Run away from this routine thriller.
The new Gal Gadot thriller “The Runner” is the latest in a series of movies regarding phone calls or texts threatening people, including “Phone Booth,” “Non-Stop,” “Carry-On,” and “Drop.” And quite frankly, it’s a pretty lousy attempt. You have the “Wonder Woman” star playing a single mother and successful lawyer in London, whose son (Rory Wilmot) is in danger when somebody (Damien Lewis) calls her and asks her to murder the person set to testify his criminal boss. He also gives her a series of instructions to follow with the “Disobey and your son dies” threat. And that means you have a number of problems you can’t dial.
For one of the typical formulas, the caller uses A.I. to mess with her when he says he has her son on the phone, or when he uses her voice to answer a call from school. He complements on the computer programming, but the people he’s contacting are idiots for buying their corny dialogue. They might as well wire money to somebody they think is in danger, while they’re at it. These movie phone scams should be displayed at comedy festivals.
In fact, I think he may also be an idiot, because he’s able to track her move, but he fails to catch on that she steals phones to try to get help. It’s clear he has no camera on her, but she has her phone on her arm, so that’s how he can track her. Along with the mean-spirited nature of stealing phones, she ends up getting hit by a car and struggling to get back to running, but she soon comes around. And when her phone gets stolen on the train she’s forced to take, she has to run to the next station. She’s either a good runner or a movie machine. You decide.
Directed by the usually effective Kevin Macdonald, “The Runner” only works because of how Lewis keeps his tone and consistency in check as the caller. But you would think that a great actor like him should be given intelligence. In fact, there is no intelligence in this movie, only running, cursing, guns, police chases, injuries, shaky camera movements, child endangerment, and noise. And MPA has the gall to give it a PG-13 rating, instead of the R-rating. This is an Amazon Prime Video release, which means there are less ID checks and more views. And I’m glad it’s going online, because it’s not something you’d want to spend your money on in a theater. Whether they still take cash or now only credit cards.
Gadot is woefully miscast as the mother, who looks more beautiful than human. That means she can succumb to whatever dumb rule writer Mark Gibson (“The Wild,” “Snow Dogs”) can throw at her-from getting hit by a car to chasing a subway, and still looks good doing it. And even with the car accident, she looks like she just has a scratch on her head. I guess “Runner” is supposed to be one of those B-action movies with implausibilities and formulas, but why waste your time on this one? Besides the “Wonder Woman” movies, you deserve better Gadot movies like “Death on the Nile,” “Fast Five,” and “Fast and Furious 6.”
And then finally, you close with one of those Steven Soderbergh endings, which seems tedious considering the characters and story presented here. “The Bad Guys” had one of those endings, but that was a smart cartoon. This is a dumb live-action cartoon of sorts.
Disclaimer: try not to get confused with the upcoming Owen Wilson movie “Runner.”
Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video
