Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Remember all those humorous aphorisms concerning Chuck Norris? You know, “Chuck Norris is so tough… yadda yadda yadda.” Well, if there’s a worthy contender to seize that crown of ultimate machismo from him, it would have to be Liam Neeson. Seriously, look at the guy’s rap sheet of action flicks in the last ten years, and you’ll see a body count that would rival that of the Black Plague. Yes, the man who was Oskar Schindler could now take on the Expendables all at once at still come out grinning. And his string of gritty action thrillers continues with Run All Night.

Neeson plays Jimmy Conlon, a man with deep ties to the New York Irish mob that go way back to his youthful days as a mafia hit man. Well into his 50s now, he’s a burned-out drunk trying to escape the sins of his past. Ed Harris is his longtime best friend and mob boss, Shawn Maguire. Both men have sons of similar age; one wants to be a ruthless crime boss like his dad, the other is a good and honest family man estranged from his own father. When life-threatening violence erupts between them, Conlon is forced to save his son’s life by killing the son of his best friend. The gauntlet is thrown down, and Maguire vows revenge on Conlon and his entire family. With an army of professional killers on his trail, Conlon wages open war in the New York streets to protect a son who wants nothing to do with him. It’s going to be a long night.

The HD picture sports a dark and deeply saturated color scheme, with solid blacks and golden pastel hues. Skintones are rich and consistent, with superb clarity and detail on the cracked and weathered faces of Neeson and Harris. The dirt, blood, and grime are palpable. The soundtrack is a rousing 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, and it will fill your speakers with gunshots, car crashes, explosions, and fistfights aplenty without overpowering the center-channel dialogue track. It’s an even and impressive mix on all fronts.

Extras are minimal: two short featurettes and a collection of deleted scenes. DVD and Digital Copy are included.

Run All Night features a tired formula that’s been done better in other films, but Neeson could sell ice to the Eskimos when it comes to kicking ass. And he does it so well that we never seem to tire of watching him do it. So move over, Chuck. Now there’s something meatier.

Blu-Ray
Studio: Warner Bros., 2015
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audio Format: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
Length: 114 mins.
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, Vincent D’Onofrio