Delivering an old school crime thriller feel with solid acting and real tension, Run All Night goes a long way toward washing the taste of Taken 3 out of the mouths of Liam Neeson fans.

Run All Night tells the story of former hit man Jimmy Conlon, a prolific killer in his time who earned the nickname ‘The Grave Digger, who finds himself on the wrong side of life long friend and mob boss Shawn McGuire (Ed Harris) after killing Shawn’s son Danny (Boyd Holbrook) in order to keep him from killing his own son Mike (Joel Kinnamen) who in turn wants nothing to do with Jimmy. Shawn orders a hit on both Mike and Jimmy and resists all attempts by Jimmy to reason with his old friend. This results in a cat and mouse game throughout the city as Jimmy tries to keep Mike alive while Mike tries to keep his family safe and the hell away from Jimmy.

The plot here probably sounds pretty familiar if you have ever seen an action movie ever, particularly if you are into the ‘retired hitman/operative/spy’ genre but the devil is in the details and Run All Night distinguishes itself from the glut of similar films (many of which star Liam Neeson) by assembling a fantastic cast and then spending more time on relationships and tension than on shoot outs and fist fights. The marketing makes this look like a Taken variant but that is really not what this movie is. It feels like a 70s thriller that has more on its mind than just action.

One of the things that especially struck me about this film is how much time it allowed itself to introduce the audience to the characters and what they mean to each other. Mike is a husband and father actively trying not to be like his criminal parent. Jimmy is a hopeless drunk who is in a downward spiral of alcoholism and self loathing and he really doesn’t give enough of a shit to try to crawl out regardless of whether or not he actively hits on his friends’ wives while playing Santa Claus at Christmas. Shawn is a mob boss who is trying to steer his son away from drug trade toward legitimate business and Danny is an arrogant shit who doesn’t think of anybody but himself.

When things go wrong, and of course they do, the relationships continue to play out while Jimmy tries to keep his son alive while feeling the pangs of loyalty for his friend. A lot of times in a movie like this, the main character would be looking for absolution and trying to make up for all of the wrongs he has done. Here Jimmy is just trying to make sure that Mike survives the night and is able to continue not being anything like him. Jimmy is not a good guy and the movie never really lets him off the hook for any of it. From an early scene with Homicide detective Harding (Vincent D’Onofrio) in which the cop enumerates the lives that he knows Jimmy has taken and pleads with him to let the families have closure it is clear that this is not a movie that is going to be soft on Jimmy or try to make excuses for him.

Even with the horrible things Jimmy has done it is difficult not to feel for him insofar as the regret that pours out of him and the loyalty he feels to both his son and his best friend. There are real moments here that are moving and heartfelt that never really feel overly sentimental because everything else is just so fucked up. That it can balance between showing Jimmy’s monstrosity in stark relief while also making him and the people he cares about sympathetic is what separates this from the more disposable entries in this genre.

The tension is real here as well both because of the director’s ability to draw it properly and because when things start going down there is a decent amount of buy in for the characters. There is a part of me that wishes that they could have all just sat down and hashed everything out even though it would have forgone all the action. That is kind of the point here, though, violent lives end violently and if no one decides to break the cycle it will just keep perpetuating itself.

The performances here are pretty great which makes sense with the strong cast. Liam Neeson does the dogged determination thing pretty well by now and he doesn’t hold back on how pathetic his character can be. Joel Kinnaman is excellent in a performance that shows a lot of nuance when it could have just been angry. Ed Harris elevates the whole movie just by being there and the chemistry between Harris and Neeson is fantastic. Vincent D’Onofrio has the homicide detective thing down cold and while this isn’t much of a stretch from his Law and Order character he also elevates the material. It was pretty good seeing Bruce McGill as Shawn’s consigliere even if he didn’t have a ton to do and Common is solid as rival hit man Price who is brought in to try to take Jimmy down.

Conclusion [8.0 out of 10]

Run All Night was a big surprise to me as I was pretty sure it was going to be another paint by numbers Liam Neeson as a bad ass pictures, which is often fine when made well (ie not Taken 3), but getting something that was a lot more than that was an unexpected delight. If you are looking for slick Taken style action, that is not what you will get here. Instead you will be treated to a hardboiled crime thriller of the sort we don’t see nearly enough of anymore and even more rarely done so well. It is nice to get a pleasant surprise like this and I think it should be supported.