run all night movie reviews

Run All Night

Ditching the twisting high concepts of works like “ Unknown ” (amnesia!) and “ Non-Stop ” (one flight!), action star Liam Neeson and director Jaume Collet-Serra have crafted their most satisfying work to date by sticking to a tried-and-true crime movie template, and allowing a talented cast and tight production values to be the only high concept they need. “Run All Night” isn’t perfect, but it’s surprisingly satisfying on its own terms, elevated by a better-than-average ensemble and some razor-sharp editing to cut through any nagging questions about the plot. More than he’s been allowed to do in either Collet-Serra vehicle before this one, Neeson gets to portray a real character here, a man who may have once had a particular set of skills but has seen then dulled by age, regret and whiskey. “Run All Night” is proof that quality action films don’t really need to reinvent the wheel each time out as long as they make it spin this smoothly.

Jimmy Conlon (Neeson) used to be a notorious mob enforcer. If he knocked on your door, you knew you were in trouble. Rumored to be behind over a dozen murders at the behest of the infamous Shawn Maguire ( Ed Harris ), Conlon doesn’t have much left to live for. He’s the guy who wakes up in the bar the next morning and just starts drinking again, forced to beg Shawn’s son Danny ( Boyd Holbrook ) for money and drunkenly play Santa Claus at the Maguire Christmas party. The man who once was feared is now openly mocked by a younger, tougher generation of bad guys. Jimmy also lost all touch with his son Mike ( Joel Kinnaman ), who is trying to live a straight life as a limo driver with his wife ( Genesis Rodriguez ) and two kids (with a third on the way).

The first act of “Run All Night” is really the arc of two sons—one trying to get away from the criminal underworld and one diving as deeply as possible into it. As Danny, the very talented Boyd Holbrook is all twitchy, nervous energy, the kind of dangerous sociopath who seems capable of doing whatever it takes to gain the respect of his father through criminal notoriety. To that end, he brings heroin into their world. Dad says no, but Albanian heroin dealers don’t like to be pushed out of a possible criminal enterprise. It just so happens that the dealers hire Mike to drive them to a meeting with Danny that goes horribly awry. Before you know it, Danny is dead, and Mike is a target of everybody in the criminal underworld, including a high-priced assassin played with effective cool by Common, and only his estranged dad can keep him safe till morning.

Neeson does arguably the best work of his action career here in that he captures a man who doesn’t just pop to life as a killing machine again but has the muscle memory to get the job done one last time. Jimmy may stumble through subway tunnels but he can still choke a man out and fire a perfect shot when he needs to. And the actor rises above the potential cliché of the criminal redemption arc in the way he doesn’t allow the potential melodrama to sink into his portrayal. His take on Jimmy is a man doing what needs to be done, not necessarily to right the wrongs of the past but because there’s nothing else he can do at this point. And watching Neeson and Harris in scenes together, especially a great, tense meeting in the middle of the piece, is a surprising joy. They’re both great here in that neither overplays the hero or villain archetype. Jimmy, the good guy, is a murderer, while Shawn, the bad guy, is emotionally mourning the loss of his child. They are far more complex than they would have been in the hands of other actors.

“Run All Night” is also subtly elevated by a top-notch team behind the camera, especially editor Craig McKay , a two-time Oscar nominee for “ Reds ” and “ The Silence of the Lambs .” For at least an hour, “Run All Night” hums—to be fair, there’s a bit of a sag in the middle and the entire piece runs too long at nearly two hours. But take note of the way McKay and Collet-Serra orchestrate a great sequence in a subway station, creating a rhythm between the cops trying to find Mike and the bad guys coming after Jimmy. Or look at the great car chase scene, which is shot in a bit too much close-up (as are a few of the fights), but has a visceral pace to it that makes it impossible to look away. Or watch one of the final sequences in a train yard and the way it perfectly fits together to build tension. There’s a tempo to “Run All Night” that really serves as the entertaining foundation of the whole film, and it’s what so many boring action films lack.

