Run All Night

Seeing the cast of Ed Harris and Liam Neeson I knew I would eventually see this movie. It popped up on HBO and I was in. The movie follows Neeson's character "Jimmy", who was a hitman for Ed Harris' fledgling crime syndicate that is now the largest in the city, which I think is Boston or New York, I don't think they ever specifically say? Jimmy is an old drunk who does nothing with his life and Shawn Maguire (Harris) is the only person who cares about him anymore. Maguire's son Danny is trying to be a part of the family business, but instead just does a bunch of coke and is an idiot. He brings a deal to his dad where Russian's are going to send heroin to the ports he controls and he'll get a nice cut and a few million dollars up front. Shawn turns down the deal, his son freaks out and the Russians want revenge on Danny. The Russians randomly book Jimmy's son Mike, who drives limo, hates his dad, and trains children without father's to box in his spare time, so he'd be the "good guy" in this film. The Russians are shot by Danny, the last one in a side alley that Mike and one of the kids he trains to box see, and record on the kids phone. Danny then realizes he'll probably have to kill Mike, but he escapes, goes home, and his dad comes over to smooth things over. He hates his dad Jimmy, which they make apparent constantly, but realizing it's his best bet to stay alive, he listens. Danny, despite orders from his father to leave it alone, breaks in to kill Mike. Jimmy shoots Danny, and the movie finally starts to get more entertaining. Jimmy goes to war vs. Shawn Maguire and finally people start dying and this becomes a real film. Harris is underused, Neeson is solid, but unspectacular, I'm not a fan of Joel Kinnaman (new Robocop) who plays Mike. Story is one you've seen before, but it's still entertaining and done alright. Bottom Line: 6.2 out of 10. Nothing special here, but after the paragraph I wasted explaining the film you can fast forward, save 30 minutes and see the good parts finally.