Review of Run All Night (2015) by Frank S — 13 May 2015

A standard-issue shoot-'em-up livened up by some grizzled performances, Liam Neeson's latest may not exactly Run All Night but it has just enough punch to cover a two-hour spread. Based on the name above the title, moviegoers would expect this to be a straight-forward actioner, fists throwing, feet kicking, and bullets flying with very little plot caught in the crosshairs. Instead, the story presents a rather complicated (for action flicks, at least) friendship between two aging underworld types that gets put dangerously at odds over family. Both men are anti-heroes and yet both men have scruples. Oh, cliches (including an annoying tagalong kid, climatic Mano y Mano face off) and ripoffs (a page from the third act of Road to Perdition gets remade almost verbatim, while shades of Unforgiven get thrown in for good measure) round out the script but Run All Night presents some spit and grit all of its own making.

In this R-rated crime thriller, mobster and hit man Jimmy Conlon (Neeson) has one night to figure out where his loyalties lie: with his estranged son, Mike, whose life is in danger, or his longtime best friend, mob boss Shawn Maguire (Harris), who wants Mike to pay for the death of his own son.

Taking on another ne'er-do-well operating on the wrong side of the law a la A Walk Among the Tombstones, Liam Neeson's blurs the action hero lines to great effect. At 62, with every notch in this genre, his style of fisticuffs comes a little slower. Taking on more complex and less Expendable characters serves his broad talents well. The same goes for Ed Harris, whose weathered face and battle-damaged moral compass meets his counterpart Scotch-drowned beat for Scotch-drowned beat. You respect the relationship between these characters. More importantly, you respect the relationship between these actors even when the material rings familiar.

Bottom line: All Night Sucker.