What Everyone Expected: Another run-of-the-mill Liam Neeson action vehicle, with a forgettable plot and brainless action sequences. It certainly didn't help that Run All Night was released shortly after the horrendous, career-worst Neeson film that was Taken 3. What It Was: Probably the best of the late-career Neeson action films to date, and certainly up there with the original Taken. Here's a film with a ton going for it: the father-son dynamic with Joel Kinnaman works without having to try too hard to force emotion into it, and Ed Harris is fantastic as the bereaved mobster looking to take the duo down. It's just a lot more down to Earth than most of his recent movies, a gritty crime thriller in which Neeson isn't some over-active Superman but, well, a middle-aged dude. It also crackles visually (especially during one fiery sequence later in the movie), and makes the most of its New York setting, so it's a shame that despite mixed-positive reviews, the film was a total box office bomb. It deserved better, all while Taken 3 grossed the GDP of a small country.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
