Review: 'Run All Night' (2015)

Warner Bros.

Looking back at the string of Liam Neeson action genre based films that have been prevalent over the past half-decade or so, I can’t say that I have been all that trilled with any of them (the ones I have seen anyway) since 2009’s Taken. In this time frame, two of these films came from director Jaume Collet –Serra, as he teamed up with Neeson for Unknown and Non-Stop. With Run All Night, we find the director and actor together once again with results pleasantly different than before. Collet-Serra and Neeson, along with the rest of the cast, easily turn Run All Night into something that has a little more depth and substance than we are used to seeing from Neeson as of late.

This time around, the audience is introduced to Neeson as Jimmy Conlon, a former hit man for crime boss and life-long friend Shaun Maguire (Ed Harris), but an alcoholic, estranged father to his son and having to dress up as Santa Claus for a party Shaun is throwing as a source of income. Not many hours after this, Jimmy’s son Mike (Joel Kinnaman), a limo driver, and Shaun’s son Danny (Boyd Holbrook), a drug dealer, cross paths when Danny attempts to kill Mike after he wittiness him kill the men that were drove by Mike to Danny’s place because he owed money to them.

So what stops Danny from doing so? Neeson. Somehow, without any surprise though, Jimmy is at the right place at the right time and just before Danny is able to shoot Mike, Jimmy successfully does the same to Danny. Like any veteran killer would be, a cool, calm and collected Jimmy goes as far as to immediately call Shaun and tell them that he has just killed his son. This causes Shaun, and all the forces he has at his disposal, to go on the hunt for both Jimmy and Mike, looking for nothing less than the same thing Jimmy did to Danny.

From an action stand point, Run All Night is not much different than any other entry in Neeson’s recent action hero portfolio. Although it is far from a ‘shoot ‘em up’ style of action, the gunshots go way beyond countless, heavily occupying nearly every scene at some point and as it becomes clear that there is more here than just testosterone and bullets, the way these sequences are shot can cause for moments of frustration as awkward, camera close-ups and editing that is far too often too quick to switch frames. To go along with this, transitions from one scene to another or one part of New York to another, along with being unneeded, are hindered from poor CGI.

Although it has more going for it than the some of the editing, Brad Ingelsby’s script leaves some to be desired as well. It is saved by it’s intentions ultimately shining through and it’s dialogue is delivered but several decisions only cause for questions rather than satisfaction. A lot of this questioning is directed toward the purpose of certain characters. Common’s Mr. Price, a hitman hired by Shaun to kill Jimmy and Mike, is an underdeveloped character, causing for his involvement to always feel out of place and outside of getting half his face melted off, not all that amusing. To go along with this, due to his lack of purpose, why Shaun has a right hand man and even more pressing, why Bruce McGill is in the role doesn’t make much sense.

Where the script fails it’s audience the most though is it’s finale. Run All Night’s plot revolves around Jimmy and Shaun’s past and present relationship. So the climatic point of this arc should be the finale. Instead it only acts as a pre finale to the final scene. The final moments of the film feel a little farfetched but it is the final showdown between Jimmy and Shaun that fails to cap off what has been established and built up to that point. The lead up to this moment is solid, as it features somewhat meaningful encounters, whether on the phone or face to face, between the two but is concluded with just chasing each other and hiding behind trains while dodging bullets, lacking any type of needed dialogue that wraps up Neeson’s character arc and how it relates to Shaun.

Fortunately, these flaws are not severe enough to over shadow the work of the cast and Collet-Sierra. It is almost as if Collet-Sierra, realizing that the novelty of Neeson’s latest trend of the same type of roles he takes on is wearing off, saw something in Ingelby’s script and the character of Jimmy that would change things up a bit. Opposite of the Neeson’s past characters, Jimmy starts on the bottom and gradually grows stronger but not to the point that he is physically superior to his opponent. Jimmy’s character arc is one of redemption and attempting to make up for the past. And while there is plenty of fast pace moments, Neeson allows this arc to shine though with a delivery that is never rushed, giving it some weight and making it clear that he is beaten down by his mistakes and the scenario at hand, while tragic for several reasons, is a chance to make things better.

The rest of the cast, Harris and Kinnaman in particular, play well off of Neeson, also allowing things to develop naturally by never rushing things while buying in with their non-verbal delivery. To go along with the films performances, Boyd Holbrook turns in an entertaining performance even if only featured in the films set-up. It can’t go without mention though that, while these performances move the film along nicely and play a much larger role than Vincent D’Onofrio’s, it is his subtle but attention grabbing approach as Detective Harding that will have you wanting more of the character and D’Onofrio.