Some of “Run All Night” doesn’t make a lot of sense and I wished for a little more grit and a little less polish in some of its darker beats (although viewers should be warned that this piece doesn’t shy away from extreme violence at times). There’s also a fine line between entertainment and being a bit too on-the-nose when you choose to set a shoot-out in an Irish bar to The Pogues, but the film had won me over by that point. And that’s when you really know an action film has worked overall—when its flaws are beaten down like the guys who choose to cross Jimmy Conlon by what works.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

• Vincent D’Onofrio as Detective Harding
• Common as Mr. Price
• Holt McCallany as Frank
• Joel Kinnaman as Mike Conlon
• Ed Harris as Shawn Maguire
• Génesis Rodríguez as Gabrielle
• Boyd Holbrook as Danny Maguire
• Liam Neeson as Jimmy Conlon
• Brad Ingelsby
• Craig McKay
• Jaume Collet-Serra

Director of Photography

• Martin Ruhe

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Run All Night

Mobster and hit man Jimmy Conlon has one night to figure out where his loyalties lie: with his estranged son, Mike, whose life is in danger, or his longtime best friend, mob boss Shawn Magui... Read all Mobster and hit man Jimmy Conlon has one night to figure out where his loyalties lie: with his estranged son, Mike, whose life is in danger, or his longtime best friend, mob boss Shawn Maguire, who wants Mike to pay for the death of his own son. Mobster and hit man Jimmy Conlon has one night to figure out where his loyalties lie: with his estranged son, Mike, whose life is in danger, or his longtime best friend, mob boss Shawn Maguire, who wants Mike to pay for the death of his own son.

• Jaume Collet-Serra
• Brad Ingelsby
• Liam Neeson
• Joel Kinnaman
• 280 User reviews
• 266 Critic reviews
• 59 Metascore

Top cast 99+

• Jimmy Conlon

• Shawn Maguire

• Mike Conlon

• Detective John Harding

• Danny Maguire

• Gabriela Conlon

• Margaret Conlon

• Andrew Price

• Kenan Boyle

• Rose Maguire

• Detective Oscar Torres

• Victor Grezda
• (as Rasha Bukvic)

• Angela Banks

• Curtis 'Legs' Banks
• (as Aubrey Omari Joseph)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Listed among the cast when the film was in production, Nick Nolte had much of his material cut from the final release. As such, he is uncredited for his brief appearance.
• Goofs After the moment when Jimmy answers the phone while watching the Rangers - Devils ice hockey match, you can distinctly hear the squeaking of sneakers coming from the television to indicate that there is a match going on, but there are no sneakers in ice hockey.

Jimmy Conlon : I've done terrible things in my life. Things for which I can never be forgiven. I betrayed friends, turned my back on the ones closest to me. I've always known that my sins would eventually catch up to me. No sin goes unpunished in this life. Your life doesn't flash before your eyes when you are dying. That's bullshit. It's your regrets that haunt you in your final moments. Everything you've failed to be. Everyone you let down. Everything you'd go back and change, if only you had more time.

• Crazy credits The end credits have three title cards: at the beginning of the initial credits, at the end of the initial credits, and at the very end. Most films only have one or maybe two title cards in the end credits.
• Connections Featured in Run All Night: Shoot All Night (2015)
• Soundtracks Christmas Auld Lang Syne Written by Mann Curtis (as Curtis Mann) and Frank Military Performed by Bobby Darin Courtesy of The Bobby Darin Testamentary Trust

User reviews 280

• moviexclusive
• Mar 11, 2015
• How long is Run All Night? Powered by Alexa
• What is "Run All Night" about?
• I enjoy the sub-genre of films where Liam Neeson travels from A to B and destroys anyone who gets in his path with bad intentions. Is this a good example?
• March 13, 2015 (United States)
• United States
• The All Nighter
• Queens Hospital Center, Jamaica, Queens, New York City, New York, USA
• Warner Bros.
• RatPac-Dune Entertainment
• Vertigo Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $50,000,000 (estimated)
• $26,461,644
• $11,012,305
• Mar 15, 2015
• $71,661,644

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 54 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Run All Night Reviews

“Run All Night” is a fun crime thriller that jets along at a nice pace and keeps you entertained.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 25, 2022

The viewer anticipates every angle before it comes, making Run All Night seem tedious and overlong. Indeed, we’re just waiting for the things we know will happen to actually happen.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 21, 2022

Run All Night is an emotionally-rewarding, tense-as-can-be crime thriller that can be counted as an early 2015 treat.

Full Review | Feb 11, 2022

The efforts to examine Neeson's Irish guilt aren't nearly as interesting or well done as the action story.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 2, 2021

Neeson's character is a highly entertaining, levelheaded, cool-under-pressure persona that has yet to grow tiresome.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 4, 2020

"Run All Night" proves once again that you shouldn't mess with Liam Neeson's kids.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jul 6, 2020

Run All Night isn't perfect, but it is perfect at being what it's trying to be.

