Liam Neeson's Latest, The Run-Of-The-Mill RUN ALL NIGHT

Now playing at a multiplex near you:

RUN ALL NIGHT (Dir. Jaume Collet-Serra, 2015)

While watching this new crime thriller, I wondered: ‘how much longer can Liam Neeson make these sort of action movies?’ The next day I had my answer as it was reported that he told an interviewer that he’d be doing them for “maybe two more years. If God spares me, and I’m healthy and stuff. But after that, I’ll stop [the action] I think.”

That sounds fair. I mean, he can crank out a couple more TAKENs in that time and still have time for a few more generic, run of the mill offerings like this one.

That’s not to say there’s no fun to be had with RUN ALL NIGHT, Neeson’s latest collaboration with Spanish director Collet-Serra, their third after UNKNOWN, and last year’s airplane thriller NON-STOP.

This time around, Neeson is a washed-up mob hit-man boozing it up in a Brooklyn club owned by his former boss (Ed Harris). Neeson has an estranged son, a limo driver played by Joel Kinnaman (The Killing, the ROBOCOP re-make), who wants nothing to do with his father. Harris has a son, Boyd Holbrook (WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES, GONE GIRL), an arrogant, entitled idiot who’s impatiently waiting to take over the family business.

The fateful night of the title, Kinnaman witnesses Holbrook shooting down a Albanian heroin dealer which, after a gun-fire filled chase through the dark neighborhood, leads to Neeson shooting down Holbrook. “I just killed your boy, Shawn,” Neeson tells Harris on the phone. “I had to.”

The scenario has similarities to JOHN WICK, in that the mob boss is actually sympathetic and understands what happened, but still needs to follow through and avenge his son. The intense yet weirdly warm exchanges between Neeson and Harris, particularly in a HEAT-styled meeting in a restaurant, are the film’s highlights.

There are some other mildly enjoyable elements in Common as a smooth dapper assassin on the trail of the father/son duo, and Vincent D'Onofrio as a frumpy cop (a guy as seemingly washed up as Neeson) set on finally busting Neeson after all these years. Sure, these characters are well worn clichés but I still enjoyed the actors’ presences.

Of course, Neeson, who amusingly is able to completely kick his alcoholism in a snap, and Kinnaman work out their differences in between shoot-outs, car chases, and brutal fist fights (my friend Fonvielle remarked that Collet-Serra and Neeson’s movies always have an intense confined-space bathroom fight), and the action moves from the city out to a house out in the country for the finale as it often does in these type things.

The stylish choice to have swooping cameras take us from aerial shots quickly down to ground level for transitional purposes is really better suited for high tech thrillers like ENEMY OF THE STATE or LIMITLESS. It's a cool looking device, but it doesn't feel in sync with this material.

There’s little depth in RUN ALL NIGHT, but it has more grit and less melodrama than Neeson/Collet-Serra's previous effort NON-STOP. This entry is far from an embarrassment, and I'm certain a lot of action fans (and especially Neeson action fans) will find it quite serviceable.

So seeya next time Neeson, when his big old end to action countdown to 2017 continues.

More later...

Liam Neeson Airplane Thriller NON-STOP Never Starts To Get Very Suspenseful

Opening today at a multiplex near you:

NON-STOP (Dir. Jaume Collet-Serra, 2014)

For a film called NON-STOP, this new Liam Neeson airplane-set thriller starts slowly, and then has many rough draggy patches.

Continuing his recent career transformation into an aging action hero, Neeson stars here as an alcoholic air marshal on a transatlantic flight from New York City to London, who gets an anonymous text from somebody on board saying that unless $150 million is transferred into a secured account, they're "going to kill someone on this plane every 20 minutes." 

Despite having hit the bottle before the flight, Neeson does what he can to take control of the situation. Our gruff protagonist first suspects the other air marshal on board (Anson Mount), but it turns out he's being blackmailed by the same mysterious texter for smuggling cocaine, and a violent  scuffle in the men's room results in the film's first casuality - right at the 20 minute mark.

The gruff sweaty Neeson tries to keep this on the down low, but everyone around him, including Julianne Moore as a concerned seat-mate, and Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery as a nervous flight attendant, know something horribly wrong is going on.

Lupita Nyong'o, who I predict will be taking home the gold Sunday night for her Supporting performance in 12 YEARS A SLAVE, has a really wasted part playing another flight attendant - I can't remember any significance she has to anything.

To lay out all the misleads and convolutions in John W. Richardson and Christopher Roach's screenplay would be pointless, but I will recount that when it's revealed that it's Neeson's account that the money is going to go to, everybody thinks he's the real terrorist hijacker behind this murderous mid-air mayhem at 30,000 feet.

But instead of tension being mounted, its layers of stupidity piling up - especially when it comes to Neeson breaking down in a big confession to the entire plane's population (and the world via passenger's cellphones) about how fucked up he is. This bit highly resembles the "Oscar Clip" parody that WAYNE'S WORLD did over 20 years ago. 

NON-STOP is not without style - it borrows from House of Cards the aesthetic of how texts pop up on screen in neat bubbles (it also borrows Corey Stoll from that popular Netflix show's first season to play an angry passenger), and cinematographer Flavio Martínez Labiano's frantic camera placement makes use of the claustrophobic space, but none of the strained stress it attempts to amplify add up to any genuine suspense.

But, hey, at least it's not TAKEN 3, right?

More later...