Run All Night

The pitting of Ed Harris against Liam Neeson is the best thing in this film. And to make it into guys-only entertainment par excellence, casting Vincent D'Onofrio and Nick Nolte as their sidekicks was an equally fortunate choice. But it does not change the fact that: 1) almost all of the characters are nut-jobs who literally deserve to die, 2) it is once again based on a clearly defined genre template and 3) it focuses more on superficial formal effectiveness than on telling an honest crime drama such as We Own the Night. Now that was a genre movie deserving of four stars in my opinion. And it doesn’t lack shootouts or an exciting car chase. (22/04/2015)

Neeson's already in his standard box, and Serra has definitely parked himself in the position of a decent thriller craftsman. The result is improved a lot by the remaining ensemble cast, and in turn, dragged down by the fact that most of the dialogue speeches in the second half are merely empty and stretch the film to an unsympathetic length. (08/07/2015)

Liam Neeson and Jaume Collet-Serra are a safe bet for me for the third time already. I was so sure the film was good, I couldn’t miss it in the cinema. Even though the ticket was pricy. Someone could feel weird about the fact that this rather gloomy dark crime movie has a bit too many special effects. I would survive without them too. On the other hand, it was those effects that made it so gloomy and dark. Liam Neeson does not start in the best position, but the director gradually pulled me into the quite straightforward story, which closes the circle of one mafia gang in the cruelest way. However, Liam Neeson, Ed Harris and Joel Kinnaman gave it such an amazing charisma that I devoured the movie. And I don’t mind at all that Liam keeps portraying the same character for years. I started to call his movies ‘Neesons’ for this very reason. I hope this is not his last movie. (27/04/2015)

This quality dramatic family background story is spiced up with decent action and the Collet-Serra-Neeson trilogy has a very impressive finale. Bad luck and coincidence play the leading role, together with a boozy Santa suffering from remorse. The fantastic Ed Harris’s pep talks with Liam Neeson commands respect and his view on things makes sense. By coincidence, the evil Gravedigger is also the main protagonist who leaves piles of dead bodies lying in pools of blood, this time for justifiable (but selfish) reasons. Kinnaman Jr. is really fine, thinks for himself and doesn’t become too annoying during the story (which is important). A perfect action movie that I would gladly watch again. (29/04/2015)

It might gradually becomes its own subgenre, one with very few memorable pieces, Run All Night among them. It doesn't have a chance against Taken. It lacks action, pace, drive and the editing in fight sequences leaves much to be desired. Even the slower, but much more deliberate and atmospheric Walking Among Tombstones was better than this quickie, from which you may feel the New York feeling of small streets and mob pubs, but the reminiscences of the 1990s are quite flawed. The strong cast do their job, but it’s not above average. When the best dialogue passages in an action movie are from the two main stars, and it's not necessarily Heat, it's quite possible something is off, as is the case here. (19/04/2015)

As usual, Collet-Serra gives it his all. The lights, the refocusing, the blurred focus, the rhythmic editing, he's got it in hand, and that's why he should really deserve a script and not that shit smeared paper that again landed on his desk. Oh how unhappy I am, this had such potential to become a hard, uncompromising mcguffin along the lines of Running Scared and instead it ends up watered down into family problems, moral excesses, endless whining about who got what for how much, and all of it in such a shabby form. Another criticism is more general and concerns Joel Kinnaman. It's unbelievable how such a talented youngster, who excelled as an actor back home in the Easy Money trilogy, was neutered by overseas filmmakers into the sort of obligatory short-cropped gun-wielder you find everywhere, with slugs of family values, mutual respect, and love for children (his own) constantly oozing out his mouth, and the only thing his permanent facial expression makes you think about is whether he falls asleep by covering his eyeballs with the arches of his eyebrows. Anyway, the whole thing goes twice as cold when the closing credits roll, with a visual collage of decimated male faces at the end of their powers running in the background, à la True Detective, and you realize what a tough mafia movie in the midst of an impenetrable concrete labyrinth this was intended to be. (05/08/2015)

Liam Neeson has basically fallen into the box of an action hero who tries to protect his family or someone close to him at all costs. But he's simply an interesting actor and I enjoy it for the umpteenth time. Especially because this time his character is a little different, although the ending once again turns sentimental. (28/06/2015)