The Runners

The actors, characters, storyline, dialogue & screenplay all lacked any vestige of credibility. A truly terrible movie.

I read a synopsis for this movie elsewhere that its "Taken" meets "Man Under Fire". So with this premise, I went ahead and watched it. And guess what? It's not - no where near it.

This movie is flawed, and flawed in a big way. From too many holes in the plot, to over acting and wooden acting actors.

It's a mediocre movie at best. And a low end B-Grade movie at that.

My recommendation: Skip it. Watch something else. Anything else.

Micah Lyons ("Ryan") has to head to Mexico to rescue his recently kidnapped little sister before she becomes embroiled in the drug-fuelled sex trade. Quickly adopting the kind of ninja skills that would flatten an entire army, he manages to overwhelm just about everyone as he races to her side. The acting, dialogue and storyline in general are all the stuff of a college project. Lyons appears to have done all but make the coffee, and as is frequently the case when the star/director has no sense of objectivity, what is produced is a messy, ill-conceived story with more plot holes than a Dutch cheese. There isn't the slightest degree of jeopardy anywhere and the adventure - such as it is - seems to be based on the premiss that he is the only one who has the remotest chance of hitting what he aims at, despite being constantly out-numbered, out-positioned and out-gunned. It's a labour of love for a very mediocre star working with an equally unremarkable script and supporting cast. Nothing to see here, really, even if you are a fan of the genre.

This movie is trash, and it's everything that's wrong with Hollywood. Whoever in hell gave them money to produce this trash should be in jail. The sad part is, they fine people so desperate to be in a movie they would do anything, this is horrible. This isn't even worth wasting time watching. Of course if you like bad acting, a sorry script, then sit down grab a bag of popcorn and be bored to death.

...when a filmmaker wears too many hats, it's usually a flop. But this film had two filmmakers wearing every hat, and for a B-grade film, it wasn't too shabby.

Joey Loomis and Micah Lyons were mostly both producers, directors, actors, editors, casting, visuals and writer. It was a good story in general, but it certainly had writing and technical issues with amateurish plot lapses in the screenplay. The sound was mainly off - perhaps someone forgot the boom mics. Directing was decent, and the cinematography good, but some actors needed better character direction from the directors, including the directors.

Although flawed with some cheesy scenes, the 94 min runtime and good pacing with decent action and suspense, had me glued to the screen. Never mind the bogus 9 and 10/10's or the troll 1/10's, it's an honest and generous B-graded 7/10 from me.