Run All Night (2015) Review!!

Synopsis – Mobster and hit man Jimmy Conlon 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, who wants Mike to pay for the death of his own son.

My Take – From the trailers, this film may seem like another Taken iteration, but luckily its not! There is actually much more to this mob thriller than meets the eye. Gangster movies have a long and distinguished history in cinema. Most of them are actually some of the best movies ever made!! True, Neeson plays a former man of violence with a ‘particular set of skills’ who is forced to employ them in order to save his family, but that’s about where the similarities end. Indeed, while that franchise never quite had any ambition than as a glorified B-movie, this latest team-up between Neeson and his ‘Unknown’ and ‘Non-Stop’ collaborator Jaume Collet- Serra proves itself as an impressive amalgamation of the Oscar- nominated dramatic skills on which his earlier career was built on and his more recent kickassery. The story follows Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson), a retired hit man who had a particular set of skills that he used over a long career, but he has been gutted by the life he chose for himself and is now a drunk who is broke and estranged from his family. He works life-long best friend, Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris), a former crime boss who is now a legitimate businessman, but one who still knows how to get his hands dirty when he feels that he needs to. These two men become deadly adversaries when Jimmy is forced to shoot Shawn’s son, Danny (Boyd Holbrook) in order to keep Danny from shooting Jimmy’s son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman). Mike is a family man (two kids and another one on the way) who drives a limo. One night he is hired by two Armenian gangsters to take them to “visit” Danny and discuss a business deal gone bad.

When Mike sees Danny shoot one of the Armenians, Mike gets away but Danny goes looking for him. Jimmy gets tipped off to what’s going on and gets to his son just in time to stop Danny from killing Mike. Justifiable homicide, you might think, but Shawn doesn’t see it that way. Even though both Shawn and Jimmy had strained relationships with their sons (Danny being an irresponsible loser and Mike blaming his father for leaving the family when Mark was young), blood is thicker than water. Old friends suddenly become enemies as Shawn and Jimmy go to war over the fact that Danny is dead and Mark is still alive. Whoever is still capable of running at the end of the night wins. The script takes the time for some excellent character development, but instead of making the movie drag, in the hands of this talented group of actors, the film pulls you in from the very beginning and never lets go. Actually, the movie grabs your attention in the opening scene when you see Jimmy bloodied and lying on the forest floor while we hear his inner monologue reflecting on the burden of a lifetime of regrets. The shot is from above and leaves you wondering if that scene was a dream or if it’s foreshadowing the end of the movie. And if it’s the latter, you wonder how he got there, whether he’s going to live and if he accomplished his goal of keeping his son safe. In fact, the movie is shot and edited very creatively and the score is simply perfect. Jimmy Conlon is a combination of Neeson’s characters in “Non-Stop” and “Taken”, but his skills seem more common than in the latter and he’s even more vulnerable than in the former. This is Neeson’s most powerful and affecting performance since “Schindler’s List”. (After this movie, I’m even willing to forgive him for “Taken 3”!) . Neeson and Harris are very well cast as friends-turned-enemies and each brings his A-game to his role. Collet-Serra understands Neeson’s ‘particular set of skills’ in playing the fallible hero, and gives his lead actor space and breadth to explore his character’s vulnerabilities and motivations – even bringing in an Nick Nolte to add patriarchal weight to the proceedings. Kinnaman also offers up an extremely strong performance as an angry and brooding husband, father and son, who loves his family, yet puts them in danger and hates his father, but has to trust him to survive. Kinnaman has enough scenes with Neeson for their father-son relationship to develop into something truly compelling, & the actors share a good rapport that give the action scenes added emotional texture. Add to that group the rapper Common as an intense and deadly hit man and Vincent D’Onofrio as a cop who was never able to put Jimmy away for any of his hits, and what you have is an extraordinary cast.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra doesn’t disappoint in any department. Reining in the hand-held shots that made the last ‘Taken 3’ an absolute nightmare to watch even on the big screen, Collet-Serra fashions a couple of impressive sequences that make full use of its New York locale. A thrilling cop-car chase through the streets of Brooklyn easily puts ‘Taken 3’s’ highway chase to shame, while a high-rise apartment complex on fire provides a tense backdrop against which Jimmy and Mike attempt to protect a kid witness. There is also the iconic Madison Square Garden, which provides the scene for a daring escape right after a Rangers-Devils game, and heightens the Big Apple atmosphere while keeping the gritty noir-ish feel of the earlier scenes.It is certainly tempting to see this as yet another attempt to cash in on Neeson’s new found action hero status, but ‘Run All Night’ distinguishes itself with some well-filmed set pieces to satisfy the adrenaline-hungry crowd while staying grounded with enough characterization and good acting for its audience to be rooted with the characters on screen. It is also his best collaboration yet with Collet-Serra, who seems genuinely interested at making a movie tailored to the actor’s strengths than simply cashing in on a fad. On the whole, ‘Run All Night’ is an immensely satisfying blend of gripping mob drama and thrilling action set pieces that is easily Liam Neeson’s most credible work in recent years.