The Runners (2020) User Reviews

Started out okay, but ended up being mediocre...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 14 July 2020]

I didn't really know what I was expecting when I watched "The Runners" from directors Joey Loomis and Micah Lyons, aside from knowing that I would be in for a movie that was based upon some sex trafficking thing.

Well, I will say that the movie definitely started out nice enough and there was actually some good enough entertainment value to the movie. And the storyline was adequate, albeit it was somewhat generic and essentially was much akin to most other movies that involve sex trafficking. But then suddenly there was a Mexican drug cartel involved, and the movie just went from being adequate to becoming over-the-top. It was simply just too much at that point.

It should be said that the acting performances in the movie were adequate, taking into consideration the premise of the movie and the script that the actors and actresses were given to work with.

"The Runners" was ultimately a mediocre movie, I have to say. It proved to be entertaining enough for what it was, but this was by no means a memorable or outstanding movie experience.

I am rating "The Runners" a very mediocre five out of ten stars. While I did finish the movie, this is hardly a movie that warrants a second viewing in my opinion, as the movie just lacked solid contents to do so.

Good enough entertainment for a single viewing if you have nothing better at hand to watch.

Fascinating story, but lacks in execution

[TheTruthofItIs · 5/10 · 25 July 2020]

This is a fine story of brother-rescues-recalcitrant-sister from being sold into the sex slave underground, but it fails in execution because (1) the actors and/or director aren't really up to this, and (2) plausibility has to be tight and it's just too loose here - a dramatization like this can sustain one "aw, c'mon" but not a half dozen! So Micah Lyons wrote/directed/produced and stars in this along with his sister (or wife?), so you can immed tell this is a low-budget, indie/family/close friends project. It's a class of film you'd typically expect to see on Life/LMN/Oxygen.

Cringeworthy

[madrmanish · 2/10 · 2 April 2021]

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

Wish I had read the reviews BEFORE I watched movie

[stan-47893 · 2/10 · 29 January 2021]

The Bad Guy had skills - NO ONE else had skills. SWAT command was a joke. Soldiers seemed to be very easy to head fake. The legion of bad guys forming the kill box had more rounds than accuracy - must have had 5000 round magazines !! With that much lead flying you would have expected the fight to be over in 15 seconds - but it drug on, and on, and on... I'd say the movie was FRUSTRATING times 10.

Laughably bad.

[hokielvt · 2/10 · 21 November 2020]

I should probably be embarrassed that I laughed so hard during a film about human trafficking, but that's how bad this film was. The acting was bad, the dialogue elementary, and the fight sequences so ridiculous, I hoped they'd all die just so it would be over already.

Pathetic Acting

[rfoster-06979 · 1/10 · 22 December 2020]

Unbelievable story. Pathetic acting. Don't waste your time. Seriously awful. Unarmed bad guy kills two armed swat team members. Need I say more.

Awesome movie!!! Must see!

[moviebuff_rex · 10/10 · 15 July 2020]

I highly recommend seeing this movie. Lots of action and drama.

Not too shabby, considering...

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 7/10 · 22 July 2020]

...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.

Worse movie I have seen in years

[ernst_hanouwer · 1/10 · 23 January 2022]

Not a B-movie but a C-movie. When you read the story it seems like a nice action-revenge movie, but the acting is amaturistic and very bad. Worst movie I have seen in years..... don't bother watching it.

Powerful and moving

[irishpotfaerie · 10/10 · 15 July 2020]

A powerful film that hits close to home. The Runners shines a light on a dark subject. Micah Lyons and Joey Loomis bring awareness to the sex trafficking epidemic taking place in today's world in this action packed thriller. The plot and cast had me holding my breath on the edge of my seat.

Great story

[mikes-74798 · 7/10 · 17 July 2020]

Pretty good for a low budget movie. Story line was great

"A" for the Effort. "C" for the Movie

[Hammer-Rocks · 2/10 · 17 July 2020]

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.

THE RUNNERS DIDN'T RUN FAR ENOUGH

[stan_gee · 1/10 · 4 August 2020]

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.

Terrible, please don't watch

[vlooij · 1/10 · 11 May 2021]

Bad acting, in fighting scènes everbody does exactly what you never will do in those situations (that's instinct). Bad guy hits nothing with his 70 year old rifle and than suddenly he shoots someone from a long distance. Really to stupid this movie. If I ever come in a situation like this, I hope the police won't send that SWAT team. O no can't be, they are all dead. Can't believe the 10 ratings.

Lame

[rloliver5 · 1/10 · 19 April 2023]

One of the worst films I've seen in a while. Tom had to do these things to support a habit. Rest his soul. Micah Lyons hasn't caught on to movie making yet. No lead by any stretch. Waste of time. Bad acting. Pointless script. What was executive producer thinking? Anyone can write a script. Get a money man to produce. Won't make it good no matter what name you pay. Not even a growing project. Where do you go from here. Lyons should stick to raping aspiring actors with the non sense classes that promise a role in his lame films for free in the name of Jesus Christ. And Jesus knows what he is doing. Claiming to be a Christian film maker doesn't make it so. Pass on this one. No message here.