Full Review | Apr 9, 2020

At this point, there is just one Liam Neeson movie: Taken a Non-Stop Run All Night to Walk Among the Tombstones 3.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Jul 30, 2019

Run All Night is a fine, if flawed, addition to the ever-growing catalogue of "Neesploitation" films.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 14, 2019

When you've got a cast with this much on-screen mileage between them and a talented director with a confident style, it's kind of a can't-lose situation, though that's not to say Run All Night is a big winner.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10 | Mar 14, 2019

Director Jaume Collet-Serra, who has done several of Neeson's recent action movies, tries to spice it up with quick cuts and frenetic transitions, but it can't overcome a stale script.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jan 23, 2019

Run All Night is a mixed bag. It's worth watching, but be prepared for it to trip itself up in places.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Dec 19, 2018

Think of Run All Night as an average prime-time boxing match: two recognizable fighters, an elaborate venue, but not all that exciting fighting.

Full Review | Oct 10, 2018

There are only three things Neeson does: shoots people, telephones people urgently and smashes people's heads over urinals.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 15, 2018

In favor of Run All Night is the cast. [Full review in Spanish

Full Review | Jan 29, 2018

Just when the story gets interesting -- I am talking The Godfather-soap opera interesting -- it gets blown away.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 9, 2017

What's good about the movie starts to fall apart about two-thirds of the way in.

Full Review | Oct 17, 2017

We've seen enough Liam Neeson Revenge Man movies to know how they work and this one is particularly interchangeable with any of the others.

Even so, the movie has a certain grit as well as that odd badge of honor that means it delivers the goods. Just the scenes between Neeson and Harris are worth your time.

Full Review | Jun 27, 2017

A rather dour example of late Liam Neeson.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 14, 2016

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Review: In ‘Run All Night,’ Liam Neeson Sticks to What Works

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By Andy Webster

• March 12, 2015

Yes, “ Run All Night ” is another action film starring Liam Neeson, with a title as generic as you might expect. But the movie, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who directed Mr. Neeson in the efficient airborne thriller “ Non-Stop ,” has two saving graces: a tight script and terrific acting.

Mr. Neeson plays Jimmy Conlon, a longtime enforcer for the underworld boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). Jimmy — alcoholic and estranged from his son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman), a father of two who is determined to avoid his father’s career path — feels pangs of remorse after a life of violence. But when Shawn’s hotheaded son, Danny (Boyd Holbrook), tries to kill Mike, Jimmy bumps him off, as well as two crooked cops, and suddenly the New York Police Department and seemingly every hoodlum in the city, including his former friend and employer, are combing Manhattan and its environs on a manhunt.

But amid the brawls, shootouts and chases, the exquisitely matched Mr. Neeson and Mr. Harris share a layered, nuanced relationship. Also on point are Nick Nolte as Jimmy’s brother; Vincent D’Onofrio as a sympathetic detective; and Common as a high-tech hit man. Towering over all is Mr. Neeson, who combines a rough-hewed authority with a blazing emotional core. I won’t defend “ Taken 2 ,” but let’s face facts: Mr. Neeson is the best actor the action genre has had in decades.

“Run All Night” is rated R (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Bloody urban mayhem. Great performances.

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Movie Review: Run All Night (2015)

• Amy Bigmore
• Movie Reviews
• 6 responses
• --> March 14, 2015

Jaume Collet-Serra’s new action thriller Run All Night stars Liam Neeson as a once notorious hit man named Jimmy Conlon. Jimmy’s nickname was “The Gravedigger,” so you know just what kind of person we’re dealing with here. However, these days Jimmy is just a shadow of his former self, relying heavily on his long standing besties, mob boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris, “ Snowpiercer ”) and whisky. Haunted by the blood on his hands of all the people he’s killed, Jimmy drinks to forget.

Forgetting proves to be a tricky task though, as he has a real life conscience in the shape of a detective (Vincent D’Onofrio, “ Escape Plan ”) who’s desperate for a confession to the crimes he knows Jimmy’s committed but has no evidence for. Also, the absence of his estranged son Mike (Joel Kinnaman, “ RoboCop ”) serves as a constant reminder of his past indiscretions. All in all, he’s a lonely man.

But just when you think things can’t get any worse for Jimmy they do on one fateful night when Mike becomes a target of Shawn’s. It’s time for Jimmy to decide where his loyalties lie — with his mob family or his real one.

