Run All Night (*includes SPOILERS)

[INTRODUCTION]

I hadn't seen the trailer for this movie and no-one had recommended it to me. But I saw the poster and that it had Liam Neeson in it and thought...an action movie with Liam Neeson, how can that be bad? That's how I came to be watching this film yesterday afternoon.

[EXPECTATION]

I expected it to be ok, have plenty of action and possibly be slightly sentimental as it was Liam Neeson after all and I find he has a tendency to play action characters who are often out to prove that they aren't all bad.

[SUMMATION*]

The main character (Liam Neeson plays Jimmy Conlon) is an alcoholic who has spent his life killing people and being at the beck and call of his best friend (Ed Harris) who has built up a shady business that includes bribing cops. Jimmy Conlon is also estranged from his son, played by the very handsome Joel Kinnaman (Robocop, The Killing). 

Anyway, it ends up that his son witnesses his best friends son kill an albanian druglord and the best friends son then tries to kill his son and he kills him first. There is lots of shooting and killing of dodgy blokes, an explosion or two, some crowds, a good policeman (just the one!) and a psycho assassin. Jimmy manages to somehow win back some affection from his son but dies, but only after he has saved his son for like the hundredth time.

[ADULATION & ABERRATION]

The shooting starts promptly and continues throughout, keeping the film action packed in terms of gun fire and the odd fight to the death, special effects are kept to a minimum but there is a nice car chase through New York. 

There is a particularly funny scene, where Liam Neeson is fighting a hit man and both of them have table legs that are on fire at one end - thus it makes them look like light sabers! lol I hope that was intentional.

The actual story, although very thin does its job and I think this is helped by the fact that they keep the story simple in order to focus on the action at hand as it were. As predictable as the story was it was watchable and it never came across as tired at all. 

[DEDUCTION]

Even though I havent really got anything hugely critical to say about it, I still think that it lacked something. I would rate this film a 6.5/10. IMDb rated 7.1/10, Metascore 59/100, Rotten Tomatoes 60%.