This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Down Under Runner Blunder
Plot Overview
A registered organ donor with an exceedingly
rare blood type meets his untimely demise in Honolulu. His million
dollar organs are put on ice, and his liver packed forthwith
for speedy delivery to the Gold Coast Children's Hospital in
Brisbane, Australia. There seven-year-old Ellie Baker is on her
last gasp but sits atop the recipient list. Her ever attentive
mother Kate Baker (Leila George) has no man to relieve her lonely
vigil—or any other relative, it seems—but is on
familiar terms with the hospital staff.
Overly talkative Ben Bishop
(Owen Wilson) is the courier assigned to shepherd the package from
Point A to Point B. He fancies himself a bon vivant
and convinces the recently divorced stewardess to get back into the
swing of things & meet him for dinner.
Ex Navy SEAL Hank Malone the “resident Yank”
down there considers himself “not a guy people
successfully mess with.” He's still quite buff and
retains fighting skills as one would riding a bicycle. After a tour
in Afghanistan, though, he returned a wreck, hit the bottle, and
then his little girl got sick and died: too much for a marriage to
handle with his non-military wife. They got divorced over a year
ago, but he's still set on doing her proud. He lives in a small
houseboat with not enough room for an exercise room or
exercise equipment. He attends AA meetings that consist of sitting in chairs
and exchanging testimonies. His one continuing discipline is
learning to speak French to please his Francophile ex. That
would hardly keep him in physical shape but now he's a
“gentle giant” who doesn't need to be. He works as a
delivery driver of packages that are usually legal. We see him out
to deliver an “endangered parakeet” in a cage to settle
a custody dispute but neither party wants it. As authoress Carolyn
Parkhurst writes: “I'm not kidding myself that …
parrots who curse like sailors are doing anything other than
performing tricks they know will result in praise and bits of
food” (14). This bird's only word, though, is
peekaboo. It doesn't take Freud to figure out its owner
couple was into games and kept secrets from each other.
Hank's next surprise assignment is
to pick up a time-sensitive package from the airport. When his
destination is different from the one Ben was given, they
have to sort it out. There's an official protocol involved. All
communications are supposed to go through Ben the point man.
Somebody powerful, it turns out, wants what's in that
case and intends to get it by hook or by crook. In the words of a
famed sermon, “The Philistines are at the gate.”
Ideology
The heavy
homicidal action lends itself to comparison with one of Kenny
Rogers's songs concerning a chance encounter with “The
Gambler” on a train bound for nowhere. He offered his fellow
passenger the advice that “the secret to surviving is knowing
what to throw away and knowing what to keep.” The refrain of
the song goes:
You've got to know when to hold 'em, Know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away, Know when to run. You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table. There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.
This wisdom of the gambling man's repertoire is old as the hills and was passed on by a raconteur, Agur in Proverbs 30:1, whose four metaphors offered the same life advice as did Rogers's Gambler. That we find in, (Prov. 30:29-31) “There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going: A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any; A greyhound; an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up.”
We have Agur's “lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any,” and we have Rogers's “know[ing] when to hold 'em.” In our movie when Ben gets separated and is facing torture to get him to reveal the code for the temperature controlled organ case, the heroic thing to do is to tough it out. But he's a weak-kneed, silver-tongued dandy. What can one expect?
We have Agur's “king, against
whom there is no rising up,” and we have Rogers's
“Know[ing] when to fold 'em.”
A king who knows when to give in to his subjects experiences no
uprising. When Hank lacks the stamina to finish the mano a mano fight with a skinny
dago, he surrenders allowing himself to be executed after the
baddie performs his signature ritual. It's all the dignity he can
hope for at this point.
We have Agur's
“he goat also” and we have Rogers's “Know[ing]
when to walk away.” So Hank being pursued crashes a gas
station curio store with Ben leaking blood & a case leaking
fluid. He has the Indian attendant direct him to the back room and
supply him with first aid materials and ice, tout suite. Then he
tells him to relax, walk back to the counter, and act normal.
Easier said than done.
We have Agur's “greyhound” and Rogers's “Know[ing] when to run.” The name of the game is, “We gotta move!” When their SUV gets totalled, they pop in disheveled and unannounced to the nearby home of Hank's ex, Monica (Geraldine Hakewill) and her new husband Josh (Thomas Cocquerel.) He'll have to be on exceptionally good terms with them to be loaned some wheels.
The gambler gave the advice:
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.There's a link at the end for a message to moms.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.
Production Values
“” (2026) was directed by Scott Waugh. It was written by Miles Hubley and Tommy White. It stars Alan Ritchson, Owen Wilson and Rodrigo Santoro. The two leads have real good road trip/adventure chemistry between them. The rest did adequate acting for an action movie. The attendant looked like now he's seen it all.
MPA rated it PG–13 for strong violence, bloody images and some language. Lorenzo Senatore's cinematography was trim & spirited especially during the action scenes. Charlie Nguyen Kim's score goes all out and is perfectly edited in to complement the action. A familiar story line is offset by unlikely heroes and human interest. The bird was a squawker. It was filmed on location in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Runtime is 1 hour 37 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
AA membership is contingent upon believing in a higher power. Nothing more was made of religion, but it looked like some had it. It's a worthy action movie if that's your thing.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quotation is from the Authorized King James Version (KJV.) Pub. 1611. Rev. 1769. Software.
Parkhurst, Carolyn. The Dogs Of Babel. Copyright © 2003 by Carolyn Parkhurst. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2003. First Edition. Print.
Rogers, Kenny. Songwriter Don Schlitz. “The Gambler.” Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Pub. LLC. Web.
bibles.n7nz.org