To call Run All Night an action flick would never be accurate, so looking for the typical Neeson, high-flying, action first type of movie, one is sure to be disappointed. This is a crime drama type of event with plenty of bullets and all though there are a handful of intense moments that could be considered action sequences, they are far from the films finer aspects. But this doesn’t mean Run All Night has nothing to offer, as it justify a viewing, maybe even a second, with it’s successful, redemption themed recalibrating of the Neeson vehicle that was starting to lose it’s allure

Grade: B-      

Review: 'Unfinished Business' (2015)

Twentieth Century Fox 

It’s appropriate that Vince Vaughn runs a marathon towards the end of Unfinished Business due to the way the movie quickly starts to feel like: a marathon. With just over an hour and a half running time, it would initially appear that a sprint would be a more appropriate comparison but it’s a long and somewhat tiring experience. Why? To put it simply, it’s not funny. Unfinished Business becomes difficult to get through as it clearly attempts to be a comedy, failing miserably though as it couldn’t be much farther from entertaining, ultimately just becoming a thrown together mess of a movie.

Unfinished Business begins with Dan Trunkman (Vince Vaughn) quitting his job after a heated altercation with his boss Chuck Portnoy (Sienna Miller) over pay cuts. After quitting though, he immediately declares that he is starting his own business. Of course this situation would not be complete if he didn’t pose the “Who’s coming with me?” question. And like the results of most of these scenarios that we see on screen, there are no takers.

It’s not until he gets out to the parking lot that that Tim McWinters (Tom Wilkinson), fired because of his age, and Mike Pancake (Dave Franco), not an employee but happens to be there for an unsuccessful job interview, agree to join Dan’s new found company. In no time at all, without the audience knowing it, it becomes one year later and Dan’s company, with his two employees, are closing in on a deal with a major company but must go to Portland to “shake on it”. Once in Portland though, the deal doesn’t appear to be just a shake away like Dan had thought, causing the trio to travel to Berlin and face off against his former employer as they are also attempting to make a deal.   

There isn’t much going on as far as the obstacles in the way of making this financially big deal, or it doesn’t seem like it anyway. Its made clear that Dan’s former company, lead by Sienna Millers character, is also trying to make the same deal with the same company but you wouldn’t know this from Millers involvement. The audience is led to believe from a couple of scenes in the films set up that Miller as Chuck will be the plots antagonist but after these scenes she is nearly absent for the remainder of the film. Even when she is around she isn’t given anything important or funny to do which is a shame because it’s a character that really could have been ruthless with a comedic spin (Kevin Spacey’s Horrible Bosses type of character) and it would have been nice to see what Miller could have done with it. Going along with this, James Marsden as Jim Spinch, a high up in the major company Dan is attempting to make the deal with, isn’t given much to do, making him easy to overlook. The only way the audience knows that Dan is struggling to close is the going back and forth between looking like a done deal and not, which is never done with any rhyme or reason.

The reason Dan is so desperate to make this deal is meant to add a sentimental storyline as he needs the money to send his kids to an expensive private school due to his son getting bullied but it never feels like an urgent problem and, like the pursuit of making the deal, it never becomes all that climatic. Of course, being bullied is an awful thing and is compelling due to the destruction it can cause, so if a plot is going to touch on it, than it should invoke some kind of feeling whether it is featured in a comedy or not. In this case though, it’s rather flat, never really proving that Dan’s son is being destroyed from bullying actions. Juggling work and family goes hand and hand with this dilemma as Dan is gone a lot for his job and could have worked with a bigger storyline given that it is basically the only aspect of the film that connects. Unfortunately though, it is only briefly touched upon, not given a chance to make much of an impact.

Motivation to complete this deal for Dan’s two employees is rather weak, or is presented weak anyway. Dave Franco’s character, Mike Pancake really has no financial reason for the deal to go through and is primarily here for comedic purposes as his lack of education and his innocence are constantly being poked at. With this, comes out dated, unearned and at times insensitive jokes that cause Franco to appear more annoyingly out of place than funny.

The reason Tom Wilkinson’s character needs the financial benefits from this deal is to pay for the divorce him and his wife are getting. A running joke with this scenario is Tim’s desire to be with other women which never evokes any laughter and just resulting in awkward, unneeded moments. As I mentioned earlier, Tim was fired for being too old which would have made a great storyline that could have involved Tim seeking revenge on his former company. It would also allow Wilkinson to go off a little but instead he is pinned down and way to reserve.       

As you can probably already tell, the main take away from Unfinished Business is how unfunny it is. Sure, the message is weak and underdeveloped but it wouldn’t be the first time that an all-out comedy wasn’t compelling. The case here is that it’s neither. Unfinished Business lacks any type of energy or cleverness that an all-out comedy demands. With humor attempts that involve penis’s coming out of walls, Pancake as a last name and pretending the screen has frozen when face timing, the feeling towards it all becomes an “I’ve seen a better version of this before” type.

