Run All Night

Although the “angry old action hero” phase of Liam Neeson's career initially held some promise, he quickly fell into a rut of dumb scripts and hack directors, and the effort level plummeted accordingly. There is nothing wrong with Neeson reinventing himself as a 21st-century Charles Bronson, it's just that he skipped directly from Death Wish-era Bronson to Death Wish V: The Face of Death-era Bronson without tackling any of the interesting stuff in between. Neeson reunites with Jaume Collet-Serra (he also directed Neeson in last year's terrible Non-Stop) for Run All Night, once again playing a seemingly washed-up alcoholic and deadbeat dad who secretly possesses a special set of skills, most of which revolve around the ancient art of wasting fools. With its taut action, relatively ambitious screenplay and a credibility-lending supporting turn from Ed Harris, Run All Night is actually a solid 97-minute thriller. Unfortunately, it runs 114 minutes. D.B.