Wick's Review

Summary - Great 4.0

Run see Run All Night if Liam Neeson bonding, then brawling with Ed Harris sounds like your cup of tea. It sounded like mine, and was. The two venerable actors certainly don’t disappoint in their manly duet.

Formulaic in the extreme, RAN still has lots to like, starting with a great cast that also features Vincent D’Onofrio & Genesis Rodriguez. He’s nails as an NYPD Homicide Det. and she’s regal as a wife & mom.

Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra has made a specialty of Neeson revenge thrillers, Run All Night coming after Unknown and Non-Stop. Considering that record, it’s safe to say the third time’s the charm.

To wit, Collet-Serra deserves major props for outstanding spatial visualizations. His film opens by zooming over the Big Apple, then down into Brooklyn from several thousand feet, later between Brooklyn houses, bars and Projects as the story moves around the borough, finally into Manhattan, including a dizzying trip into and around Madison Square Garden after a Rangers game. Bravura filmmaking!

Unfortunately the movie goes all supernatural at the end, which feels like a letdown even though they do it to please. Collet-Serra clearly felt the need to use the 50 stuntmen and large 2nd Unit he had at his disposal.

Speaking of large units, Jaume gets Liam to make a crude joke about his. That’s starfucking perhaps, but it’s also entertaining. Every formulaic movie should deliver so confidently, so powerfully and so well.

Acting - Great 4.0

Liam Neeson as a lifelong NY hit-man named Jimmy Conlon: He has a particular set of skills, of course. Neeson is a great actor who came to action-slumming late in his career, but damn he’s good at it, a master of the deeply sad face subtly transforming into the stone-cold face just before he kills someone.

Supporters

• Joel Kinnaman as Jimmy’s son Mike Conlon, now a married father of two living the straight life: Kinnaman’s not nearly as likable as he should be. Tough, not likable unfortunately. He should stick with Robocop, where he’s cyborgianly subsumed.
• Genesis Rodriguez as his wife Gabriela, commands the ability to shed a perfect tear when needed, a damn near essential skill for Screen Queens. Great name – Genesis Rodriguez
• Ed Harris as Neeson’s buddy & boss: Harris has matured into a block of resolute manhood after all these years. He’s always worth seeing, with his Shawn Maguire from Run All Night no exception.
• Patricia Kalember as his wife
• Boyd Holbrook as his son Danny: Holbrook has himself a fine career playing reckless young men, having been previously seen in The Skeleton Twins and Gone Girl.
• Bruce McGill is a well-known heavy-face.
• Vincent D’Onofrio is great as NYPD Homicide Detective Harding. It’s a different Detective than the crazy one he plays on Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
• Common as a high-end hitman

And

Nick Nolte as some addled guy

Film - Great 4.0

Run All Night is an archetypal formula film that’s very well executed. Bravo to Jaume Collet-Serra for delivering it. That said, an rFactor 3 third reel shouldn’t follow two rFactor 1.5 reels. It’s jarring.

However, pretty much everything else is great, especially the spatial visualizations described in the Summary commentary above.

Edge - Sordid 2.7

No sex, but some seriously dirty talk, nasty even.

Violence-wise, RAN is the kind of movie where most everybody gets killed during the course of the movie, that being more or less the purpose of the movie. How they get killed is central to the entertainment.

Reality - Supernatural 3.2

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