Critic’s Rating: 2.5 Star.

Cast: Liam Neeson, Joel Kinnaman, Ed Harris, Vincent D’Onoforio.

Direction: Jaume Collet-Serra.

Producer: Roy Lee, Michael Tadross, Brooklyn Weaver.

Written: Brad Ingelsby.

Genre: Action.

Duration: 114 Mins.

Liam Neeson plays Jimmy Conlon, a man “with a very particular set of skills” that he has acquired over a very long career which makes him a nightmare for anybody out to harm one of his own, never mind if he has ajourney of redemption ahead of him. This premise takes a leaf out of Taken while reminding you of the more impressive John Wick (at least when it came to the gun fights). The bottomline: you do not cross a man who can do whatever it takes to protect his family. Unfortunately his former boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris) is about to learn it the hard way.

Shawn may have a grudging tolerance for his son Danny (Boyd Holbrook) but it gets substituted by paternal vengeance when he takes a fatal bullet from Jimmy, who was only trying to protect his son Mike (Joel Kinnaman). Mike had been witness to a few murders he ought not to have seen. Jimmy’s intervention puts both of them on Shawn’s radar as well as the entire city’s police department, compelling them to live up to the title, even if there is not much running involved as much as moving from one place to another.

We know from the very outset that things are not going to end very well for Jimmy. The film opens with his flash of regrets, as he lies amidst leaves with a nasty torso wound and an empty shot gun by his side, before a flashback to 16 hours earlier when things are set to get ugly.

Run All Night has some serviceable action of sorts, but it has the stamp of a typical Liam Neeson movie. There are some interesting sequences like a dramatic car chase in the city, where it is fun to see a cop car getting chased instead of doing the pursuing. Rapper Common has a cool cameo as Price, an assassin for hire, but does not get fleshed out well enough. A few father-son moments and the final scene between Jimmy and Shawn take the cake, making you wish it was part of a better film.

A greater emphasis in the story seems not to be on the style quotient so much as the emotional content, which can be a bit of a drawback despite the tight script. It draws upon the conflict between a long-standing friendship and the instinct to avenge/protect your son, however deviant or estranged. There is a hint of Christian symbolism in a defining scene where Jimmy is a penitent, atoning for his transgressions.

It caters only to hardcore Liam Neeson fans. The film is better than Jaume Collet-Serra’s earlier outing Non Stop (another film where the hero is an alcoholic, weighed down by regrets) and makes the cut for watchability if you keep your expectations low.