Run All Night

First Hit:  The action is very strong, the acting is good and it’s hard to see older men attempt to move their bodies athletically.

Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) and Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris) have been lifelong friends. They've been criminals for most of their lives.

Shawn has been the brains while Jimmy has been the muscle. Although Shawn has no problem killing someone, it’s been Jimmy that has racked up the kills and they haunt him. He left his wife and boy early on because he did not think he would be a fit enough father to be around his son Michael (Joel Kinnaman).

Michael resents his father and has chosen a life that, although difficult, is honorable. Shawn, on the other hand, has a boy named Danny (Boyd Holbrook) who is partly in the family business but keeps screwing up. When Danny kills a couple of crooked Albanians, Mike gets caught up and Jimmy kills Danny. This splits Danny and Shawn’s close relationship and now they’re out to kill each other.

Neeson is very good at showing determination and completing his appointed task with no feelings. Harris was very strong as the guy who has pulled the strings for years. Kinnaman was excellent as the bitter son. Holbrook was also very good as Maguire’s son. Common as professional hit man Andrew Price, was great. Brad Ingelsby wrote a strong script and Jaume Collet-Serra did a great job of creating a mood of NYC in this Irish community.

Overall:  The story of redemption of a difficult life was well done.

Robocop

First Hit:  A good remake – this had more humanness.

Remakes are generally not as good as the original(s). This remake is clearly better. Mostly the characters are more clearly defined, the acting is better and the production value is far better. But what they really did was the adding humanness to Robocop.

Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) is hurt by a car bomb and there is little left of him. Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) owns a company that is pushing to make drones and robots the way crime is fought and dealt with in the US. Although these drones are used in the rest of the world, there is strong resistance in the US (Congress) to having drones manage our crime.

Dr. Dennett Norton (Gary Oldman) has an idea of combining a human (partial) and robotics to help make this transition. They choose Alex and using only his lungs, face, one arm, and brain, he builds robotics around him. Alex becomes a success after tinkering with his dopamine to make his more aggressive and less feeling oriented. His wife Clara (Abbie Cornish) and their son David (John Paul Ruttan) are distressed as they see their husband/father become less human and fight to see him.

Kinnaman was very good at being human, Robocop with some humanness, and Robocop with less humanness. Keaton was great to see again and as always he always seems to be on the edge of sanity – his mind is so quick. Oldman was very good as the doctor walking a fine line of integrity and doing things just for the money. Cornish was OK as the stressed wife who wanted her human, caring husband back. Joshua Zetumer and Edward Neumeier wrote a good script but it was the direction by Jose Padilha to use his actors to make this film work.

Overall: Someone finally got this film right – enjoyable.