Run All Night
Liam Neeson is an actin thriller? Surely not!
This review is also up at Channel 24
What it's about
Jim Conlon is a
washed up mob enforcer plagued by demons of his past, but when he
kills the son of his boss and best friend while defending the life of
his own estranged son, those demons come to the fore as he has to
choose between his flesh and blood and the man to whom he has been
loyal his whole life.
What we thought
Teaming up once
again with director Jaume Collet-Serra, with whom he already made two
of his more solid action thrillers, Unknown and Non-Stop, Liam Neeson
once again reminds us just how good he is at playing the grizzled
action hero and just how capable he is of playing so much more than
just the grizzled action hero. Run All Night definitely falls
somewhere towards the top of Liam's late period ouvre, which was in
itself quite a pleasant surprise, but it's hard to shake the feeling
that it would perhaps have been far more effective – and most
definitely far fresher – had its star not played basically the same
character in his last dozen movies.
Now, yes, it's
true: unlike most of his action roles, Neeson does play a guy who's
basically a baddie but, really, that's only a technicality. While the
film tells us a lot about Jim Conlon's past as a particularly cold
blooded killer, it shows us a man who uses violence only in the
defence of himself and others. For an apparent mob hitman, Conlon
sure seems like a decent guy who does the right thing at every turn.
It's Liam being Liam basically and though it's hard not to like him
for it, I would really love to see him do something noticeably
different for a change; really make use of his considerable acting
chops.
As for the rest of
the film around him, Run All Night is every bit as generic as its
title implies, but that doesn't mean it isn't quite a good example of
its genre. There's a nice grittiness to it and a cast filled with
excellent, “serious” actors (Ed Harris, Nick Nolte, Vincent
D'Onofrio) gives it more gravitas than most of these things usually
have. Indeed, it almost has too much gravitas as it ends up feeling
like it should have a whole lot more substance than it actually does.
There's a gritty and complex crime drama in there somewhere but it
never manages to do any more than peak out occasionally from behind
the gunfire, explosions and hand to hand combat.
Still, the film is
what it is and, to be entirely fair, what it actually is, is done
more than well enough. It's impressively well paced, for a start, as
it nicely balances the action and the quieter, more dramatic moments.
These characters aren't exactly complexly drawn but you do get just
enough humanity to give some power to the core relationships in the
films: the mentor/ buddy relationship between Jim and his
friend-turned-boss-turned-enemy Shaun Maguire (Harris) and the
father-son relationship between Jim and Mike Conlon (Joel Kinnaman,
holding his own in a cast of veteran heavy weights).
Where it does
falter somewhat as an action thriller though, are in its action
scenes. While its nowhere near the worst of its kind (think Quantum
of Solace or, oddly enough, Taken 3) the rapid-cut editing of the
action robs it of much of its effect. This is especially
disappointing when you consider that the action is otherwise quite
well choreographed and clearly depicted, but it ends up feeling like
a patchwork of uber-short Vine clips, rather than a cohesive whole.
That it's done better than a great many action flicks (and boy, has
the word “flicks” ever been more appropriate) these days, doesn't
really make up for how over-used this particular edited-to-death
style of shooting action scenes has become.
Flaws or no flaws
though, Run All Night is a perfectly decent, nuts and bolts
action-thriller and is easily Liam Neeson's best action hero role in
a while. It's no more than that but, hey, at least it's no less than
that either.
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