Run All Night – Movie Review by Conor MacNamara

Diretor: Jaume Collet-Saure
Writer: Brad Ingelsby
Stars: Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, Joel Kinnaman, Genesis Rodriguez

Liam Neeson teams up again with director Jaume Collet-Saure reprising his role as ‘leave my family alone’ man in what has become his typecast role as the distraught avenger. Protagonist Jimmy is a retired mobster haunted by his past crimes (none of which we are ever privy to), and has been ostracised by his family & friends. That is until his son Mike becomes entangled in the same world of mob violence. Gratifying in its mandatory violencce, the mindless Hollywood fun of watching police and mobsters die in their hundreds and shoehorned Irish stereotypes (it is Liam Neeson after all) is broken up by the monotonous day-to-day life of our second protagonist Mike, as he battles the clichés of family life and terrible characters.

And while there is always a gaudy kind of entertainment to be had from watching Liam Neeson brandish a revolver and warble gravelly about his past deeds, Run all night suffers from a unique collection of drawbacks that deprive the audience of even the cheap thrill of Harris-Neeson gun violence. For one thing, the camera work is outlandish, incorporating everything from a fisheye lens overlay (an actual fisheye lens was obviously not in the budget), to bizarrely extended shots taken on an iphone at 240p. This visual seizure of stimuli is compounded by the films penchant for jumpscares, possibly with the intent of disguising the lack of any actual tension.

All in all, what should have been a simple shot in the arm of unadulterated masculinity and gory glee becomes an off-pace showcase of jarring clichés, with the action coming and going too fast, and in its place the traumatic experience of witnessing Génesis Rodríguez mimic puppetry and call it acting. No wonder Liam Neeson looks so haunted.