Gal Gadon't bother with 'The Runner'
Amazon Prime
For every “Run Lola Run” there are five lousy ones like “The Kite Runner” or “Runner Runner,” and now the embarrassing “The Runner” is here to suggest perhaps we need more movies about skipping.
In a starring role that explains why she isn’t getting more of them, Gal Gadot (“Wonder Woman”) plays Maia, a lawyer who’s just out for some light Pogo sticking — nope, she’s running, and once a mysterious caller (Damien Lewis, fresh off his likewise lousy work in “Pressure”) says her son will die if she doesn’t kill a witness, Maia must, you guessed it, run and run and run until she can find a way to save the boy and avoid this whole murder-blackmail thing.
Not even an off-brand Liam Neeson vehicle, “The Runner” is about as successful as you probably expect from a 77-minute thriller by the writer of “Snow Dogs.” Director Kevin Macdonald (“State of Play,” “The Eagle”) is no joke, but he elicits stunningly bad performances to go with the contrived narrative and staging that repeatedly earns unintentional laughs. (Even a late scene featuring another character running looks comical instead of urgent.) Gadot really struggles to get Maia to the proper place of desperation, and the fact that the character repeatedly survives ridiculous situations and continues without difficulty is no excuse. It’s just part of the reason this supposed heart-pounder, very reminiscent of the also-boring “Nick of Time,” has no suspense at all.
There will always be a degree of rentability in B-movies like this, vaguely “Die Hard”-ian and sometimes amusing in spite of their weaknesses. But it’s beyond cheap to rely on such manipulative cliches as a child whose diabetes requires extra supervision and a motive that still feels like something John Grisham scribbled on a napkin, forgot about, used the napkin, and didn’t care ‘cause the idea felt stale anyway.
D-
NEW: WANT TO SETTLE A MOVIE DEBATE, TALK ABOUT '90S FAVORITES, OR EVEN HAVE YOUR SHORT HOME MOVIE REVIEWED? BOOK A VIDEO FROM MATT VIA CAMEO
ORDER “TALK ‘90S WITH ME: 23 UNPREDICTABLE CONVERSATIONS WITH STARS OF AN UNFORGETTABLE DECADE”
Matt’s new book arrived Sept. 27, 2022, and Richard Roeper raves: “Matt Pais deserves four stars for reintroducing us to many of the greatly talented but often unsung heroes of 1990s film. This is a terrific read.”
ARE YOU A “SAVED BY THE BELL” FAN?
Order “Zack Morris Lied 329 Times! Reassessing every ridiculous episode of ‘Saved by the Bell’ … with stats” (featuring interviews with 22 cast members, plus the co-founder of Saved by the Max and the creator of “Zack Morris is Trash”)
GET 100 STORIES FOR JUST $4.99