Run All Night

13th March 2015 18:10 Bolton

With the recent bombardment of Liam Neeson films all following the same "Taken" premise, we went into Run All Night expecting nothing much more than a particular set of skills and someone being boshed by a geriatric specialist.

Run all night portrays our Liam as a retired mob hitman with a number of kills under his belt that are haunting him, a family (son) that wants nothing to do with him and a mob boss that respects him and loves him like a brother.  When a drug deal goes awry, Liam's son gets dragged into the mix and a hit put on his head, he must turn to his father for help to survive the night.

I actually enjoyed Run All Night, it didn't seem as daft as the Taken franchise or Non-Stop, Walk Amongst the Tombstones films have gone.  It actually seemed to care about the dynamics between characters.  With Liam having to kill his best friend's son to protect his own raises a good amount of tension, and Ed Harris is great as usual as the mob boss.  I would have loved a little more on the professional hitman Price, as he seemed to appear and disappear as the film needed him, but the story flowed well and the tension mounted.

A pre-finale showdown similar to Heat, but replacing the planes with trains and a tense cabin in the woods finish kept the momentum going for the run time.  I wasn't bored at any point, was interested to know where the film was going, and wondering where Price got his nightvision Google Glasses from?

It is definitely an improvement over the last batch of Brian Mills films, and a good night's entertainment.

Liam's son is likable to the point you actually care about what happens to him and the cameo from Nick Nolte playing the same role as he did in the awesome film "Warrior", and Liam is not as invincible as Brian Mills which makes a welcome change