Run All Night is in the unenviable position of being seen as Taken 4 but with a son instead of a daughter. To illustrate this point, I chose as the banner pic a still of the film that looked the most Taken-y. He’s talking on the phone and everything! But the fact is, Run All Night is a horse of an entirely different color. Sure, you can predict some of the story beats just from the trailer – Liam Neeson has become a franchise the same way Denzel Washington has – but the film adds enough novel twists to set itself apart from the pack. Director Jaume Collet-Sera, whose previous two films were the Neeson-starring Unknown and Non-Stop, seems to be the best director for his star since The Grey‘s Joe Carnahan. Man, that sentence is fucking word soup, I’m sorry. Let me rephrase: director do good, Trevor like movie.
Run All Night follows retired hitman Jimmy Conlon (Neeson), who has gone from being nicknamed “Gravedigger” by the NYPD to drunkenly ruining Christmas parties while dressed as Santa, at the behest of his boss’s shitty son. His boss is Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris), who goes way back with Jimmy. The two have an easy chemistry which really ups the dramatic stakes of everything that unfolds. The last two players are Jimmy’s estranged son Michael (Joel Kinnaman) and Shawn’s entitled dickhead of a son Danny (Boyd Holbrook). Working as a limo driver, Michael witnesses Danny kill two Albanians; Danny then tries to kill Michael, only to be shot down by Jimmy (I’m simplifying here, just watch the fuckin movie). When Jimmy tells Shawn that he killed Danny, Shawn almost reluctantly declares war on Jimmy and Michael.
The relationship between Jimmy and Shawn is Run All Night‘s best idea, and the one it uses to the greatest effect (Jimmy and Michael’s strained relationship isn’t anything new, and follow a pretty predictable trajectory). The two seem to genuinely like each other, and it lends a somber, Shakespearean air to the proceedings. Maybe that sounds overblown when describing a revenge thriller released in March, but it’s the word that came to mind several times.
Collet-Sera uses questionable transitions to unfortunate effect, but that quibble aside, he directs the action, of which there is plenty, with ease and aplomb. A car chase between Jimmy and two dirty cops who have abducted Michael is particularly exciting, as is their escape from a housing project while pursued by a dogged NYPD detective played by Vincent D’Onofrio, but also a hitman played by Common. (Neeson and Common have a pretty kick-ass fight in a burning apartment, one of many scenes that goes to great lengths to justify Run All Night‘s R rating.)
The film does make some missteps. Michael, for all of Joel Kinnaman’s easy, streetwise charm, rarely gets beyond one-note, to the point where Run All Night really, really wants you to know that Michael hates his dad. Furthermore, Michael’s wife Gabby (Genesis Rodriguez), pretty much exists to the fulfill every action film’s quota of nagging spouses. Since she and Michael get all of three scenes together – and they’re fighting for two of those – Michael’s motivation of protecting his family doesn’t really gain purchase, because his wife is just a movie shrew.
Ultimately, that’s not enough to move the needle on this review, because Run All Night is far better than it should be. Pretty much every month of the year up until May – when the summer movie season starts – is kind of a wasteland, but Run All Night, by virtue of its performances, direction, and original, well-executed approach to the protagonist/antagonist relationship, rises above the fray. It won’t be a classic in Neeson’s oeuvre, but it’s well worth your time and money.
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