It's a better-than-average example of the genre. The genre itself is familiar: All the bad guys are after a couple of good guys. But this one has a bit of texture. We have a bit of sympathy for Ed Harris, the chief bad guy. Harris is a retired mobster, rejecting offers to get back into the dope trade, and he has a loving family. Really bourgeois, you know? His problem is that he has a loopy son who is half nuts and goes around shooting folks for the slightest of reasons, laughing as he pulls the trigger.
One innocent bystander on whom he tries to pull the trigger is the son of Liam Neeson. Neeson, an ex mob hit-man, is forced to kick the loopy son off his mortal coil in order to save his own son, Joel Kinnaman.
What adds some additional dimension to the story is that Ed Harris and Liam Neeson are childhood friends. They grew up together and were particeps criminis. Now Neeson has killed the son of his only friend, and Harris is devastated. He promises to kill not only Neeson but Neeson's innocent son. The police are no help. Half are criminals themselves. And Harris sics every bad guy he knows on Neeson, Neeson's son, and Neeson's son's family. The rest of the movie is one long pursuit through the night-time streets of New York City, so ablaze with lights and glitter that it might as well be daylight.
I won't bother to spell out the various chases and shoot outs, which can easily be imagined by any experienced viewer. The car chase is required, of course, and all the conventions are observed -- two speeding cars in lots of traffic, each trying to bump the other off the road, and each bump preceded by a shot of the driver's enraged sideways glance. If you enjoy high-speed pursuits, you might want to watch the movie that started it all, "Bullett."
The direction only rarely draws attention to itself. Aided by CGIs it zips backwards through tree branches without disturbing any leaves, which is a rather nice touch. Sometimes it zips a little too quickly from place to place, and it does so a little too often. Once, the camera twirls 720 degrees just to get inside a subway car. (That's 12.57 radians. Just out of curiosity, I had to look up degrees/radians and figured I might as well throw the results in.)
I kind of like Liam Neeson. He's a big hulking presence whose nose begins somewhere between his eyebrows. He's endearingly clumsy. Ed Harris is quite good as the aging, repressed gangster. The guy has considerable range, from presidential candidate ("Game Change") to raving lunatic ("Just Cause"). He's really an accomplished actor. I ought to mention Holt McCallany in a minor role as one of Harris' thugs. He looks like he could go either way, morally, and you can't take your eyes off the guy when he's on screen.
One innocent bystander on whom he tries to pull the trigger is the son of Liam Neeson. Neeson, an ex mob hit-man, is forced to kick the loopy son off his mortal coil in order to save his own son, Joel Kinnaman.
What adds some additional dimension to the story is that Ed Harris and Liam Neeson are childhood friends. They grew up together and were particeps criminis. Now Neeson has killed the son of his only friend, and Harris is devastated. He promises to kill not only Neeson but Neeson's innocent son. The police are no help. Half are criminals themselves. And Harris sics every bad guy he knows on Neeson, Neeson's son, and Neeson's son's family. The rest of the movie is one long pursuit through the night-time streets of New York City, so ablaze with lights and glitter that it might as well be daylight.
I won't bother to spell out the various chases and shoot outs, which can easily be imagined by any experienced viewer. The car chase is required, of course, and all the conventions are observed -- two speeding cars in lots of traffic, each trying to bump the other off the road, and each bump preceded by a shot of the driver's enraged sideways glance. If you enjoy high-speed pursuits, you might want to watch the movie that started it all, "Bullett."
The direction only rarely draws attention to itself. Aided by CGIs it zips backwards through tree branches without disturbing any leaves, which is a rather nice touch. Sometimes it zips a little too quickly from place to place, and it does so a little too often. Once, the camera twirls 720 degrees just to get inside a subway car. (That's 12.57 radians. Just out of curiosity, I had to look up degrees/radians and figured I might as well throw the results in.)
I kind of like Liam Neeson. He's a big hulking presence whose nose begins somewhere between his eyebrows. He's endearingly clumsy. Ed Harris is quite good as the aging, repressed gangster. The guy has considerable range, from presidential candidate ("Game Change") to raving lunatic ("Just Cause"). He's really an accomplished actor. I ought to mention Holt McCallany in a minor role as one of Harris' thugs. He looks like he could go either way, morally, and you can't take your eyes off the guy when he's on screen.