Joel Kinnaman and Liam Neeson, right, appear in a scene from Run All Night. Photo / AP
Joel Kinnaman and Liam Neeson, right, appear in a scene from Run All Night. Photo / AP
Liam Neeson sure is making the most of his late career run as an action hero. Just months after the release of his third film in the Taken franchise, in which Neeson's character protected his daughter from the underworld, here comes another crime thriller, which this time sees Neeson takeon a New York mob family to protect his son.
Run All Night is another shoot first, ask questions later film, this time based in New York, and revolves around Jimmy (Neeson), an old-school hitman who works for his childhood friend, Irish/American crime boss Shawn Maguire (Harris).
The two families become pitted against each other after Jimmy's estranged son Mike (Kinnaman) sees Shawn's son Danny (Robert Boyd Holbrook) murder a couple of Albanian drug dealers. Jimmy, who is suffering psychologically from classic hitman regret, must take on his boss to save his son's life.
Shot mostly at night, Run All Night is dark, brooding and full of shadows, out of which emerge a variety of bad guys set on killing Jimmy and Danny, including Shawn's men, corrupt police and a suave tech-minded assassin (Common).
The settings and wardrobe have a retro feel inspired by 70s crime thrillers, but are mixed with the sophisticated camerawork of director Jaume Collet-Serra (who directed Neeson in 2014 hijack movie Non-Stop), who delivers a film that could have only been edited this century.
Although crafted and performed decently enough, Run All Night can't beat the feeling we're seeing a combination of films we've seen before.
Cast: Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, Joel Kinnaman, Vincent D'Onofrio Director: Jaume Collet-Serra Running Time: 114 mins Rating: R16 (Violence, offensive language, drug use) Verdict: More of the same from Mr Neeson.
