Run All Night (15.)
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra.
Starring Liam Neeson, Joel Kinnaman, Ed Harris, Vincent D'Onofrio, Boyd Holbrook and Common. 109 mins
There's nothing wrong with a silly movie done silly. Neeson and Collet-Serra's previous collaborations (Unknown, Non-stop) were upfront pieces of preposterous foolishness that were great fun as long as you weren't too stuck up to go along with them. Run All Night is a silly film with a serious face on: a horrible betrayal and no fun at all.
In American movies the only thing you can never make fun of is the da old neighbourhood, especially if da old neighbourhood is in New York. Back in da day Jimmy The Gravedigger (Neeson) was the hitman for mob boss McGuire (Harris) but is now a washed up, alcoholic has been. But then one night his boy (Kinnaman from Robocop) and McGuire’s boy (Holbrook) get mixed up in something and suddenly everybody is shooting at everyone else - though only Neeson is shooting on target - and over one night Jimmy has to try and make everything right. From there everything get fearsomely overblown. Harris refuses to take it easy and rips into his role, bullets fly and the portentous soundtrack clangs away like it was scoring a Christopher Nolan film.
Matters aren't helped by a new toy Collet-Serra has been given which gives him a roving God's eye view of the New York terrain. He'll be filming in one area and then time will stop still and the camera will fly through the air and drop in on another location where life is currently freeze framed. If this had been made prior to The Matrix, these scenes would still look awful; now you wonder why the film keeps switching into Google Earth.
Run All Night (15.)
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra.
Starring Liam Neeson, Joel Kinnaman, Ed Harris, Vincent D'Onofrio, Boyd Holbrook and Common. 109 mins
There's nothing wrong with a silly movie done silly. Neeson and Collet-Serra's previous collaborations (Unknown, Non-stop) were upfront pieces of preposterous foolishness that were great fun as long as you weren't too stuck up to go along with them. Run All Night is a silly film with a serious face on: a horrible betrayal and no fun at all.
In American movies the only thing you can never make fun of is the da old neighbourhood, especially if da old neighbourhood is in New York. Back in da day Jimmy The Gravedigger (Neeson) was the hitman for mob boss McGuire (Harris) but is now a washed up, alcoholic has been. But then one night his boy (Kinnaman from Robocop) and McGuire’s boy (Holbrook) get mixed up in something and suddenly everybody is shooting at everyone else - though only Neeson is shooting on target - and over one night Jimmy has to try and make everything right. From there everything get fearsomely overblown. Harris refuses to take it easy and rips into his role, bullets fly and the portentous soundtrack clangs away like it was scoring a Christopher Nolan film.
Matters aren't helped by a new toy Collet-Serra has been given which gives him a roving God's eye view of the New York terrain. He'll be filming in one area and then time will stop still and the camera will fly through the air and drop in on another location where life is currently freeze framed. If this had been made prior to The Matrix, these scenes would still look awful; now you wonder why the film keeps switching into Google Earth.
