Run All Night – Basically the same thing as Taken

War of The Movies: 5/10

60% – Rotten Tomatoes

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Writer: Brad Ingelsby

Runtime: 114 min
Genres: Action, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Liam Neeson as Jimmy Conlon
Ed Harris as Shawn Maguire
Joel Kinnaman as Mike Conlon
Boyd Holbrook as Danny Maguire
Bruce McGill as Pat Mullen
Genesis Rodriguez as Gabriela Conlon

A retired enforcer, the Irish Mob and a family in danger. All you need to make a good action movie. I went to see Run All Night expecting a following to the Taken series and I wasn’t deceived.

Just another Taken?

Yes for the most part but no quite the same about the character Liam Neeson play. Forget about the proud CIA agent he played in Taken, now he’s nothing more than a retired mob killer with a huge alcohol problem and a son who hate him.

The story

Jimmy Conlon is a retired Irish’s Mob killer who has fallen in the bottle and has pretty much lost anyone that care about him other than his old boss, Shawn. His only son refuses to see him or even acknowledge his existence but when Mike witness a murder, his dad become the only thing standing between him and those who doesn’t want him to testify against Shawn’s son and later on, those who want revenge.

The movie follow Mike and Jimmy while they try to survive the night and escape a horde of killer and corrupt police officers. That’s why the movie is called Run All Night because it’s actually the only thing they do all night. Thankfully, its right into Jimmy abilities. Sadly, Mike hardly ever give credit to his father for helping him and end up barely dying a couple of time for it.

Should you go see it?

I don’t recommend going to see this movie. You better go rent the Taken series or just watch it on Netflix. There is not much story there but yet again, you aren’t really going to go see a Liam Neeson movie for story but for fast-paced action scene.

What I didn’t like

The story of the movie turn around the relation estranged relationship between Jimmy Conlon and his son Mike. Because of guilt for all the murder he has committed, Jimmy run away from his family leaving his wife and child to fend for themselves which caused tension between the son and the father later in life. But to survive the night, Mike has to follow his father to survive the ire of Shawn, the mob boss for killing his son. What I didn’t like is the level attention the director of the movie put on the dysfunctional relationship between Jimmy and Mike. Its okay, we understand that Mike doesn’t like his father stop focusing on that, just make the action come along without too much drama. I didn’t come to see this movie for touchy feel stuff. 😉