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 (3)
Plots(1)
Hitman Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) has no choice but to shoot and kill the son of his former boss and friend Sean Maguire (Ed Harris) when his own son Michael (Joel Kinnaman) is targeted by the mob. Now the ruthless Maguire seeks revenge and will stop at nothing to get it, meaning Jimmy must do all he can to protect his son and his family from corrupt police officers and contract killers. Will he succeed? (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (8)
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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The pitting of Ed Harris against Liam Neeson is the best thing in this film. And to make it into guys-only entertainment par excellence, casting Vincent D'Onofrio and Nick Nolte as their sidekicks was an equally fortunate choice. But it does not change the fact that: 1) almost all of the characters are
nut-jobs who literally deserve to die, 2) it is once again based on a clearly defined genre template and 3) it focuses more on superficial formal effectiveness than on telling an honest crime drama such as We Own the Night. Now that was a genre movie deserving of four stars in my opinion. And it
doesn’t lack shootouts or an exciting car chase.
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Liam Neeson has basically fallen into the category of an action hero who tries to protect his family or someone close to him at all costs. But he's an interesting actor and I'm enjoying it for the umpteenth time. Mainly because this time his character is a little different, even if the ending takes another sentimental turn.
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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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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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