Run All Night (2015) review

Run All Night has an extremely simple story. Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) tries to protect his son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman), from the wrath of Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). Maguire is a former criminal kingpin whose son, Danny (Boyd Holbrook), Jimmy kills in order to protect Mike. Jimmy was Shawn’s hit man while he was still in the criminal business. Run All Night breaks the one rule for movies with extremely simple stories, and that is keeping it simple. John Wick and The Raid did an extraordinarily great job of keeping their movie simple. Run All Night could have worked as a shallow thrill ride, but instead it tries to put unnecessary depth in its characters. Price (Common), is a professional hit man like Jimmy, plays absolutely no part in the story other than being the scary side villain. Ed Harris plays a criminal kingpin who’s trying to be a legitimate business man and rid himself of his criminal doings. If Ed Harris played a balls out villain, the movie would have been better. The two sons whom the plot is centered around are extremely forgettable. And of course Liam Neeson plays regular old Liam Neeson, an emotionally broken/alcoholic, estranged father with a badass set of deadly skills.

The one credit I give this movie is it had the nerve to be rated R. The action is very violent and appropriate to the world we are introduced to. Most of the action scenes are chases, and while they are cut way too fast, I wouldn't particularly call them “bad”. Using something I can only dub as “Google Earth cam”, the movie gives a rather good sense of geography to the action. You always have a good idea of where people are in relation to other people. If it wasn’t cut nearly every 3 seconds the action alone would have been enough to sell the movie as a download. Sadly, the action just isn’t good enough. There is no stand out parts, lines, or deaths. The action is rather bland and you will mostly forget everything that happens the moment the credits roll.

Overall, the movie is competently made, but suffers from an identity crisis. Is it trying to be an in depth character study? Or is trying to be a shallow thrill ride? Run All Night tries to be a little of both, but fails in both categories.

http://ift.tt/1947vyl