Directed by:
Jaume Collet-SerraScreenplay:
Brad IngelsbyCinematography:
Martin RuheComposer:
Tom HolkenborgCast:
Liam Neeson, Joel Kinnaman, Bruce McGill, Ed Harris, Vincent D'Onofrio, Genesis Rodriguez, Common, Boyd Holbrook, Holt McCallany, Malcolm Goodwin (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Brooklyn mobster and prolific hit man Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson), once known as The Gravedigger, has seen better days. Longtime best friend of mob boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris), Jimmy, now 55, is haunted by the sins of his past - as well as a dogged police detective (Vincent D'Onofrio) who's been one step behind Jimmy for 30 years. Lately, it seems Jimmy's only solace can be found at the bottom of a whiskey glass. But when Jimmy's estranged son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman), becomes a target, Jimmy must make a choice between the crime family he chose and the real family he abandoned long ago. With Mike on the run, Jimmy's only penance for his past mistakes may be to keep his son from the same fate Jimmy is certain he'll face himself... at the wrong end of a gun. Now, with nowhere safe to turn, Jimmy just has one night to figure out exactly where his loyalties lie and to see if he can finally make things right. (Warner Bros. US)
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As usual, Collet-Serra gives it his all. The lights, the refocusing, the blurred focus, the rhythmic editing, he's got it in hand, and that's why he should really deserve a script and not that shit smeared paper that again landed on his desk. Oh how unhappy I am, this had such potential to become a hard, uncompromising mcguffin along the lines of Running Scared and instead it ends up watered down into family problems, moral excesses, endless whining about who got what for how much, and all of it in such a shabby form. Another criticism is more general and concerns Joel Kinnaman. It's unbelievable how such a talented youngster, who excelled as an actor back home in the Easy Money trilogy, was neutered by overseas filmmakers into the sort of obligatory short-cropped gun-wielder you find everywhere, with slugs of family values, mutual respect, and love for children (his own) constantly oozing out his mouth, and the only thing his permanent facial expression makes you think about is whether he falls asleep by covering his eyeballs with the arches of his eyebrows. Anyway, the whole thing goes twice as cold when the closing credits roll, with a visual collage of decimated male faces at the end of their powers running in the background, à la True Detective, and you realize what a tough mafia movie in the midst of an impenetrable concrete labyrinth this was intended to be.
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Neeson's already in his standard box, and Serra has definitely parked himself in the position of a decent thriller craftsman. The result is improved a lot by the remaining ensemble cast, and in turn, dragged down by the fact that most of the dialogue speeches in the second half are merely empty and stretch the film to an unsympathetic length.
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This quality dramatic family background story is spiced up with decent action and the Collet-Serra-Neeson trilogy has a very impressive finale. Bad luck and coincidence play the leading role, together with a boozy Santa suffering from remorse. The fantastic Ed Harris’s pep talks with Liam Neeson commands respect and his view on things makes sense. By coincidence, the evil Gravedigger is also the main protagonist who leaves piles of dead bodies lying in pools of blood, this time for justifiable (but selfish) reasons. Kinnaman Jr. is really fine, thinks for himself and doesn’t become too annoying during the story (which is important). A perfect action movie that I would gladly watch again.
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Standard four-star Liam Neeson flick, but I can't help being slightly disappointed. With an attractive plot, the film had the makings of the action movie of the year, but it didn't happen. What didn't really impress me here was Ed Harris, a poor choice of villain (no intense, threatening or intelligent dialogue came out of his mouth and he's too old to fight, something Jaume Collet-Serra deprived us of). I even missed an intelligent detective here (too bad Forest Whitaker wasn't in this instead of Taken 3). The serving of action comes more or less after 45 minutes and has a lot to offer. Some interesting fights finally in decent editing and without shaky camerawork, decent shootouts, chases, the occasional nice head shot (not overly brutal though) and an excellent atmospheric scene in a tenement building, which was the biggest highlight of the film, definitely spiced up by the assassin Common. The old-school shotgun finale doesn't disappoint either. Good, but could have done with a bit more. 75%
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It might gradually becomes its own subgenre, one with very few memorable pieces, Run All Night among them. It doesn't have a chance against Taken. It lacks action, pace, drive and the editing in fight sequences leaves much to be desired. Even the slower, but much more deliberate and atmospheric Walking Among Tombstones was better than this quickie, from which you may feel the New York feeling of small streets and mob pubs, but the reminiscences of the 1990s are quite flawed. The strong cast do their job, but it’s not above average. When the best dialogue passages in an action movie are from the two main stars, and it's not necessarily Heat, it's quite possible something is off, as is the case here.
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