to illegally obtain information.
The low Rotten Tomatoes rating of only 51% is correct this time around, and I do not recommend this movie.
Why would the producers not know that this many scenes of human torture would never be considered any level of entertainment? Wahlberg, once again, is perfect in his role as an extremely disgusting and unlikeable lowlife who has no decency or morals. Scarpas too many scenes of extreme violence and torture trying to obtain information became old after the first scene with him beating the legs of a man with a baseball bat way too many times. By the end of this movie, the scenes of human torture became unbearable to watch. Had the interrogation scenes been reduced by half, this movie would have had a chance to be considered an above-average movie.
The FBI hired agent Wayne Strider (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) to ride with Greg Scarpa into Mississippi, creating an extremely volatile relationship throughout this story, leading to a fist fight between the two of them based on disagreements over the violent methods Scarpa uses to obtain information. Both actors are good in their roles, but unfortunately, this kind of story we have seen way too many times before. There is nothing new here, with a story that is, at best, only average, with the only revelation about the FBI using a Mafia hitman to illegally obtain information.
The low Rotten Tomatoes rating of only 51% is correct this time around, and I do not recommend this movie.
Saturday, August 29, 2026
Movie Review: The Dog Stars
There are numerous issues with the new movie "The Dog Stars", starting with how strange it is that a director with the clout of Ridley Scott would read this script and agree to make this film. The title of this film also makes little sense; yes, there is a dog, and at times they do look at the stars. This phrase refers to Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, which is commonly called the “Dog Star.” Despite all of this, this story is about a virus that almost wipes out the human population. The Dog Stars is not a good title for this movie.
One of the few good points is that this time around, the virus that almost wipes out the population of the world does not turn people into flesh-eating zombies, for a refreshing new idea about a virus. We have all seen enough zombie movies, both on television and in movie theaters. Enough already.
This story takes place in a bombed-out, disaster-stricken Denver, Colorado, in the year 2035, ten years after the Pandemic. The main character is Hig (Jacob Elordi), a pilot who lives with a friend and mentor, Bangley (Josh Brolin), in a broken-down house/garage, where Bangley is frequently sitting at the top of a tower, shooting anyone who comes close to their shelter with a high-powered rifle. Most impressive is the number of burned-out, broken cars and planes that are constantly littered throughout all the scenes, accounting for most of the production costs. The other remarkable thing about this movie is how thin the action is, with very little happening, making this movie somewhat like the television series Seinfeld (the show about nothing).
Due to restlessness, Hig flies his plane into a new area of Colorado, has major engine problems, is barely able to land the plane, and then runs into a father and daughter, Pops and Cima, who are trying to survive in the middle of nowhere. What follows is very little story and then another bout of restlessness where the three of them somehow are able to fix the plane (never explained), clear the land for a runway, and wind up at an airport where it seems that everybody is crazy. The head of this insane airport is Darline (Allison Janey) - another well-known actor who read the script and agreed to act in this movie, forcing all of us to wonder why.
The ending is very anticlimactic and boring, like too much of this story, with an abrupt ending that was a good thing, because the movie was finally over.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this mostly bad movie is a correct 40%, making this movie, considering all the well-known people involved, a big miss.
One of the few good points is that this time around, the virus that almost wipes out the population of the world does not turn people into flesh-eating zombies, for a refreshing new idea about a virus. We have all seen enough zombie movies, both on television and in movie theaters. Enough already.
This story takes place in a bombed-out, disaster-stricken Denver, Colorado, in the year 2035, ten years after the Pandemic. The main character is Hig (Jacob Elordi), a pilot who lives with a friend and mentor, Bangley (Josh Brolin), in a broken-down house/garage, where Bangley is frequently sitting at the top of a tower, shooting anyone who comes close to their shelter with a high-powered rifle. Most impressive is the number of burned-out, broken cars and planes that are constantly littered throughout all the scenes, accounting for most of the production costs. The other remarkable thing about this movie is how thin the action is, with very little happening, making this movie somewhat like the television series Seinfeld (the show about nothing).
Due to restlessness, Hig flies his plane into a new area of Colorado, has major engine problems, is barely able to land the plane, and then runs into a father and daughter, Pops and Cima, who are trying to survive in the middle of nowhere. What follows is very little story and then another bout of restlessness where the three of them somehow are able to fix the plane (never explained), clear the land for a runway, and wind up at an airport where it seems that everybody is crazy. The head of this insane airport is Darline (Allison Janey) - another well-known actor who read the script and agreed to act in this movie, forcing all of us to wonder why.
The ending is very anticlimactic and boring, like too much of this story, with an abrupt ending that was a good thing, because the movie was finally over.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this mostly bad movie is a correct 40%, making this movie, considering all the well-known people involved, a big miss.
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