The latest Liam Neeson actioner, Run All Night is from Jaume Collet-Serra, who directed the star in two of his more recent movies: Unknown and Non-Stop. Collet-Serra delivers a pretty solid movie this time around, filled with gunfights and car chases and grounded with the macho quality of seventies movies like The French Connection or The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Neeson and Ed Harris both put the weight of long, respected careers to good use here, playing two friends torn apart after Neeson must kill Harris' son in order to protect his own -- a similar dynamic to the Kirk Douglas/Anthony Quinn western Last Train From Gun Hill. Actually, many scenes reminded me of other (better) films, but there's enough going on to keep you involved and enjoying yourself. Joel Kinnaman as Neeson's estranged son partially redeems himself for the poor outing as Robocop, and both Vincent D'Onofrio and Common make the most of their small roles. The action scenes are on par with modern quick-cut, shaky-camera features, but not overdone to the point of nausea. (It's movies like this that will make you appreciate the incredible work in last year's John Wick that much more.) The transition shots, which Collet-Serra employs to zoom from one location to another between scenes, were a questionable choice that doesn't fit the rest of the film's gritty, no-nonsense tone, as was the cliched use of slow motion at key moments; both took me out of the movie whenever they were used. Aside from that, Run All Night is recommended as one of Neeson's better post-Taken movies.
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