Night Run

Liam Neeson plays retired hit-man, James Conlon, and it's one of the finest roles he's played in years with a great performance, and with additional superb acting from Joel Kinnaman, whom plays his son, Mike Conlon. The first 'Taken' may have turned out great, until it launched a franchise, but 'Run All Night' is a definite improvement over Neeson's latest work, and a major improvement over clichéd action movies released in the past decade. What makes it so good, is that Neeson brings company with him: his co-star Kinnaman who plays his son - and it's a different movie experience altogether as in most clichéd action thrillers the main protagonist, usually played by a familiar action star, is usually without company the whole way through. The character James Conlon is so similar to Jimmy Bobo, a part Sylvester Stallone played in a movie called 'Bullet to the Head'. Jimmy Bobo was an ageing hit-man who still made hits on assignments, but compared to Conlon, he's more emotionless and merciless. Neeson's Conlon still had good in his heart somewhere, whereas Bobo cared more about killing and seeking vengeance. However, the action sequences are enjoyable and thrilling, acting is great and the direction and screen writing becomes intriguing whenever the main plot kicks in - so Run All Night has what it takes of being one of the most exciting movies of the year!

Liam Neeson is back yet again with another action film. Some will claim this is another Taken film, and maybe he is cashing in big time on his success from that franchise, but the story in this film is much deeper overall than the recent Taken films, and the acting is absolutely amazing. With some great acting and a good story overall, Liam Neeson and the legendary Ed Harris deliver a must see film for any movie fan. The following is my review of Run All Night.

Run All Night was written by writer Brad Ingelsby who is very well known for his fabulous work on the 2013 film Out of the Furnace. I actually did not know that going into the film, after seeing he did write the film, I'm not surprised the characters were so greatly written. The story follows Mobster Shawn Maguire(Ed Harris) and his longtime friend and hit man Jimmy Conlon(Liam Neeson). These two have been friends for a great many years, even decades. Now that they are older and have children, things aren't exactly the same, more so for Jimmy. While Shawn is still very much close to his son Danny(Boyd Holbrook), Jimmy hasn't spoken to his son Mike(Joel Kinnaman) in several years. One night Mike has a big job as a limo driver, but the people he is driving around get into some dirt that makes Mike and Jimmy enemies with Shawn. Shawn promises to hunt Mike and Shawn down and kill them, and their family members because of the death of his son. The story is very rich in characters, and you actually care about them. While the film is nearly two hours, you honestly aren't looking at your watch at all. The film flows by perfectly because of the amazing writing by Brad Ingelsby. Overall, Ingelsby does another fabulous job of writing in this film, and his efforts on this film should not be overlooked.

The film was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra who is no stranger to working with Liam Neeson on action films. He previously worked with Neeson on Unknown and last years Non-Stop. The action in this film is not exactly a great deal, but easily much more than last years Non-Stop. There are some fabulous hand to hand combat action scenes, and even one heck on a chase scene. Though the chase scene can be convoluted because of some shaky cam work. Collett-Serra delivers this nice way of changing location in the film from scene to scene by zooming out of the current scene and showing a high rise city view, then slowly zooming in on the new location. While this clever way of changing might have been slightly overused, it was used perfectly and if something different. The acting was really another great aspect of the film, and when you have two legends like Ed Harris and Liam Neeson on the screen together, of course great things will happen. Neeson and Harris really play great off of each other, and you really believe the story as it plays out. The film also features great acting from Joel Kinnaman, Vincent D'Onofrio, and even Common fits in nicely with his small but important role in the film. With mostly great action and absolutely fabulous acting, Collett-Serra and Neeson have easily delivered another epic action film that will live on for many years to come.

The film was composed by composer Junkie XL who is well known for working with legendary composer Hans Zimmer. He recently scored films such as Divergent and 300: Rise of an Empire, and will be scoring next years Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The score XL delivers is nothing great nor something I would claim is memorable, but his work here easily adds some much needed depth in the bigger action scenes. There are some interesting things he does throughout the film, and this is easily a score I will be going back to listen to over and over for the next few weeks to see if it grows on me even more. Junkie XL doesn't deliver the greatest score to an action film, but the score is still very much top notch.

In closing, this is a very enjoyable film, which is certainly worth the price of admission. I personally spent almost ten dollars on this film and still feel I got my money's worth and then some. The replay value seems to be high with not only the great visuals from the directing angle, but also from the great performances from the actors. Fans of films in general should put this film on on your list to watch, certainly a must see film.

8/10

There's no airplane, train, international terrorists, or snow plows, but this Liam Neeson crime-thriller is one of great quality because of the actors involved. I mean please, Neeson vs Ed Harris? Two of my favorite actors of all time, there's no question I was going to enjoy this one. But it really is the dynamic between those two that makes the movie as good as it is. Without the weight of the history between them in this story, you don't get the same impact in the 3rd act when certain things go down. I could have actually used more backstory and flashbacks then we got. There's plenty of homages and inspirations that director Jaume Collet-Serra puts in here, like Mystic River or Heat, which are two of the greatest crime films of all time. I wouldn't say Run All Night gets to that level, but it's nonetheless a thrilling 120 minute ride. And you know, that ending was pretty sweet too.

7.3/10

Liam Neeson, starring in his his now standard turn of several similar action thrillers. A man with a past given a chance to redeem himself with judicious amounts of crowd-pleasing violence. Perhaps it's unfair to say the Northern Irish actor could phone in this performance from anywhere in the world, as he does it so well, but one can understand those that criticize the actor for repeating himself, with the inevitable diminishing effect at the box office.

Run All Night deserves to be seen as more than just another Liam Neeson early-year actioner. It's a nasty movie with great pace and a strong spine thanks to those two prolific leads. Although it does have some flaws and may drag in between scenes, though as an action thriller it provides the necessary thrills and interest for the viewers.

Fluently put together and entertaining enough for it not to be forgotten as easily as it could have been, yet it falls short in achieving both what it could have and what it promises to, that being a remarkable and unique action thriller.

All of the problems "Run All Night" has seem to tie in together and make just one big problem: it simply does not use its potential and it does not use it exactly because of the problems it has. Firstly it does not use its well defined characters to its advantage and ultimately even fails to stick to some. Moreover way to many times the film descends into ultra-generic territory: I was watching the film, entertained and time and time again what it seemed to be leading up to wasn't as interesting as I wanted it to be, it was a situation I had seen times and times again and I was repeatedly left asking myself "so that was all?". The director also hints at a very original eye for visuals, just as the whole movie hints at a better, more intriguing and surprising film, but ultimately both fail to the delver what they promised. The visual style and editing style had some brief brilliant moments, but for the majority falls into, again, ultra-generic and fast-cut distracting action scene. Way too many times I wondered why hadn't the director shot a scene in another way which could have made it incredibly and vastly more fascinating to watch.

That is not to say that there are many redeemable qualities. First and foremost there is genuine tension mostly because of the well rounded characters for whom I had a surprisingly positive emotional connection and didn't realize so until the end. Helping this is a fantastic cast that delivers the majority of the goods. Neeson is obviously charismatic, he isn't phoning it in, he is giving a heartfelt performance that definitely delivered. Ed Harris is in my opinion one of the best actors of history possibly and this is further proof that he simply can do no wrong, he has a presence on screen that is very hard to match. Even Kinnaman, whom I have been a critic of, is delivering a good enough performance. Lastly, the story doesn't ever realize its potential as I said, but it still makes for a very riveting premise that kept me hooked until the end, despite an overlong duration.

I had a good share of fun and excitement, but I was disappointed to see such a good opportunity ending up being another average film.