It won’t require an advanced degree in psychiatry to know which side he’ll take or what he’ll do once his decision has been made, but it could be useful in figuring out the polarity of the film because Run All Night is a film of two halves. In the one, you will find yourself impressed by surprise moments and the involved narrative thread running throughout which poses and tackles the question of “what constitutes a family?” In the other, well, you’ll be recoiling at the predictable plot points riddled with convenience and the multitude of cheesy lines (which Neeson looks like he almost can’t bring himself to utter).

But utter them he does. This is after all another “Neeson vehicle.” How to know for sure?

• Is it an action film with lots of gunplay and hand-to-hand justice delivery? Check.
• Does Liam give a speech with 100% confidence to his enemy informing them that he will be coming after them and that he will definitely win? Check.
• Does Neeson’s character possess a set of impressive fighting skills from a previous life which he is now forced to bring out of retirement? Check.
• Does he have to save one of his offspring? Check.

Unlike past films, such as “ Non-Stop ” and “ Taken ” (and its increasingly worse offspring), Run All Night has a bit more grit and determination to it. It’s an action packed ride with genuine thrills, but it simultaneously takes care to examine the many layers of fractured relationships between its characters of which there are many.

And while Liam is the obvious focal with the most fractures, he isn’t the most impressive. That honor gets bestowed upon sub-badass, Andrew Price (Common, “ The Odd Life of Timothy Green ”), who is also on Jimmy’s case. Andrew is a trained killer, whose movements are so smooth it’s as if he’s the next level up from the liquid metal terminator in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” And like said Terminator, he simply will not die — he’s got his eye on his target and nothing will get in the way of that. He’s a sign to the mob that times have changed.

With all this in mind, it’s clear that Collet-Serra has tried to get Run All Night to be taken more seriously than its familiar counterparts. He’s even opted to intercut urban “rap video” style bookmarks of the city in between scenes to avoid the typical formulaic ruts so many action films experience.

Nonetheless, there is no getting around the fact that we have already seen this base film several times before. To the efforts of all involved, however, they’ve done just enough to make it a better and more enjoyable version.

Tagged: hitman , mob , son , survival

Yes it is me. Were you expecting someone else?

Movie Review: Revolution: New Art for a New World (2016) Movie Review: Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) Movie Review: San Andreas (2015) Movie Review: Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014) Movie Review: The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013) Movie Review: The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015) Movie Review: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014)

'Movie Review: Run All Night (2015)' have 6 comments

March 14, 2015 @ 5:48 pm raised right

I’m done with Liam Neeson.

Log in to Reply

March 17, 2015 @ 6:20 am Imposter

No man is simply done with Neeson. Neeson tells you when he is done with you!

March 14, 2015 @ 6:13 pm bluntforcetrauma

love the checklist

March 14, 2015 @ 6:40 pm banjomoron

I like how Neeson has redefined himself. He’s a great action star and his movies always deliver. You can’t claim to not know what you’re going to get when you go through the door.

March 14, 2015 @ 7:29 pm night-time-owl

That fuckin’ Neeson at it again.

March 14, 2015 @ 11:53 pm SJF

For me it’s a rental all the way. I enjoy the action absurdity but I can’t justify the theater expense to enjoy it.

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‘Run All Night’ (2015) Movie Review

By Brad Brevet

Run All Night is the third outing for the now bonafide, 62-year-old action star Liam Neeson and director Jaume Collet-Serra . Previously you had Unknown or Non-Stop , and neither were exactly hits, though the latter’s attempt at Hitchcock was certainly the better of the two. In a weird way Run All Night tops them both, but manages to do so thanks largely to performances, having much less to do with Brad Ingelsby ‘s script as the reasoning for why the action takes place is rather ridiculous and each and every action sequence suffers some sort of set back, be it length or just a sheer lack of logic. The performances, however, allow the audience to overlook some of these issues, resulting in a movie that’s more entertaining than it deserves to be.

More than anything else, Run All Night is a tale of redemption. Neeson plays Jimmy Conlon, an ex-hitman who worked for aging mob boss ( Ed Harris ) for several years and has long since been retired from the job. He’s now a drunk and outsider with only Shawn looking after him, not even his own son, Mike ( Joel Kinnaman ), wants anything to do with him. Shawn’s son, Danny ( Boyd Holbrook ), is a bit of a letdown, looking to impress his father in ways he believes his father will appreciate, not understanding Shawn doesn’t want to see his son follow in his footsteps, hoping he’ll avoid a criminal way of life.

