Written by Adam Mast
RUN ALL NIGHT (R )
With the mobster-on-the run thriller “Run All Night”, the Liam Neeson ass-kicking machine continues. How does this one compare with the onslaught of action oriented roles Neeson has been taking on in the last seven years? I’d say I found it more entertaining than the “Taken” films and “Non-Stop” but it doesn’t measure up to “A Walk Among the Tombstones” or “The Grey.”
In “Run All Night”, Neeson plays Jimmy Conlon, an aging, burned out drunk of a gangster whose rough past finally catches up with him. When an unfortunate mishap finds Jimmy’s son Mike (Joel Kinnaman) being targeted by ruthless mob boss Shawn Magire (Ed Harris), Conlon Sr. sets out to protect his estranged boy from corrupt cops and contract killers over the course of one hell-of-a-chaotic night. And while this is clearly a thriller, it is, at its very core, a father son story.
Directed by Neeson’s “Unknown” and “Non-Stop” collaborator Jaume Collet-Serra, “Run All Night” has heavy “Heat” and “Road to Perdition” influences; but despite the derivative nature of the proceedings, I enjoyed this one more than “Unknown” and “Non-Stop” because this movie has more edge to it. It also benefits from great editing and sound design. More importantly though, Liam Neeson and Ed Harris could read the phone book on screen together and it would be, at the very least, watchable.
Neeson did the “drunk-guy-looking-for- redemption” thing to stronger affect in last year’s “A Walk Among the Tombstones” but he still manages to create a dangerous and vulnerable individual in Jimmy Conlon. And seeing him stammer about drunk in a Santa suit is almost worth the price of admission alone. As Jimmy’s angry son Mike, Joel Kinnaman (who appeared in last year’s forgettable “Robocop” remake) certainly brings bitterness and physicality, but beyond that, there simply isn’t a whole lot of depth to him. In fact, even though he’s noble and good-hearted, Kinnaman’s cold attitude makes him less likable than killer Jimmy and I found that odd. Together, Jimmy and Mike spend a lot of the film bickering about their tense past and while the whole thing is pretty cliched, they prove to have far more chemistry than Bruce Willis and Jai Courtney had in the dreadful “A Good Day to Die Hard”.
Ed Harris is his usual charismatic self as Shawn Maguire and he has an easy going rapport with Neeson, but their attempt at a sort of DeNiro/Pacino “Heat”-inspired final act climax comes up short, mostly due to Brad Ingelsby’s congested screenplay. The Conlon/Maguire dynamic should have remained a core thread in this picture but even though we know these men have a history, their relationship never feels entirely fleshed out.
There’s some terrific stuff in “Run All Night:” dynamite car chase, a tense game of cat and mouse in a high rise apartment building, and an overall fantastic look. But then, there’s some not so great stuff such as sub-standard crime thriller cliches, underdeveloped relationships, and an emotionally unsatisfying ending. Still, “Run All Night” moves at a quick enough clip and watching pros like Neeson and Harris on screen together, no matter how under-cooked their history might feel, is a joy.
