Somewhere in contracts drafted by 65-year-old Liam Neeson’s lawyers, there’s almost certainly a clause that reads “must play some kind of ‘aging law enforcement officer, criminal or other underworld figure, including, but not limited to, Sherriff, agent (FBI, CIA, Interpol, NSA, M16), assassin, murderer, mercenary, police man, etc.”
Ever since the surprise success of the“Taken” franchise, Neeson’s been in one variation or another of an “aging [insert character signifier here] that’s either on the run, on the hunt, wrongly accused or trying to defend himself and his family against various nefarious forces. Of course, the archetype amounts to a faux anti-hero disguised as a hero: the antagonists might be bad, but they really have no idea how bad-ass Neeson is.
Neeson’s latest action thiller doesn’t leave much to the imagination in terms of its name. “Run All Night” revolves around an aging hitman forced to take on his brutal former boss (Ed Harris) to protect his estranged son (Joel Kinnaman) and his family. Even if you erase the past decade of Neeson’s action movies, you’d find the basic formula: two estranged people that have to work together or die; and then of course they work it out and turn the tables. But you know what? The movie works this time. Our review says "Neeson’s action star role is disassembled before soaring to new heights" in the deconstructionist action/drama.
Written by Brad Ingelsby (“Out Of The Furnace”), directed by Jaume Collet-Serra ("Non-Stop," "Unknown") and co-starring Génesis Rodríguez, Vincent D’Onofrio, Boyd Holbrook and Holt McCallany, “Run All Night” hits theaters on March 13th. Check out seven clips from the movie below.
