"Run All Night" Feels Awfully Familiar

Run All Night (2015)

Rated R

Starring Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, Joel Kinnaman, Boyd Holbrook, Vincent D'Onofrio

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

The Story:

Jimmy Conlon (Neeson) has a choice to make tonight. His son, Mike (Kinnaman) was about to be killed by Danny Maguire (Holbrook) so Conlon shot him and killed him. The problem? Maguire's dad, Shawn (Harris) is the mob boss that Jimmy works for. Shawn is now going to kill Mike first, and then Jimmy unless Jimmy can save them both and kill all of Maguire's men, and possibly Maguire himself, first.

It's going to be a long night!

And at almost 2 hours, it really is quite a long night.

The latest in the string of get Liam Neeson to play his Taken role and shoot the bad guys while escaping.

This one falls squarely between Non-Stop and A Walk Among the Tombstone, and behind Taken.

The movie crackles with Neeson or Harris, sadly the two barely share any screen time together, and again, after 90 minutes of watching Neeson dispatch anyone and everyone, the movie plays like a deja vu film reel versus something new and exciting.

Even D'Onofrio is mostly wasted as the cop who wants to arrest Jimmy, and has been trying for years but can never pin anything on him. He spends what little screen time he has 5 steps behind the action.

Pity.

 Final Grade: C- range.

We've Been "Taken 3" Times To See The Same Movie!

Taken 3 (2015)

Rated PG-13

Starring Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Famke Jannsen, Maggie Grace, Dougray Scott

Directed by Olivier Megaton

The Story:

Bryan Mills (Neeson) is back, and he's brought his special skill set with him. It's a good thing too, because this time his ex-wife (Jannsen) is murdered and Bryan has been framed. He's out to prove that he's innocent, regardless of what the head detective (Whitaker) believes.

Okay, first, nobody was actually taken in this film, which leads to a bit of a misleading title!
;)

Seriously though, if you've enjoyed the first 2 installments, you'll find closure on the trilogy here.

At least, I hope it was a trilogy, and Taken 4 is not being discussed.

My guess is, like the Transporter, there is no reason why the series won't receive a reboot brand makeover in the future.

I'm sure there are many former operatives that have their relatives stolen all the time, where are there stories?

That said, this film offers little in the way of anything you haven't seen already, and if you can't guess who is framing Bryan by, oh, about the 10 minute mark of the film, then congratulations, you've apparently never seen a movie before in your life.

:)

The new wrinkle is the addition of Whitaker as the cop who is tracking down a fugitive.

Except, his demeanor refuses to channel Tommy Lee Jones and seems mostly indifferent throughout the film.

It's paint by numbers execution, but I've mostly enjoyed my stay with Neeson in this franchise.

I do believe it's time that he break the mold though and do a comedy or a romance, or anything other than handle a weapon or kill something in his next movie.

Final Grade: B-

Never Take "A Walk Among The Tombstones" With Liam Neeson.

A Walk Among The Tombstones (2014)

Rated R

Starring Liam Neeson, Maurice Compte, David Harbour

Directed by Scott Frank

The Story:

Matt Scudder (Neeson) is a former cop turned private investigator after a tragic accident in his career. He is approached to take a case to find the men who murdered the wife of a drug dealer after taking her ransom. He passes, but when he learns that the man paid the ransom, and that they had already killed his wife, he begins to piece together that this is the M.O. in some other cases, and he realizes that if he wants to save the life of the next victim, he better spring into action.

If you want a man with a certain skill set to find and kill people, you hire Liam Neeson and let him do his job.

That is, after all, what he does pretty much since his role in Taken.

However, if it's not broken, and the audiences want to buy tickets for it, ride that horse until it won't go anymore!

At this point, you know how the story will play out, and again, that's fine for what it is.

Nothing awful.

Nothing spectacular.

You've seen it all before but Neeson hasn't worn out his welcome...

Yet.

I give this a C+

Someday "The Prince" Will Come. And You'll Be Disappointed.

The Prince (2014)

Rated R

Starring Jason Patric, Bruce Willis, John Cusack

Directed by Brian A. Miller

The Story:

The Prince (Patric) is an ex criminal who got out of the game years ago when he attempted to take out the big bad guy (Willis) and instead killed his daughter.  Now, with his daughter missing, The Prince takes to the streets of New Orleans to find and rescue his daughter by any means necessary.

Remember when you have a successful movie and then everyone wants to make their version of it?

The pitch goes something like, "It's Die Hard, on a... "

Well, here they must have pitched, we get the guy from Die Hard, and we'll do something like Taken!

Because that's what you have, a half-hearted attempt at a crime/suspense thriller.

It's been done, many times, many ways, before.

Sometimes by some of these very same actors.

Which, no offense to Patric, but he doesn't have the charisma of Liam Neeson to carry an entire movie based on his ability to kill anyone, anytime. 

Instead, this will just be another direct to DVD resume filler for most, while we await the next Die Hard, or Taken.

Now streaming on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: C-

Never Fly "Non-Stop" With Liam Neeson

Non-Stop (2014)

Rated PG-13

Starring Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore,

Directed by Jaume Collett-Serra

The Story:

Bill Marks (Neeson) is an Air Marshal. Boarding a flight to London, he begins to receive texts on his secure phone. If he doesn't pay a huge ransom, passengers will start being murdered every 20 minutes. As if on cue, the body count starts piling up, but on a flight full of red herrings and authorities on the ground thinking Marks has gone rogue, the odds are stacked against him.

First bad guys stole his family.

Now they've stolen his plane!

Wait, wrong movie franchise.

:)

Neeson has reinvigorated his career as the quiet, angry man who gets things done.

I've enjoyed both Taken films and found The Grey, well, to be less than spectacular.

This one is much more in line with the Taken franchise, along with every other action hero against the odds film ever made.

As the movie rolls along at a fairly quick pace, passengers are revealed as suspects, get cleared or wind up as victims at a rapid pace.  Soon, much like Neeson, you're wondering who really is the hijacker?

Then you begin to wonder...

Is Neeson suffering from split personality disorder?

Now the trick will be to see if they bring this back with a sequel?


Final Grade: C+

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Pretty good flick, but not a whole lot of replay factor in it once the mystery is solved.

The Month of September? Consider it..."Erased"

I thought I already wrote this review...yet it mysteriously vanished from my computer!

The Story:

Ben Logan (Aaron Eckhart) is living in Belgium, doing security work for a firm.  He's brought along his daughter, Amy (Liana Liberato).  The two are dysfunctional at best, as she resents having to leave her life in America to live with her dad.  Of course, she doesn't realize that her dad has some secrets up his sleeve that will reveal his past in the CIA.  Of course, when Ben stumbles upon what his employers are up to quite by accident, they erase his identity and send the assassins in to clean up the job.  Ben's going to have to save himself and his daughter in a foreign land.

Piece of cake.

Meh.

It's nothing you haven't seen before (Bourne... Taken...) and Eckhart is a serviceable leading man, who is also very believable as a securities expert who is also part deadly assassin when needed.

But the daughter... she is annoying and just drags the film down. 

The idea of the film is solid enough, heck, when they did it years ago with The Net starring Sandra Bullock, it was quite enjoyable.

When the Big Bad Agency erases your identity and makes life difficult, that's a pretty scary story already.

We don't really need an angsty whiney teenager pouting about why her dad knows how to kill people.

Gee kid, I just saved your life, you're welcome...

: /

Now available to stream instantly on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: C

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Serviceable movie, but nothing I'm in any need to see again.