Run All Night review: Don't watch it! Liam Neeson rehashes Taken, again

Liam Neeson has been Oscar Schindler, the voice of the majestic Aslan, Batman’s trainer and first nemesis, and also Darth Vader’s pal. By now he should be the most likable guy on the planet. But he went ahead and did something that will never be pardonable – he sold out. One Taken we could have forgiven him, but rather than an exception, that film opened the floodgates. Neeson has since only appeared in movies that resemble Taken, like Non Stop and Unknown. The latest in the long line of Taken derivations is Run All Night, a film as generic and vacuous as its title. We’ve already seen Neeson do this template role: he’s a loving dad with a violent ‘intelligence’ past who first gives up on his past activities and then is lured back into the game to save his child with his particular set of skills. It seems director Jaume Collet-Serra is aware of the redundancy in Neeson’s characters, so he adds a detail. In Run All Night, Neeson is a bad guy with a violent past. He first gives up on his past activities and then is lured back into the game to save his child with his particular set of skills. Said child is played by Joel Kinnaman, the handsome and supremely talented Scandinavian star of Snabba Cash, except he displays none of those aforementioned qualities here. He’s in this movie for the same reason he was in Robocop – the money and chance to work with a big Hollywood star. Anyway, Kinnaman accidentally becomes responsible for the murder of the son of a local mafia boss, Shawn (Ed Harris). Naturally, just like in the Taken movies, the mafia boss does not take this hit lightly and vows revenge against both father and son. The remainder of the movie involves Neeson and Kinnaman staying true to the film’s title and running all night. There’s also some shooting, jumping, yelling, sweating, driving and getting away from the bad guys intent upon killing Neeson and Kinnaman. [caption id=“attachment_2176675” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Courtesy: Run All Night’s Facebook page.[/caption] With zero effort put in the story (if you discount the genius role tossup of Neeson), one expects something new and interesting in the visual and action department. To be fair, the film looks pretty good. The nighttime setting gives the film a high-octane appeal and even gives the illusion of the action being set in real time. Collet-Serra uses a strange but interesting gimmick – the camera whooshes through the streets of New York from one location to another in a single, swooping take. It gives you the geography of the action, something sorely lacking in modern action cinema. None of this makes much of a difference though, because the actual action is as incoherent and cookie cutter as they come. The camera shakes and jitters around the actors’ faces, as if to display ‘kinetic stunts’ and ‘electric thrills’ but it’s hollow, feels cheap, and is fake as hell. Thanks to the shaky cam, real stuntwork has been replaced by artificial rubbish, and Run All Night goes straight to the list of films that misuse the technique perfected by Paul Greengrass. Also, the characters involved in the action are unintentionally hilarious. There is a super secret contract killer played by rapper Common, who wears an infra green monocle and an infrared laser on his gun to lock his target. It just looks clownish and Common’s acting skills render more than a few giggles when he tries to be a scary hitman. He also pops up in various locations as if spawning in a really cheesy video game, trying to shoot at Neeson and missing despite all the high tech target equipment. Harris hams to the hilt as the villain with the template Hollywood Irish mob accent. He stabs his minions for messing up but isn’t scary enough to present any real threat to the hero at any point in the movie. Speaking of our hero, Neeson peers through his loving and concerned eyes, has the child’s back, and absorbs the burden of the dirty work of shooting and murdering baddies. The child, despite being played by a grown man, is still the damsel in distress, gaping incredulously at the carnage happening around him. The highlight of Run All Night is a flashback that explains the estrangement between father and son. It is the most memorable thing about the film; only because of the worst CGI usage since The Rock’s face as The Scorpion King. Unless you’re a raging fan of Neeson and would do anything to see him save kids from being taken, you’re better off steering clear of this uninspired drivel.