Run All Night

THEATER WORTHY!!!

5/5

When will people in Hollywood learn to stop messing with Liam Nesson’s kids! I guess when it stops making so much money!!! Then again, knowing Hollywood they’d still do it even if it stopped making money (that’s an “lol” moment).

This is by far Liam Nesson’s best movie since A-Team back in 2010. I mean Taken 2 was alright, Taken 3 doesn’t deserve to have Liam Nesson or his character in it, Non-Stop was ok until the end, and really his only success has come as supporting characters in The Dark Knight films (and in my personal opinion in Battle Ship). But this movie I think has broken the mold once again for the Irishman. I’m not kidding, I absolutely love the movie and it is definitely theater experience worthy, maybe even for a couple times if you have a free movie ticket lying around and nothing else to do. There is a lot to talk about with this movie but there isn’t a lot of depth to it so I’ll focus on the characters a lot here. It’s a very simple movie but extremely effective in giving you the rush that you seek when paying $8-$10 at the movie theaters.

To start out we have the characters:

Liam Nesson’s character, Jimmy Conlon, is not the typical character we’re used to seeing him play. For 20 years, since Rob Roy in 1995, Liam Nesson has played that untouchable badass that no one want’s to piss off. Even in a comedy, A Million Ways to Die in the West, he played the western badass Clinch. Rarely do we see him play a character who is seen as already broken, beaten, and by all accounts given up on life. In this movie that is exactly what we see. In other words he’s vulnerable in the film, which is refreshing since we get to see him in a different light through his acting. Although he still plays the tough as nails Irish-American with crazy fast hands, he feels more relatable in this humble role. He doesn’t know all, he doesn’t see all, and he can’t beat all . . . at least not by himself

Ed Harris has always been amazing, either as a good guy or as a bad. Either way he always seems to find some of the most complex characters to play (The Rock, National Treasure 2). Despite that he delivers on his performances every time. This time is no different. Playing Shawn Maguire, Ed Harris is seen in the previews as both friend to Liam Nesson and father to the son which Liam kills. In one moment their undying loyalty and friendship is forever changed as they’re forced to forge a new relationship through the film, one which is unique and very complex. Are the friends at the end, are they enemies, or maybe both … very compelling.

Joel Kinnaman plays Mike Conlon, the son of Jimmy Conlon (Liam). Coming off his performance from the Robocop reboot, this young man keeps his hot performance going. As seen in the previews Mike and Jimmy don’t really have much of a relationship with each other, and that is putting it mildly. His performance is so good that I even began feeling sorry for his dad, Jimmy. But still, awesome performance, solid character, and I can’t wait to see more and more of this guy!

The story was solid, very solid. For a two hour movie the problem always becomes keeping the story alive, keeping the audience entertained for a full two hours. Fortunately Jaume Collet-Serra knows how to do just that. There was an enormous amount of back story with the two characters, Shawn and Jimmy (Ed & Liam). This is done really well since it all goes to building up the characters. It tells you why they are the way that they are, why they’re at the places that they’re at in life, and more. They don’t just go into pointless backstory to fill up time. And plus every detail is used in the film. In my opinion, the story fills out all the way, not one thing is left to question with-in the parameters of the story. So it has a full on finish, a compelling back story to support the current action, and great characters played beautifully by their actors/actresses.

On a few final notes I would have to say that my favorite part of the film was the writing. One big problem with Liam’s movies as of late hasn’t been the acting, or the directing, or production … it’s been the writing. I don’t know about you but when I found out that in the movie Non-Stop (2014) the whole reason for the antagonist’s actions were because of 9/11 . . . I about threw my popcorn in the air and screamed “WHAT” right in the theater! But this film had superb writing in the hands of Brad Ingelsby. There wasn’t one line that felt cheap or cheesy, all the remarks adhered to the characters and their perceived emotional state, and it was bold at some points to the degree that you think “wow, how would I react if someone said that to me”. Case in point, and I promise not to spoil anything, but just the way that Liam Nesson tells Ed Harris that he killed his son makes you shutter at the thought of receiving such a call.

Production was great, all of the places looked very real to the story. Through an interview with the director, found on Entertainment Weekly, it was disclosed that they had actually shot scenes before and after an actual N.Y. Rangers hockey game! Nothing felt cheap with the finished film, it actually looked more like present day New York than most movies I’ve seen lately . . . especially Avengers (that’s an “lol” moment). Car chases, car crashes, shoot outs, chase scenes, everything felt very solid. There were no excessive explosions, no overly drawn out fights or shoot outs, everything felt like a great experience.   

And lastly, the transitions between scenes. I know it sounds insignificant but when you really look back at your most favorite or hated films, you can find that just about every little detail would add up to your decision. The way they transitioned almost every key scene was really cool. It really let you feel like you were watching all these events unfold in just one night. It also gave you a look at just how far everything and everyone was from one another. What film makers did was bring in the company BUF from France. They came in and took a lot of still shots of what they were transitioning from, then they took stills of what they were going to transition to, and along some CG the result was SO much cooler than any 3-D mapping I’ve ever seen!

For this movie I will say this. Less is more … sometimes simple equals solid and this movie defines that notion. Enjoy and see you at the movies!

Acting - 5

Writing - 5

Production - 5

Intent - 5

Story - 5

 

Overall - 5