Review: ‘Run All Night’ runs away from cliché action

Run+All+Night+stars+Liam+Neeson%2C+Ed+Harris%2C+Joel+Kinnaman+and+Common.+The+movie+opens+up+against+the+highly+anticipated+Cinderella.++

‘Run All Night’ stars Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, Joel Kinnaman and Common. The movie opens up against the highly anticipated ‘Cinderella.’

Tristan Baez, Writer

Could this be Liam Neeson’s last action movie? Neeson has publicily stated that ‘Run All Night’ will be one of the last action movies he will star in. After 2008’s cult hit ‘Taken,’ Neeson has taken the prototype of action star and changed it. Neeson has stared in such action movies like ‘Non-Stop,’ ‘A-Team,’ ‘The Grey’ and many others leading up to ‘Run All Night.’

Former mobbster and hitman Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) is forced to protect his son Mike (Joel Kinnaman) after Jimmy’s life long friend  and mob boss, Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris), turns on him only to hunt Mike and his family to avenge his sons death. Exausting his resources, Jimmy and Mike are forced to ‘Run All Night.’

‘Run All Night’ is a very fresh and unique take on the action genre. The story isn’t entirely new or original, but a lot of the unorignal plot points become more of their own with a new take on the direction and look of of the movie making it very disinct from other action films. The actual action is good , nothing special, but again its how it’s made that makes it feel so fresh.

A lot of the actors chemistry is really authentic feeling and works well for the service of the story. Ed Harris and Liam Neeson sell the idea that they were actually best friends. Neeson also elevates Kinnaman’s performance and they are able to have really emotional scenes.

Composer Junkie XL, also composes a very dark score, something that is reminicent of Hans Zimmer’s ‘Dark Knight’ and ‘Man of Steel’ scores (coincidently Junkie and Zimmer are currently collaberating on 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’). The cinematography is also really solid.

‘Run All Night’ is a unique looking, average action movie but is overall a very entertaining 2 hours.

Final Verdict: 6.5/10

This film is rated ‘R’ for strong violence, language including sexual references, and drug use. You must be 17 years of age or accompanied by an adult to watch this movie.