Review of Run All Night (2015) by Robert H — 27 Jun 2015

I saw RUN ALL NIGHT in theaters during my Spring Break, and remember feeling pretty OK about it at the time. It certainly wasn't boring, by any stretch of the imagination. Now having seen it for the second time, without the rose-colored glasses of being in a theater, I feel like it's not Liam Neeson's strongest outing in a genre that's quickly become his own.

It certainly doesn't lack for good performances and action, but the characters and situations were rather weak. There was also too many plot threads given the storyline and none of them were really given enough time to develop, even at nearly two hours.

Far and away the best members of the cast were Liam Neeson and Ed Harris. Despite expecting the audience to take away that they were long-time best friends on so little, the grizzled appearances and speech patterns adequately suggested a lived-in friendship and the effect of living a hard life.

Joel Kinnaman was OK as Liam Neeson's son, but falters somewhat in the more dramatic, intimate moments. Vincent D'Onofrio also has a glorified cameo as one of the few good cops, but he wasn't really given much to do.

Common also has a small role as a hired assassin, but his was one of the few parts that probably could have been left out. The action, however, was quite good when it happened. There was a good balance of hand-to-hand combat and gun-play that was shot fairly well.

The R rating also helped because there wasn't a need to obscure the more graphic aspects. Lastly, the score was OK insofar as it didn't get in the way of the story. It was quite forgettable otherwise.

Overall, it seems like Liam Neeson might be getting tired of doing this whole "action star" bit. He should probably get out while the quality is relatively good (barring the two TAKEN sequels).

The performances and action are good, but the story is a bit overstuffed and the pacing makes it kind of a chore to sit through at times. Recommended if you like Liam Neeson's action movies, but honestly there are a number of them to pick before I'd choose this one again.