Why So Blu?

Run All Night (Blu-ray Review)

Brooklyn mobster and prolific hit man Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeseon), once known as The Gravedigger, has seen better days. Longtime best friend of mob boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris), Jimmy, now 55, is haunted by the sins of his past – as well as a dogged police detective (Vincent D’Onofrio) who’s been one step behind Jimmy for 30 years.  

 

 

Film 

Liam Neeson is mobster hit man Jimmy “The Gravedigger” Conlon – the most feared hit man in New York but not the most respected by his peers or his estranged son. The only person that gives a crap about him is his best friend and New York crime lord Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). Shawn and Jimmy came up together and Jimmy’s vices got the best of him, so he became Shawn’s trusted hit man. Shawn basically shelters and feeds Jimmy when he can’t keep the heat and lights on at his own place. Let’s just say that Jimmy is a mess but he’s also got a certain set of skills.

On one fateful night Jimmy’s son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman), witnesses a drug deal gone bad perpetrated by Shawn’s son, Danny, and all hell breaks lose as Danny sets his sights on Mike. Mike’s not alone; because Jimmy will do everything he can to protect his son from Danny. Now I won’t go into explicit details or spoil it but if you have seen the trailers for the film then you’ll know things don’t end well for Danny and Jimmy and Shawn’s friendship is pretty much over. That being said – Shawn unleashes his dogs of war and enlists the help of a rival hit man played by Common to go and dispatch Jimmy and Mike from the world.

Yes, on the surface, Run All Night is a typical action film but beneath the surface you have a really cool dynamic between all of the characters involved. Some of the best scenes in the film don’t even involve the action parts. The scenes involving Liam Neeson and Ed Harris, first as friends then as enemies, are great. The film also reunites Liam Neeson and his Non-Stop director Jaume Collet-Sierra. The prior film had Neeson be the hero sky marshal saving a plane full of passengers. This time out you have a very flawed individual who is an admitted hit man and is estranged from his family. Never mind that the film is uber dark due to it taking place in the span of a day or two and mostly at night.

I enjoyed Run All Night due to it being a gritty urban-neo-noir flick with very little polish. The action is brutal and the story was satisfying enough and Liam Neeson being a sort of anti-hero does not bother me. In fact, Liam should be in more action or drama films where he does not play the infallible father-savior of the day. In any event, Run All Night was entertaining enough and I think more people can discover it on Blu-ray than they did when it was released in theaters. Blu-ray seems to give underrated films new life and I hope that it does so for Run All Night. Run and get it now!

 

Video 

Encoding: AVC/MPEG-4

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Clarity/Detail: Run All Night takes place at night in New York City and it never looked better. Contrast and sharpness levels are great and I did not notice any instances of boosting, aliasing, or compression problems.

Depth: The film definitely sleek with equal parts grime and the Blu-ray handles it in stride.

Black Levels: Being that the film was shot at night the black levels are excellent as are the low-lit interiors.

Color Reproduction: The color palette is muted but it gets colorful during some of the subway scenes at whatnot.

Flesh Tones: Everyone looks nice and tired, as they should from shooting all night long.

Noise/Artifacts: Noise, debris, and artifacts were not a problem.

 

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish

Dynamics: The lossless sound track for Run All Night is like a stocky bouncer at the club. He can take a hit but when it’s his time to dish out punishment you better watch out. Don’t let the cheesy metaphor fool you. This lossless soundtrack is great. It’s an action packed movie and the audio levels handle everything it gets thrown at it.

Low Frequency Extension: Run All Night has a booming LFE presence. Many weapons, car chases, and blunt force action utilize the low-end bass to great effect.

Surround Sound Presentation: The rear channels were very dynamic and handled the action more than adequately along with keeping the front and back sound stages from bleeding into each other.

Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue levels are natural and I did not notice any anomalies. Some of the dialogue can be rather salty but the center channel came through with flying colors.

 

 

Extras 

The special features included on the Blu-ray consist of: Deleted scenes, and two featurettes focusing Liam Neeson shooting the film and one focusing on the overall production and what everyone went through actually shooting at night. The deleted scenes round out the package and everything is presented in high definition.

• Shoot All Night (HD)

• Liam Neeson: Action All Night (HD)

• Deleted Scenes (HD)

• DVD

• Digital HD UltraViolet Copy

 

Summary 

 Run All Night was not a big success and if my theory serves me correctly – people don’t really care to see Liam Neeson as less than a hero. If he’s not saving airplanes or his family from terrorists then folks will not care. I think Run All Night and A Walk Among the Tombstones make for a great dark double feature. Run All Night looks and sounds great on Blu-ray but the special features are slim although the featurette had more detail than they usually do, so it’s not all bad. Run All Night is very much recommended.

 

 

Run All Night is now available on Blu-ray & DVD!

 

 

 

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