(MENAFN- Arab Times) There are if not 50 at least a dozen shades of world-weary masculinity in the Liam Neeson thriller 'Run All Night.' There's Neeson as Jimmy Conlon a washed-up Brooklyn hit-man; his mob boss and pal Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris); Joel Kinnaman as Jimmy's straight-arrow limo-driving son Mike; and Vincent D'Onofrio's veteran police detective. By the time Nick Nolte turns up presumably contractually obligated to appear anywhere father-son issues are bandied and characters are gravely musing about 'the things I've seen' 'Run All Night' can slam its cards down: a full house.
'Run All Night' is the latest in that curious cinematic cottage industry: Old-man Neeson Revenge Flicks. It's a niche of thriller often more fun in theory than in practice but on the whole it's hard not to root for keeping alive the pleasures of solid genre exercises. Such movies take a special set of skills ones that Hollywood once flashed in its sleep but now seldom rouses. 'Run All Night' directed by Jaume Collet-Serra who has helmed two previous entries in the late Neeson canon ('Non-Stop' and 'Unknown') may well be the best of the bunch. It's admittedly not an extraordinarily high bar. (Some though not me would cite Neeson's 'The Grey.') And while there is precious little fresh ground to this familiar New York crime drama and the film's stylistic flourishes do it no help for simple well-acted genre thrills the pulpy 'Run All Night' has enough gas in the tank. In 'Run All Night' penned by Brad Ingelsby ('Out of the Furnace') father-son disappointments flow in both directions. Neeson's boy Jimmy has sworn off his alcoholic mobbed-up father and kept his family from ever meeting him. For the Maguires the son Danny (Boyd Holbrook) is the regrettable one: a brash drug-using punk. The fathers Jimmy and Maguire are Irish whiskey-swilling holdouts of a bygone criminal era. The ghosts of a grittier New York hang over them. All their friends have died away or been locked up. (Harris could be seen as playing his 'State of Grace' Hell's Kitchen mobster after another 25 years.) They're left to lament the changing of old hangouts like a butcher shop turned into Maguire sneers an Applebee's. Panics After Danny makes promises to Albanian heroin dealers that he can't follow through on he panics and kills them only their limo driver (guess who) witnesses it. When Danny pursues Mike Jimmy is there to shoot him. The seriousness of the situation is immediately apparent: Jimmy has just killed the son of his one true friend who'll surely murder him for it. He picks up the phone to confess. An all-night chase across Brooklyn and Manhattan ensues a last ditch effort for Jimmy's salvation as he tries to save his son's life. 'Listen to your father for one night' he tells his son. Though Mike chafes at their reunion when Jimmy ably jacks a car with nothing but a shoe lace he begins to brighten. Collet-Serra links each jump between characters spread across a rainy nighttime New York by an as-the-crow-flies camera zoom that even avian enthusiasts will scoff at. Such silly flashiness occasionally crops up in the film like in a dinner scene with Jimmy and Maguire where Collet-Serra can't stop circling them like an over-eager waiter. But when Collet-Serra isn't getting in his own way 'Run All Night' is an engrossing thriller: the bloody last breathe of a dying New York played out in barrooms subway stations and train yards. It does err though with the introduction of an absurdly elite killer (Common) who kills three cops within minutes stealthily rampaging through a burning apartment building. The outcome of course is never in doubt. Through the urban gloom marches our aged hero heavy of heart and quick with a gun: our sacrificial elder. Liam Neeson to the dark tower came. 'Run All Night' a Warner Bros. release is rated R for 'strong violence language including sexual references and some drug use.' Running time: 108 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four. Also: LOS ANGELES: Sony PlayStation has delayed the release of 'Uncharted 4: A Thief's End' until spring 2016 the same year that Sony Pictures plans to release the first film based on the popular videogame franchise. PlayStation had originally been eyeing a holiday 2015 release but its developer Naughty Dog requested more time to finish the next installment of the 'Uncharted' series. The third was released in 2011. 'Since we showed you our first gameplay reveal of 'Uncharted 4: A Thief's End' more of the game and story have come together and it's become clear to us that this game is much more ambitious than we originally envisioned' wrote 'Uncharted 4' directors Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann in a Sony PlayStation blog post on Wednesday. The new release strategy will actually benefit PlayStation's sister company Sony Pictures given that the studio has dated its 'Uncharted' film for June 10 2016. Moving the release date of the game by a few months was a 'difficult choice' for Straley and Druckmann but 'after spending so many years with Nathan Drake he means a lot to the team and telling the climactic chapter of his adventures is a task we don't take lightly - this game deserves every bit of the attention to detail precise pacing and nuanced storytelling Naughty Dog is known for' they added. 'Giving us a few extra months will make certain that 'Uncharted 4: A Thief's End' not only meets the team's high standards but the high standards that gamers have come to expect from a Naughty Dog title.' LOS ANGELES: Dracula and friends are back for more in the first teaser trailer for Sony Pictures Animation's 'Hotel Transylvania 2' starring Adam Sandler and Selena Gomez. The film picks up with Dracula being a grandfather to a half-vampire half-human grandson and opening up his monster-exclusive hotel to human visitors and daughter Mavis is about to get some culture shock of her own when she meets her human in-laws. As Drac enlists his monster friends to put baby Dennis through monster training he's about to get a surprise visit from his old-school dad Vlad. Genndy Tartakovsky is back at the helm with a script by Robert Smigel. Joining the cast this go-round is Mel Brooks. 'Hotel Transylvania 2' produced by Michelle Murdocca and exec produced by Sandler Allen Covert and Ben Waisbren is set to open on Sept 25. (Agencies) By Jake Coyle
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.