It’s this generational theme that pulses through Run All Night and the fuse is lit when Mike is witness to Danny killing two drug smugglers. Danny, attempting to clean up his mess against his father’s wishes, sets out to kill Mike, but Jimmy is there to stop him… with a bullet to the neck. Admitting what he did to Shawn, Shawn’s sympathy for Jimmy ends and he puts the order out for both Mike and Jimmy to be killed, Mike first so Jimmy can suffer. You know what that means right? It’s time for Mike and Jimmy to… run all night .

Told over the course of 16 hours, Collet-Serra utilizes some CG wizardry to bounce us around the city of New York, an idea I actually enjoyed as the camera goes airborne, moving us from one neighborhood to the next, but he gives up on the idea about a third of the way through the film. In his defense, it wasn’t necessary to the story, but I did enjoy the mild sense of immediacy it gave to each and every situation. But who needs immediacy when you have relentless action? Too bad from the time Jimmy and Mike put rubber to pavement, the action never hits any true high notes.

None of the action is particularly shot all that well. A car chase through the streets of New York City is ridiculously destructive. Yet, it’s only what happens after the chase that puts Mike and Jimmy in the police crosshairs, helping the audience forget they destroyed about fifteen New York City blocks in the process, something the film doesn’t even attempt to acknowledge. A later chase sequence in an apartment building goes on and on only to allow a ridiculously simply escape in the end, though it, admittedly, further emphasizes Jimmy’s path to redemption and this is where the heart of the film lies.

Jimmy’s shame and Mike’s anger toward his father fuel this movie, and both Neeson and Kinnaman elevate what is an otherwise C-level story into something worth watching. Ingelsby’s script, while overly convoluted with a setup that’s too simple and cliche, handles the moments between Jimmy and Mike very, very well. Collet-Serra also allows these scenes to resonate, a shift from the whiz-bang nature of everything else that takes place. Neeson exhibits true regret and it’s a film where you can understand why Mike would actually forgive the father he’s hated all these years. That’s tough to do, because it doesn’t get much more cliche than that, especially in films largely geared toward “action first”.

Overall, the flaws are noticeable, there’s nothing overly impressive from a story perspective and the action isn’t anything memorable. Common as a Terminator-esque hitman is silly and his monstrous motivations go entirely unexplained and yet we must accept he’s the big boss at the end of a story that is really nothing more than just another video game come to life. These facts taken into consideration, I can’t say I wasn’t entertained, the glue holding it all together being the performances and what are rather well-written quieter moments. Hell, even the silly sit down between Shawn and Jimmy worked, particularly the punch Jimmy delivers one of Shawn’s goons at the end.

Run All Night isn’t a movie you need to see in theaters or necessarily a movie you need to see at all, but I think if you do see it, you’ll enjoy some of these moments and, in the end, feel satisfied with what you saw.

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Run All Night review

Liam Neeson plays a former hitman in the action thriller, Run All Night. Here's our verdict. Spoiler: it's a lot better than Taken 3.

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Since the unexpectedly huge success of Taken in 2008, Liam Neeson’s managed to turn himself into a one-man action movie industry. Run All Night sees him reunite for a third time with French director Jaume Collet-Serra ( Unknown, Non-Stop ), and the result is an action thriller that gives Neeson’s acting skills a decent workout as well as his trigger finger.

It’s familiar stuff for late-career Neeson at first glance: he plays alcoholic, retired Irish hitman Jimmy “The Grave Digger” Conlon, estranged from his fully-grown son Michael (the RoboCop remake’s Joel Kinnaman) but still friendly with his old mob boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). Jimmy’s suffering through a thoroughly miserable Christmas in New York – even demeaning himself by playing a particularly bad Santa at a gangsters’ festive party – when the actions of Shawn’s hot-headed son Danny (Boyd Holbrook) land everyone in a world of pain.

A couple of shoot-outs later, and Jimmy and Michael are on the wrong side of both Maguire and the cops, led by Detective John Harding (Vincent D’Onofrio), who’s been looking to bring Jimmy to book for years. A dogged pursuit across New York ensues, taking in assorted gun fights, car chases and even a couple of good explosions.

The plot’s fairly by-the-numbers, with bits of Heat, Carlito’s Way, 48 Hrs., State Of Grace  and even The Terminator all thrown into the mix. What distinguishes Run All Night is its pace, economical writing (courtesy of Brad Ingelsby, who wrote the maudlin drama Out Of The Furnace ) and the pedigree of its cast. Collet-Serra keeps things motoring along at a decent clip, allowing his characters time to ponder, plot and brood before flinging them into another crisis.

