Run All Night

This review may contain spoilers!

This is one of my favourite Liam Neeson films to date. I would give Run All Night an 8/10.

Run All Night is an action film sure, but one that has had it's plot crafted perfectly. There isn't a fight scene for the sake of it, this is a film that has value in each scene that was written. As such the pacing of this film is really good; the progression of the feature moves at the exact rate the action needs to unfold. Also the cinematography and editing within this film are something else, such a smooth and polished looking film that really had a strong visual sense.

Liam Neeson, who played Jimmy Conlon, was able to take quite a restrained step back from his usual strong leading presence; instead he felt more like a guardian angel' his chemistry with Harris and Kinnaman setting his character more as someone who reacts to others rather than act for himself. Joel Kinnaman, who played Mike Conlon, was quite a strong protagonist; you really felt his contempt for the criminal world and yet his moulding to being able to confront it was a really good transition. Vincent D'Onofrio, who played Detective Harding, gave one of the best performances of the film; his rough straight cop was a great balance of anger and righteousness.

The best performance of the film was undoubtedly Ed Harris, who played Shawn Maguire. Harris set himself up with a powerful screen presence from the get go; even showing a broad emotional range. He then went on to show great chemistry with Neeson, a chemistry that really set this film apart. But then when he descended into grief over his son we saw him develop into a truly terrifying antagonist.

The plot suffered from moments of stereotype or playing into genre tropes that meant the film got bogged down with predictability issues; this was probably the greatest let down in terms of writing. I also had a huge problem with the score, the constant fanfar of horns was over done and didn't offer a lot of diversity between scenes.

Boyd Holbrook, who played Danny Maguire, was a very weak antagonist; his motivations were unclear and he had no strength in his performance. Common, who played Andrew Price, brought a lot of menace with no depth; a good presence does not make a good character.