“If you pull that trigger, you’re no better than me.”
The H-Bomb: Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) is a former mob hit man turned washed up drunk, whose own son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman), wants nothing to do with him, and who is only being kept afloat by his longtime best friend, gangster Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). Shawn also has a son, Danny (Boyd Holbrook), who’s a bit of a bad apple. One night, around Christmas time, Mike witnesses Danny commit a murder. When Danny arrives at Mike’s place to silence him, Jimmy shows up and shoots Danny dead.
When Shawn gets word of his son’s death, he naturally feels obligated to settle the score, and dispatches his goon squad to hunt Jimmy and Mike down. Now, the estranged father and son are forced to go on the lam together, dodging bullets while working out all of their strained father and son shit. Aside from the typical mob goons, they must also contend with a psychotic assassin (Common), as well as a veteran NYPD Detective (Vincent D’Onofrio) who has been after Jimmy and Shawn for decades.
It’s going to be a long night for this daddy and son duo, as they galavant around NYC, trying to stay alive. One would think they have no shot in hell of surviving the night, but as it happens, Jimmy is a man who possesses a very specific set of skills…
Us Americans and our fuckin’ guns.
Well, it’s that time of year, again, and like clockwork, Mr. Neeson is showing up in our multiplexes, kicking ass, breaking heads, and blowing away anyone who crosses his path. At this point, he makes the running and gunning look effortless, and even though I should be getting tired of seeing Liam Neeson slumming in these rather disposable action flicks, with Run All Night, I can honestly say he’s as entertaining and badass as ever.
This is Neeson’s third time working with director Jaume Collet-Serra, following Unknown and Non Stop, and I would say this is easily the best of their collaborations thus far. Like last year’s A Walk Among the Tombstones, Run All Night is somewhat darker, and has more meat to it, than Neeson’s earlier shoot em ups. For starters, he is not a hero here, he’s broken down scumbag, going up against even worse scumbags, who has been given this one chance at redemption for the many sins of his past.
We are entirely in Jimmy’s corner here, but he is definitely not a good guy. Even if he escapes the vengeful grasp of his old mobster cronies, he’ll still have to answer for all the terrible things he’s done. There’s also the father-son reconciliation angle, which while I appreciate that it’s there, I do feel the film’s handling of it is a tad clumsy. For one thing, Kinnaman is just okay as the son. Not bad, just a bit one note, always pissy and pouty, and Neeson completely acts circles around him. Also, they have the same exact argument at least three or four times throughout, the “I hate you, dad! You were never there for me, dad!” argument, often while they were being chased and/or shot at. Mike’s constant berating of Jimmy got old. Very old.
But enough of the father-son bonding bullshit, how is Run All Night as an action movie? Pretty fucking awesome. The film, for the most part, is briskly paced and the violence is brutally potent. The movie most definitely earns its R-rating, in that regard. There’s a terrifically shot car chase early in the picture, and a rather nasty bathroom brawl that I thought was pretty sweet.
The film’s largest action sequence, set inside a gigantic apartment complex, actually isn’t executed so well. The lighting is exceptionally dark, the editing choppy, making it difficult to tell what the hell is happening, and when an entire floor of this apartment block goes up in an explosion, I kind of stopped believing what I was seeing.
There are also some minor issues that weigh the movie down, such as the moment where Neeson and son have a dangerous killer cornered, and when they have the chance to take him out, they don’t. I thought, “That decision is going to haunt them later on, isn’t it?” And it did. Also, like so many action movies, when it gets to the climax, all the sudden all of these professional killers who were perfectly capable of shooting straight and hitting their targets earlier, are suddenly no longer able to do so.
Lastly, I must confess that while Neeson and Harris are terrific, particularly in their few scenes together, most of the stellar supporting cast is completely wasted. D’Onofrio as the standard New York cop, Genesis Rodriguez as Mike’s pregnant wife, and Nick Nolte, who pops up looking like a geriatric Grisly Adams, are all given next to nothing to do, and their screen time goes to waste. Holbrook is impressive in his limited role as Shawn’s asshole son, but I felt an ensemble this strong could have been better utilized.
Those issues aside, Run All Night is a solid, smarter than average action flick. It’s certainly nothing spectacular, nor will it resonate in the long run, but those looking to kill a couple of hours will be duly entertained. As far as Neeson’s recent outings go, I would put it on par with the first Taken, and I have to hand it to him, for a guy who’s well into his sixties, he’s still got it.