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Neeson, often short-changed by the cast in his recent action thrillers, is partnered with some great actors here. Ed Harris, like Neeson, gives good gruff phone call, and some of the best scenes involve these two; it’s entertaining to watch the pair’s relationship change from respect and friendship to white-knuckled animosity.

In an alternate dimension, Run All Night could have simply been a crime drama solely about Neeson and Harris’s characters; a pair of ageing hoodlums who’ve watched New York changed from a scuzzy gangland to a gentrified playground for the rich. Elements of that film still linger, and they’re pleasing to watch, but they’re soon swept aside as the body count rises and the bullets fly.

On the subject of flying, the director’s added an annoying stylistic tic here, where the camera flaps from location to location like a cross between The Matrix ’s bullet time effect and the first-person vampire bat shots from Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys. These distractions aside – which will almost certainly date the film quite quickly – Collet-Serra attacks his action sequences with real brio. Sure, they take in all the staples of the action genre circa 1987, but they get by thanks to their energy and some teeth-rattling sound design. (Anyone disappointed with the way the Taken franchise has gone, with its neutered 12A violence in UK cinemas, will also be heartened by Run All Night’ s unvarnished mayhem.)

After the disposable Taken 3, in which Neeson and even the cameramen seemed bored enough to keel over and die mid-shot, Run All Night feels urgent and positively fresh by comparison. Neeson isn’t alone in his gun-waving antics, either; Joel Kinnaman’s perfectly effective as the younger son, tough in his own way (he’s an ex-boxer as well as chauffeur) but less handy with a pistol than his father. And while the difficult father-son relationship is hackneyed stuff (who doesn’t have parental issues in movies these days?) both Kinnaman and Neeson sell it better than most.

The lingering question raised by Run All Night, perhaps, is where does Neeson go from here? This is the second time in a row he’s played an alcoholic (he was hitting the bottle pretty hard in both Non-Stop and A Walk Among The Tombstones ), and the umpteenth time he’s played an ex-something-or-other: ex-hitman, ex-CIA operative, ex-detective. Then again, Steven Seagal’s still plugging away on the same purgatorial treadmill in the realm of straight-to-DVD fare, and Neeson’s films are clearly a cut or two above those.

By no means a genre classic, Run All Night is nevertheless a superior showcase for Neeson’s abilities. It’s easy to overlook how good he is at being both a tough guy and an actor with real presence; he’s less Seagal and more Gary Cooper or John Wayne. Run All Night, familiar though its encounters are, presents Neeson at his best – playing the ageing warrior who winces from his wounds, but carries on regardless – while also surrounding him with actors of a suitable calibre. Nick Nolte even shows up to growl through a big hipster beard for one scene, which is a pleasant surprise.

Ultimately, Run All Night feels like one of those films that could have started as a spec script, back when Hollywood was snapping those kinds of things up in the 80s: compact, perhaps a little too tidy, but solidly entertaining. And as unreconstructed action stars go, they don’t come much more charismatic or watchable than Neeson.

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Ryan Lambie

Run All Night Review

13 Mar 2015

114 minutes

Run All Night

Jaume Collet-Serra and Liam Neeson - the Costcutter Scorsese and De Niro - return for their third outing, following Unknown and Non-Stop, but anyone worried Neeson is simply making the same movie over and over again should put their minds at rest. For one thing, he’s wearing a completely different coat. For another, his stumbling drunk Mob enforcer is, thankfully, not a retread of Taken’s Bryan Mills, but a more interesting and flawed character. And for the first hour or so, this thinly-veiled, virtually beat-for-beat remake of Road To Perdition (seriously, it’s beat by beat) is fine, with a decent down-and-dirty tone and meaty scenes for Neeson and Harris. Then Common wanders in from a completely different movie as an unstoppable hitman, and the movie doesn’t so much stop running as slam straight into a wall.

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Run All Night (United States, 2015)

Liam Neeson action thrillers come in two categories: the straightforward variety that transform him into a superhuman force of nature and those that are grittier and a little more respectful of an adult audience's intelligence. Considering the way the winds blow at the box office, there are understandably more of the former than the latter; at least Run All Night can be said to add one title to the more serious side of Neeson's ledger. There's plenty of action in director Jaume Collet-Serra's third collaboration with the Irish actor (not to mention a high body count) but the subtext is about regret and the difficulty of redemption in the face of certain sins. The trailers make Run All Night look like a fast-paced shoot-'em-up and, although those elements are present, this is a darker and grimmer experience.

