Run All Night

I didn't know much about Run All Night walking into it. I heard decent reviews, but knew nothing about the plot or the style. I mainly saw it because I wanted to see a passable action flick. Well, I'm actually very surprised to say that Run All Night is an excellent crime-thriller with great action and excellent directing!

THE GOOD:

+ The story is unpredictable and complex. I didn't expect this good of a story from a seemingly dumb action flick. There were twists all over the place and I didn't know what would happen next!

+ The performances were all excellent. Liam Neeson gives his (second) best performance that I've seen of him as a drunken, old and battered father. Ed Harris, Common and the rest of the supporting cast were great. The real surprise here is that Joel Kinnaman was incredible! I want to see more of this guy in the future.

+ The directing by Jaume Collet-Serra was phenomenal, with very well filmed action sequences and car chases all over. There were some landscape shots that had me saying "how'd he do that? " out loud!

+ The pace is fast and never gets boring.

+ The cinematography, editing and musical score were all great. I especially loved the somber lighting.

+ The writing is surprisingly tense and suspenseful, thanks to Brad Ingelsby's well written screenplay.

+ The movie is entertaining as hell and is a super fun time at the movies!

THE BAD:

- There were some clichéd plot-points that had me groaning. They were fairly rare, though.

- There were too many subplots and supporting characters. It got a little confusing at times.

- There was a celebrity cameo that just didn't fit at all.

Overall, Run All Night is one of the biggest surprises of 2015 so far! It is a fun, suspenseful action film with great characters and a good story! See it!

RATING: 8.5/10.