catholic

Over half a decade has elapsed since the inauguration of the Era of Liam Neeson, now 62, as Improbable Action Hero, and audiences have perhaps grown a tad tired of the venerable Schindler's List actor's genre endeavors, but any exhaustion should be set aside long enough to embrace Run All Night, a well-acted, swiftly paced, and stylish action/suspense contraption set over the course of a single (rather eventful and violent) night in the five boroughs of NYC. The storyline sounds more complicated and confusing on paper than it is in motion. Put simply, a series of coincidences, confrontations, and encounters turn a pair of fathers, previously best friends with lives intertwined by organized-crime complicity, into instant archenemies, and their just-ignited blood feud will be resolved by sunrise. One is an alcoholic hit man played with empty eyes and an exhausted step by Neeson in a now-characteristic, but still poignant and riveting performance. The other is a well-tailored former kingpin turned almost-legitimate entrepreneur played by Ed Harris with a vise-grip intensity expressed largely through his eyes.

The acting titans share a handful of dynamic dialogue-driven sequences, reflecting on their shared history, weighing the state of their twilight years against the various regrets and sins of their youth. Their interaction lends gravity, respectability, and emotional authenticity to this muscular, smartly executed series of nocturnal pulp set pieces, including an old-fashioned car chase and a multiple-shooter extravaganza in a crowded public-housing apartment building. It is a very exciting and involving picture, straight and true. The only notable flaw is a peripheral character played by hip-hop mainstay and part-time actor Common. With his laser-sight handgun grip, night-vision eyepiece, and force-of-nature resolve (HE WILL! NOT! STOP!), he registers as type of comic-strip character, or a Terminator, and is therefore out of place in a film otherwise populated by all-too-human Irish American bruisers and lugs.

B+

Yeah, this was pretty awesome and a big surprise for me since I wasn't really looking forward to it. Very entertaining and involving.

B+

Umm, this was a pretty exact modern-day remake of Road to Perdition.

This was a damn solid action/thriller. I liked it more than Tombstone's and it's hell of a lot better than that crapfest known as Tak3n. It's just too bad it didn't do better at the boxoffice, because it definitely deserved to make some good money. Easily my favorite Neeson/Serra collaboration so far mostly because of how great Ed Harris is, and Joel Kinnaman was finally able to impress me a bit with his acting abilities. Also, it was nice to see Vincent D'Onofrio not play a villain for once.

Run All Night

Fuck yeah! This was brilliant. I've been waiting for Neeson to make a good action-thriller follow-up to Taken, and he finally did it 6 years later with Run All Night. This film had a great build up, the foundations were well laid, and a great cast acted it out. There were moments of genuine tension, some kinetic and exciting action, a bit of drama, and a hell of a lot of redemption in what was a believable father-son (as well as old friend-old friend) dilemma. It was clear that these families had history, and that is testament to the writing. Technically, it was great too, apart from a few fast edits, but on the whole I appreciated its high-tempo style, and I particularly liked the hyper-zoom shots (of which there were about four or so) throughout the film. Some great and realistic slices of dialogue too (I remember some good stuff between Kinnaman and Rodriguez). I just loved the way this film was constructed. All the agendas that were acted on to get the circumstances to make this plot. That must have taken some time to work out.

Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, Joel Kinnaman (he looks an awful lot like Linkin Park's Chester Bennington), Common, Nick Nolte, the gorgeous Genesis Rodriguez, and Vincent D'Onofrio make a pretty solid cast. Though the latter is relegated to a wasteful role as 'the cop that always arrives late'. Ed Harris and Liam Neeson have some pretty great scenes together. I especially enjoyed those. One moment I thought was cool was when Neeson went all bad ass and entered the Irish pub killing bad guys left, right, and center, and all to the tune of The Pogues' "Fairytale in New York". This film is a blast.

B+