When trying to convey how unfunny Unfinished business truly is, an example that comes to mind, when thinking about my experience in theaters this year, I would have to say that Foxcatcher wasn’t as quite inside as it was here. It’s bad enough that just a few people were there but when the few that are aren’t laughing, it becomes clear that this is a comedy that will be quickly forgotten, if acknowledged at all.

Grade: D-

Review: 'Focus' (2015)

Warner Bros.

It’s ironic that a film titled Focus fails to do just that. Sure, Focus features a few entertaining scenes and can never be categorized as terrible in really any moment of its running time but to call it a complete movie would not be fair. These moments of entertainment, while enjoyable, keep the story from ever being all that clear or important. As the characters in the film are constantly conning someone or each, Focus ultimately wants the biggest con to be on the audience, the problem is that, with all the twist and turns it tries to pull, it never pin points what it wants us to take away from it all.

There is nothing quick about Focus’s set up, as it is essentially the first half of the film. Because of this, the film features two stories that have little to do with each other, as if the audience is watching two episodes of a television program. The first episode or the first story, the pilot episode so to speak, not just introduces the characters and the world they inhabit but features a story in itself all while setting the future up.        

Focus begins with Nicky (Will Smith) and Jess (Margot Robbie) meeting through a con Jess is attempting on Nicky. Little does she know that Nicky, coming from generations of conmen, is a veteran conmen himself so he has no trouble sniffing out what she is trying to pull. He does however offer to give her a few tips on how to take from people without them knowing. She wants to be a part of something bigger though, so after an audition of sorts, Nicky and his partner Horst (Brennan Brown) agree add her to their crew of thieves in New Orleans for a major football championship.

The week leading up to game is when this group cons the large crowd of people, whether it be at casinos or even ATM’s. On the streets is where the pick pocketing techniques are performed, feeling repetitive as it is featured in a couple of previous scenes where Nicky and Jess are doing similar things. In fact, the film in general is quite repetitive in terms of dialogue and scene construction.

Focus’s set-up filled first half is also where we meet Farhad (Adrian Martinez). Referred to as a “400 pound Persian” at one point, the character Farhad, only really featured in the first half, is solely here for comic relief as his crude and uncomfortably sexual humor is aided by Martinez’s delivery and timing. He does however play a crucial part in a gambling scenario during the football game when Nicky has 1.2 million in a bet with a wealthy man by the name of Liyuan played by a delightfully over the top BD Wong.

This scenario, still apart of the films set-up, is basically a separate story before the films actual plot takes place, as it has absolutely nothing to do with what is to come. Even so, it is easily the most entertaining sequence of the film. It’s really the films only earned moment as the audience is led to believe with previous situations and moments that Nicky has a gambling problem so when he can’t walk away from a bet, the audience is forced to feel something towards the character and the moment.

One problem with this lead up, although entertaining and well-constructed, is that after it is revealed that Nicky really doesn’t have a gambling problem, the previous scenes that make the audience believe that Nicky has a gambling problem are somewhat discredited. Does he or does he not have a gambling problem? The film makes it appear that he does and he doesn’t? Maybe this is just me looking into in to it too much but the way this is handled is slightly puzzling. None the less, it’s still difficult not to find joy in this scene, with Smith, Robbie, Martinez and Wong all having a lot to do with that.

After all the this, the set-up abruptly closes with Nicky making it clear to Jess that they can’t get involved even though up to that moment, it appeared that they had started a relationship. Fast forwarding 3 years is where the actual films plot begins. Here we find Nicky in Buenos Aires working a con for racing team owner Rafael Garriga (Rodrigo Santoro) that involves him posing as engineer for a rival team owner by the name of McEwen (Robert Taylor) in order to cause them to lose races.

With this basic premise as a foundation, the second half of the film is about Nicky and Jess’s relationship after it is revealed that Jess is with Rafael. This is where everything slowly goes downhill. This focus on the relationship, as both are playing each other, becomes very repetitive, slowing the film down. We get it, you want to be with each other but you can’t express this because of the cons you are a part of. There is no reason to remind the audience of this with similar scene after scene. On top of this, it’s all taken a little too serious. It is made out to be this complex, engaging romance but just turns out to be a bore most of the time, leading me to believe that the second half should of kept the comedic approach that the set-up had, likely making for a more appropriate and enjoyable atmosphere.   

When it comes time to wrap the weak plot and over played romantic storyline up, Focus franticly tries to twist and turn its way to a fitting finale. In its final 10 minutes, the twist and turns are piled thick that not even it knows what it wants to be, causing for a sloppy, anti-climatic finale.

With all this said though, because Focus is a tale of two stories, the plot that is the set-up has a sleek, comedic way to it with actors being allowed to go over the top a bit to have fun with a light-hearted script, making it hard not to enjoy. Unfortunately, Focus becomes blurred with a nearly non-existent, sloppy plot and a weak romantic aspect, which makes it hard to remember what the first half had to offer.

Grade: C-