Frustratingly bad

[dlancaster-785-257239 · 1/10 · 27 February 2021]

Wow, I'm always at a loss when I watch a movie and it's obvious that the director and or writer had NO intelligent friends that could just point out the utterly stupid and unrealistic story line. Bad guy leaves brother a live... um, why? Of course, brother won't remember where the bar is so the police will never be there?, oh maybe they're just leaving it behind since selling two girls into white slavery much pay so much more than owning the strip club right? On what planet? Then brother has proof, a photo, calls in the FBI right? No, of course not. See, tight about this point, I want to see the brother killed and the spoilt sister raped and brutalized. If you create stupid heros in your story, then we will NOT cheer for them, we just don't care anymore. But don't worry, the audience is supposed to just be stupid, it doesn't matter if the story seems idiotic, unrealistic, would never happen in a 1000 year! Yeah, we have a strip club, a CARTEL making hundreds of millions a month, and we'll risk it all for a couple girls! SNOOZE! If a writer or director doesn't have either enough intelligence to male a plausible plot, then why should a viewer watch it? If you're going to spit in our face, and have no self pride, then we're just not interested.

Great for Human Trafficking Awareness

[apete14 · 8/10 · 15 July 2020]

Great movie to gain awareness of your surroundings and a horrible and terrifying subject happening in our country and others. Love that he used our hometown to help film.

Pretty solid for an indy flick on a touchy subject

[destroyerwod · 7/10 · 29 September 2021]

Watched this movie today and the reviews are really mixed, some says its the worst thing ever, others say its amazing (for an indie flick at least) and honestly i tough it was pretty solid myself.

Yes there is a bit of convenience here and there, for instance who still use paper to note phone numbers when you have a cellphone? Who mark locations on a physical map? There is some coincidences like this but i didn't really cared too much as otherwise we wouldn't have had a movie.

Our hero of the story is no John Rambo or John Wick, its a regular joe just trying to save his sister.

There is a lot of tension in the movie and it can get pretty dark and somewhat realistic too, wich i apreciated.

The bad guys are really evil and terrible but without getting into caricature territories of "evil" if you understand what i mean.

Its overall well shot, and i taught the acting was very fine. I don't watch movies in original english that often but this one was not available in my language dubbed, and overall i think they did a very fine job.

Pretty much i enjoyed the movie and i felt a bit sick at time wich is the feeling it suppose to give you, so mission acomplished i would say.

Huge disappointment

[rprins-84006 · 2/10 · 2 December 2021]

I noticed a rating of 6.0 in IMDB, usually that means it is movie worth watching.

Well for the first time, this is an IMDB rating that means nothing.

The movie started okay, story was attractive.

But the acting was not even adequate, it was poor at best.

The story gets more and more unrealistic when you come closer to the end.

I won't even start about the horrible special effect of the exploding helicopter.

Poor movie, not worth the time I spend on it.

It was such a disappoinment that I decided to White my first IMDB review, just to avond other people get disappointed.

Neal McCoy!

[aaronkmed · 10/10 · 15 July 2020]

Solid action thriller, shot near my house. I look forward to seeing more from Loomis and Lyons.

Hard to watch

[intorchard-101 · 7/10 · 25 November 2021]

So this movie is about human trafficking. It's about teenage girls getting kidnapped under age and being sold they don't show anything explicit. The most disturbing part in this movie is when they show that an eight-year-old girl has been stolen and put up for human trafficking again they don't show anything explicit but the thought of it I cried when I saw this. So it can be disturbing otherwise the film was good to watch but very powerful.

Extremely bad acting and story

[alexhaes-35940 · 1/10 · 8 August 2021]

The acting is one of the worst I have ever seen.

The lead character is talking and moving way too fast which makes him look like a amateur.

They treat the viewer as if you're stupid.

The bad guy pulls off something bad in his hometown, on his own property and with loads of eyewitnesses. Yet they make him look as if he has done this before and is some big guy with a crew and experience... yeah right... oh and the only person that can go after him and warn the police... he lets go.... Yet he seems to not have a problem to kill later on in the movie....

This movie is so cringe.

I doesn't suggest

[msht-46765 · 1/10 · 7 March 2021]

Terrible movie True story but the terrible movie I doesn't suggest this movie The director is so amateur

Really NOT good

[bllast · 3/10 · 3 August 2020]

The movie should be renamed ROUNDHOUSE. Loomis and his kicks were some of the best parts of the movie. When the plot had totally failed this provided some entertainment and brought us more laughter. The acting was terrible, except the lead actress, she really pulled it off. The two lead actors/directors/writers were not good. Maybe some acting school or more training will help. The story had some serious flaws that maybe another director would have seen and could have fixed. The effort in the film was definitely there, but the execution just totally missed the mark. Not worth renting. I see the reviews, but is it really not cool when the lead actor/writer starts the reviews with a 10. and so many more of the glowing reviews are family and friends. This is really deceptive and will ultimately hurt you in the end.

Too much silliness

[andyonmob · 3/10 · 7 August 2020]

Ridiculous behavior by the supposed hero ruins the movie. The plot could be good and the actors not too bad but the movie was just not well made and stupid at times