RUN ALL NIGHT | Review

Starring Liam Neeson as Liam Neeson, and a hot of other not-so-important characters, with the exception of Common, who gets away with being in this movie because his acting has improved significantly (UGH, Smoking Aces. Take it away), he’s a cutie pie and marginally convincing – and every time he comes on screen, we see the…wait for it…GLORY 😀

I mean there are a lot of things that you could say go right in a movie, but isn’t it so much more fun to say what went wrong?

So in this movie, Liam Neeson plays Liam Neeson (I think his name was Jimmy Conlon in the movie. It was Irish and slightly complicated and unnecessary to remember, because let’s be honest, unless it’s Star Wars, Liam Neeson plays Liam Neeson), a constantly drunk ex-assassin who is haunted by the ghosts of the people he’s killed. The plot thickens when he hurts someone close to him and then becomes a mob target, hunted by everyone – including the cops for what he did 20 years ago.

Wake up. Wipe the drool off.

I know. It is a pretty cliché story. But you know what they say – either do it first or do it different. Mob stories are always fun to watch, even though you pretty much always know what is going to happen – think Gangster Squad, Sin City…but you still watch those movies to see if maybe, just this one time, they’ve switched up the formula.

They didn’t really. But it is still an entertaining watch. Ed Harris is a beast. And Liam Neeson is Liam Neeson.

I know I say this all the time, but seriously, he is always him in movies. I would be surprised if he can’t actually do all the stuff he does in real life, just like I would be surprised if King Joffrey is actually a sweet fellow who adores taking in lost kittens. When an actor is so good, it becomes hard to separate them from who they actually are. (come on…no one wants to be locked up in a room with Anthony Hopkins. Except me. I’m down.) Must be fun to keep getting paid for being you.

Maybe that’s the secret to acting: just be you (yes, we see you waving, Adam Brody). Maybe that’s the problem with the other actors in the movie. They were trying too hard to be something far from themselves. I took issue with Common’s acting – as I always do, guys, he’s…well…dare I say it? You know what I want to say, don’t you? So I don’t need to say it?…

In his defence, he is getting better. Meanwhile, the rest of the supporting cast other than Mr Harris pretty much annoyed me. Neeson’s son, played by Joel Kinnaman, was an idiot. Which may not be his fault, really. Don’t know if I liked him as Robocop, either. (the only thing I remember liking about that movie was Michael Keaton)

So back to Common…they’re trying to really make Common a gun toting badass, but I’m not convinced. Is conscious hip hop not paying, or is this one of those situations where you’ve been told your dreams are valid for so long you’re trying to will them into reality? Am I just a hater? To each his own, I suppose.

At the end of the day, though, Run All Night is better thought out and a lot more intense than Taken 3. There was a lot of grit, and a lot of feeling (yes, I know this is beginning to – or rather, continuing to – sound like A Walk Among Tombstones/Non Stop, but hear me out), and it is better than a lot of the movies that have come out this year (Furious 7…Jupiter Ascending…). So yes, Liam Neeson plays Liam Neeson, again, but if you’ve been in Star Wars, you can do whatever the hell you want.