There was a time when gangster films regularly romanticized the mob lifestyle but there has been a shift in recent years to looking through a darker lens. Jimmy is a damaged man who regrets almost everything in his life. He drinks to forget and goes home to an empty apartment. We learn that his abandonment of Michael was done out of love because he believed his continued presence in his son's life would lead to corruption. What Michael sees as neglect and rejection, Jimmy sees as perhaps the only selfless thing he has ever done. This disparity forms the basis for a relationship that doesn't follow the usual "broken father/son" arc we normally encounter in films of this sort. The Jimmy/Shawn friendship is equally complex - two old buddies who have been through the wars together and whose shared history makes them closer than brothers but who cannot surmount the single tragedy that sets events in motion.

The screenplay isn't airtight. The story hinges on an improbable coincidence but viewers who don't have a problem with that (Michael being the limo driver for the two drug dealers executed by Danny) won't blink at the smaller contrivances that crop up during the course of the narrative. One could question the decision to employ a wrap-around structure that steals away suspense. There are also times when Collet-Serra bends knee to staples of the genre, such as Neeson in a lengthy physical fight where he takes the kind of pounding only a superhero could absorb. Those are relatively minor quibbles, however. Run All Night is a taut, edgy affair that features Neeson in peak action form and allows him to partially atone for the indignity of Taken 3 .

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• DVD & Streaming

Run All Night

• Action/Adventure , Drama

Content Caution

In Theaters

• March 13, 2015
• Liam Neeson as Jimmy Conlon; Ed Harris as Shawn Maguire; Joel Kinnaman as Mike Conlon; Boyd Holbrook as Danny Maguire; Common as Andrew Price; Genesis Rodriguez as Gabriela Conlon; Vincent D'Onofrio as Detective Harding

Home Release Date

• June 16, 2015
• Jaume Collet-Serra

Distributor

• Warner Bros.

Movie Review

The number of world-weary former hit men is apparently approaching 23% of the general population these days. Jimmy Conlon is one of them, known on the streets as the Gravedigger. And in spite of the fact that he now does nearly everything humanly possible to drink himself into oblivion on a daily basis, he’s still plagued by the names, the grieving families and the bloody faces of all the men he’s made a mess of. No matter how staggering and stupid he gets, he still can’t handle the heavy, heavy cost of his dirty deeds done cheap.

It was childhood chum Shawn Maguire who called all those shots and assigned all those hits. And he clearly understands the pain his friend feels. Back as kids, when they hit the streets together, they did what they thought they had to do. But it was loyal Jimmy on the front lines. His were the bloody hands that dealt with foe and friend. “Don’t you worry,” Shawn told his pal. “When the final day comes, we’re goin’ in together, me and you.”

But that’s not going to be the way it plays out.

In spite of their lifelong love, blood, as they say, is thicker than water. When Shawn’s hothead boy, Danny, defies his dad and makes completely foolish choices that threaten Jimmy’s boy, Mike, Jimmy has to step in. He may be a drunk, but seeing a maniac move to kill his only kid sobers him up in a hurry.

The old instincts start kicking in, and his trigger finger starts feeling itchy. Next thing you know, Shawn’s son is lying in a pool of his own blood.

A man like Jimmy knows what this means, of course. It’s not just his skin in this one. His son has a pregnant wife and a couple of kids already. Sadly, Jimmy doesn’t know any of them; his own choices pushed them all out of his life long ago. But he knows they’ll all be dead by morning unless he does what only a man like him knows how to do.

There’s no street-forged loyalty any longer. No explaining or reason. There’s just one night to steady a shaking hand and stay clear-eyed enough to save someone worth saving. And kill someone who needs killing.

Positive Elements

Jimmy’s life is a mess and has been for a long time. But we learn that at least some of his past choices were made in an effort to insulate his beloved son from the family business, you might say. Jimmy repeatedly moves to keep Mike from taking a life and becoming “no better than me.” In fact, as Jimmy spends the night protecting Mike and his loved ones—in the full and sure knowledge that his actions with result in his own death—it draws the estranged father and son together.

Mike’s wife introduces Jimmy to his grandkids for the first time, giving the man at least a thin thread of connection to the family he longed for but knew he would never have.

Detective Harding asks Jimmy for a full list of the people he’s killed over the years so that, if nothing else, their families might get long-needed closure. Jimmy eventually gives him that list. Mike works with underprivileged kids in a boxing gym, and we see him take one youngster under his wing and encourage him to make wise choices.

