There will come a time when a review of a film distributed by Angel Studios won’t mention the studio. Currently though? That time has not arrived. Why? Because context is fascinating. After beginning as VidAngel, a copyright-violating “sanitizing movies for families” endeavor, they’ve moved into original film production. It began with faith-based movies, but in past years, they’ve expanded their repertoire. Now their slate includes vaguely historical pro-America projects (Young Washington) and more eclectic festival acquisitions (the quite good Sketch).

Runner feels distinctly different, falling more on the eclectic side of their ledger. While it does cast openly Christian (but progressive) Alan Ritchson as co-lead Hank Malone, it is largely free of moralizing. It takes place in Australia and the references to America amount to the excesses of the US military while in the theater of war. Oh and it is super violent. For a studio heretofore trafficking in family pictures, a major theatrical release with a double-digit body count and a climax on a hospital floor covered in blood and broken glass gives one pause. However, the way it diverges from Angel’s typical moral orientation makes it an objectively strange offering in the studio’s catalog.

But is it a good one? I can’t speak for if it will wash Angel’s reputation, but I suspect that’ll take a little more time. However, it is a solid action buddy comedy, albeit one struggling to keep the laughs once the bullets start flying.

Hank is a courier in recovery with an initially unexplained fixation on French language and cuisine. On the day of his first anniversary coin, his boss tosses him an extra job. It’s something he promises will be easy and pay plenty. He’s to take a transplant liver and its carrier Ben Bishop (Owen Wilson) to a hospital on Australia’s Gold Coast, thus saving the life of a little girl. Unfortunately, she’s not the only interested party. What should be an easy drive down a main thoroughfare becomes a frantic race to avoid Damian Zaldívar (Rodrigo Santoro), a cartel capo with his own plan for the organ.

Ritchson’s wounded, persnickety stoicism is a nice match for Wilson at his most motormouthed. The film doesn’t crackle with comedic energy, but the duo has a decent chemistry that moves from Ben being a nightmare for the “just here to drive in silence” Hank to a forged-in-fire partnership. It might move a bit too fast and conveniently, but it is unlikely to give fans of the subgenre any real pause.

If anything, both Ben and Hank feel a bit more complicated than one might expect. While the film can’t quite get itself to saying it, Wilson gives Ben a certain glib slickness that suggests he isn’t the greatest person. An early flirtation with a sad flight attendant and multiple references to his own rocky marital history indicate that while his job has a nobility to it, he’s a sleaze. Hank, by contrast, is a bit more two-dimensionally decent. Still, the script by Miles Hubley and Tommy White is fairly clear-eyed about the injustices American soldiers sometimes perpetrate on the battlefield and Hank’s destructive history of alcoholism. The story even spends a beat or two expressing something in the neighborhood of empathy for Damian’s motivations.

Ultimately, even the surprisingly un-shallow character motives and interactions mostly take a backseat to Runner’s action setpieces. Starting with a standard-issue car chase and climaxing in a brutal fight all over a hospital floor, Director Scott Waugh demonstrates that he was perhaps not the reason the fourth Expendables (stylized as Expend4bles, natch) was such an inert cinematic experience. There’s nothing here that is reshaping the action landscape, it’s true. Still, Waugh, working with Cinematographer Lorenzo Senatore, isn’t afraid to give sequences enough room. The result is action that is legible, occasionally thrilling, and intermittently stylish.   There’s also a notable lack of sanitizing the violence or pulling the usual “if there’s no blood, it isn’t realty violent, right?” tricks, making its PG-13 rating a bit of a surprise.

Like a lot of “moral” crusader art, perhaps Runner’s tacit acceptance of violence is not totally out of character. However, its open disapproval of American military action and willingness to suggest that sometimes good people lose their way and slimeballs can be heroic does feel a bit of a step outside Angel’s comfort zone. If Angel Studios isn’t careful and keeps releasing films like this in theatres alongside strong works like Sketch, they might just end up with a different reputation.

Runner laces up its cleats on September 11.

Runner Trailer: