Ten Stars or Less

release date: 13 March 2015 (Canada)
run time: 114 mins
rated: 14A
considered: Action, Crime, Drama
director: Jaume Collet-Serra
starring: Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, Joel Kinnaman, Boyd Holbrook, Bruce McGill, Genesis Rodriguez, Vincent D’Onofrio, Lois Smith, Common, Beau Knapp, Patricia Kalember, Daniel Stewart Sherman, James Martinez, Radivoje Bukvic, Tony Naumovski

movie summary: Every big time mob boss has a hired gun to do all their dirty work. Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris) has his gunslinger Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson), who post mob life is a complete mess. He hasn’t seen his son Mike (Joel Kinnaman) in years and struggles with alcoholism. When Mike is accidentally involved a drug deal gone wrong with Shawn’s son Danny (Boyd Holbrook), Shawn puts a bounty out on his head, forcing Jimmy to come out of retirement and sober up to save his son.

my thoughts: When I bought tickets for Run All Night I assumed I was watching a movie much similar to Taken. Someone does something wrong to Liam Neeson and he spends two hours trying to kick their ass. Amazingly this time around he spends the whole time on the run and is forced to get creative to avoid being killed. Run All Night promises to be an action packed adventure that will please the action junkies, while using the father and son storyline to please everyone else. This story focuses more on the strained relationships an old assassin who just can’t keep his life together. After one bad decision, Neeson’s character is forced to dig into his old bag of tricks to protect the ones he loves.

Since 2009 it is safe to say that Neeson was able to resurrect his career thanks to one, now iconic role, which has led to similar castings ever since. Everyone who watches a Neeson movie now just expects him to carry a gun and kick some ass. His roles always make him seem invincible which is the complete opposite here. Thanks to poor life decisions and alcohol, his character will suffer for the majority of the film despite being one of the most famous and loyal hired guns in New York City.

Ed Harris doesn’t appear in a lot of movies lately, probably because father time is catching up real quickly. Shawn Maguire is one of the city’s biggest crime bosses with the prototypical idiot son who just can’t stay out of trouble. Jimmy and Shawn go way back and Shawn will do anything for one of his most loyal friends, until he crosses a line. When that line is crossed, there is no going back and the once proud father and gangster turns to an emotional mess who just wants revenge.

Friendship becomes a thing of the past here and the stakes get really high in a game of cat and mouse across the busy streets of New York. Of course if you seen any other movie similar to this one then you already know what to expect. There will be dirty cops who get in the action, other hired assassins called in to finish the job, lots of bullets, explosions, and attempts to correct things from the past.

I wasn’t a big fan of how the movie opened because it pretty much ruined the final couple of minutes. Watching our main character lay in his own blood kinda ruins any chance of unpredictability at the end. As far as the rest of the movie goes, there are a few scenes where you’ll know exactly what will happen, it’s just a question of when. Much like his Bryan Mills character, it appears Jimmy is cut from the same cloth, thanks to his ability to pull off some daring stunts to get out of a jam.

my final thoughts: Run All Night is just a recycled gangster/assassin/revenge story that we have seen a million times before. If you didn’t waste your money at the theatre then be happy to catch it on Netflix when he gets there. In the event you completely skipped over completely, rest assure you didn’t much with these characters or story.

my star rating: 5 out 10 

imdb: 7.1 out 10 
metascore: 59/100 
rottentomatoes: 59% out 100% 
roger ebert: 3 out 4
richard crouse: 3.5 out 5