LIAM NEESON & ED HARRIS IN 'RUN ALL NIGHT'

2015 rating: **

There’s a beginning to THE GODFATHER… a very large wedding. Then there’s the point where the movie really starts…

As soon as Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone refuses to bring drugs into the business, and his not very business-minded son questions the decision – the dam bursts. And in RUN ALL NIGHT, logical mob boss Shawn Maguire, played by Ed Harris, has his own reasons to… say no to drugs. The rejection puts his own instigating son in jeopardy… But not for long.

The plot is simple enough. Shawn keeps around his old friend Jimmy Conlon, a hitman with more hang-ups than bullets. In this role, Liam Neeson takes down-and-out to the extreme. Which only means he'll be that much more resilient when the tables turn. This happens when Maguire’s son Danny, who couldn’t be a bigger jerk, kills the guys who were gonna kill him. And Conlon’s son, a limo driver for the deceased, happens to be in the same vicinity. Long story short, Harris wants to kill our ragged hero’s boy as revenge for his own kid's death. And at this point, Action-genre Neeson comes alive... sort of.

Ironically, with such an energetic title, there’s hardly any pace at all. Despite the camera zooming in frantic beelines, taking us throughout New York City like a Heat-seeking missile, the suspenseful urgency on the ground is limited. Meanwhile, Mike, the son being protected, is so annoyingly reluctant to kick into gear that you’ll want to scream “Get over it already!” after the 100th time he gets his butt saved, and still complains about it. That’s an exaggeration, sure; but the perpetual mopey grudge against pop slows down an already weary vehicle. OVERALL RANK: Jedi, Rebel, Droid, Sith.