RUN ALL NIGHT (B)

The Bottom Line: The age-old adage (that I’m actually I’m making up right now) is that if you’re let down with Liam Neeson’s latest action movie…just wait a month and see if his next one is any better…  On the surface, Run All Night looks like another one of his well-worn retreads where good battles evil and the life of a family member hangs in the balance.  Just under the surface though you’ll find…that that is actually the case – but with a slight twist. The twist, of course, is that this time out he’s actually delivered something pretty entertaining.  All wrapped up, it turns out to be Taken meets A Walk Among the Tombstones with a tinge of Road to Perdition – none of this is a bad thing.  The eye-for-an-eye setup is intriguing and welcomingly propels you through one gritty, bloodthirsty, down-and-dirty, pseudo-noirish, keep-moving-at-all-costs night in the Big Apple.  And both Neeson and Harris add a significant amount of cinematic heft to their roles while they toe the sympathetic hard-line of who has it worst.  You’ll get great acting, solid action and a nice tete-a-tete between these two icons that mimics (in a B-level sorta way) the much deeper and way more powerful Pacino/Deniro let’s-grab-a-cup-of-coffee scene from Heat.  This one, for the movie’s purposes, is still very effective and fun to watch.  This run through the city, however, is not without its fair share of pulled hammies – we’ve seen a lot of this stuff before, the direction could have been tighter and the intensity could have been ratcheted up had the movie truly enveloped a ticking clock scenario throughout.  Still, the movie finds a way to entertain and instead of Taken 4 we get taken for a fairly fun ride.

Starring: Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, Joel Kinnaman, Common and Vincent D’Onofrio

Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra (Non-Stop and Unknown)

Rated: R

Running time: 114 minutes

Story: Brooklyn mobster and prolific hit man Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson), once known as “The Gravedigger,” has seen better days. Longtime best friend of mob boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris), Jimmy, now 55, is haunted by the sins of his past—as well as a dogged police detective (Vincent D'Onofrio) who’s been one step behind Jimmy for 30 years. Lately, it seems Jimmy’s only solace can be found at the bottom of a whiskey glass. But when Jimmy’s estranged son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman), becomes a target, Jimmy must make a choice between the crime family he chose and the real family he abandoned long ago. With Mike on the run, Jimmy’s only penance for his past mistakes may be to keep his son from the same fate Jimmy is certain he’ll face himself. Now, with nowhere safe to turn, Jimmy just has one night to figure out exactly where his loyalties lie and to see if he can finally make things right.

Official site: www.runallnightmovie.com