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 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.