Spiritual Elements

Jimmy points out that he always knew the horridness of his life would eventually catch up with him. “No sin goes unpunished in this life,” he tells us. We see a cross hanging on the hit man’s living room wall and another imprinted on a Catholic hospital’s stationary.

Sexual & romantic Content

Jimmy crudely jokes about his sexual size and prowess. A drug kingpin orders up some specifically “gifted” prostitutes.

Violent Content

This film’s title may suggest a night full of breathless running, but it’s really more a dark stretch of brutal assault and certain death. Jimmy and his son are pounded and bloodied in brawls, car chases and gunfights. Both are smeared with increasing amounts of crimson as the night rolls on. Jimmy ends up with at least three bullets in him, one of which leaves a gruesome-looking hole in his shoulder.

Jimmy’s aim may be a little shaky at first, but before the sun rises he’s back in “fine” hit man form, clearing a tavern full of thugs with pinpoint blasts to the head and face, and grabbing a rifle to send slugs through distant blood-spewing targets. A shot he delivers to someone’s throat leaves the man gurgling and bleeding out.

Another hit man eventually joins the massacre march, and his targets most often are unsuspecting cops; bullets and knives find their marks in backs, throats and heads. A man is choked to death with a towel. Another is stabbed repeatedly with a switchblade. Somebody gets a broken bottle neck jammed into his leg. A guy’s face is seared as he’s pushed against a burning wall.

And the vicious eviscerations and crazy contusions just continue and continue and continue.

Crude or Profane Language

More than 20 f-words and 15 s-words. Handfuls of uses of “a–,” “b–ch” and “h–.” Jesus’ name is misused four or five times; God’s is combined with “d–n” about that same number.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Jimmy is drunk when we meet him, and it’s clear he’s been doing that to himself for a while now. We also see other mob figures, including Shawn, drink booze at a Christmas party and to combat stress. Shawn’s son mixes his alcohol with snorts of cocaine, and he tries to set up a drug deal with a heroin kingpin. Various characters smoke cigarettes.

Other noteworthy Elements

The good guys? The cops? Well, all but one are on the take in this dark city. We see several receiving their “Christmas” bribes from the mob. Two falsely accuse Mike of murder. Jimmy steals a car and makes racist comments.

Though he’s actually been quite prolific and varied in his film roles over the last handful of years, most of Liam Neeson’s higher profile characters have been guys who get good at dusting off their deadly skills while running around killing baddies just slightly “badder” than they.

The excessive drinking and the weariness we see this time around certainly speaks to the true wages of wet work (the deadly deeds hit men do). And the father-son relationship is redemptive. But we’ve worn this same sweaty coat, been pummeled with these same obscene words, chugged these same glasses of scotch and splattered the contents of these same thuggish noggins with this same broken-nosed Irishman far too many times now for any of it to mean anything more than murder, mayhem and madness.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Movie Review: 'Run All Night' Starring Liam Neeson and Ed Harris

Read the ABC News review of the film, starring Liam Neeson and Ed Harris.

— -- Starring Liam Neeson , Ed Harris , Joel Kinnaman, Boyd Holbrook

Four out of five stars

Jimmy (Liam Neeson) and Shawn (Ed Harris) grew up together in New York City, idolizing the local gangsters. Jimmy became a hit man while Shawn became the boss. These two are so tight, that when Jimmy is forced to kill Shawn’s son, Danny (Boyd Holbrook), because Danny tries to kill Jimmy’s son, Michael (Joel Kinnaman), Jimmy takes Danny’s mobile phone off his dead body and calls Shawn with it to tell him the news.

See, Danny’s a hothead who made an unauthorized drug deal with some Armenians . Instead of paying them in cash, he paid them with bullets. Then, in the kind of convenient coincidence you find only in movies, Michael witnesses Danny shooting one the Armenians (maybe it was two -- it was dark) because Michael is the Armenians’ limo driver.

By the way, Michael also hates his dad Jimmy, and hasn’t seen or spoken to him in years. So even though Michael knows his life is in danger, when Jimmy shows up at his house to protect him, Michael kicks him out. Good thing Jimmy decided to have a smoke in front of the house, because Danny’s father Shawn shows up and has a sit-down with Jimmy, who asks him to have mercy on his boy, even offering his own in exchange for Michael’s.

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Movie review: 'the second best exotic marigold hotel', movie review: 'focus' starring will smith and margot robbie.

If you’ve seen the "Run All Night" trailer, you know how that goes over with Shawn.

“I’m coming after your boy with everything I’ve got,” Shawn tells Jimmy with eerie calm.

That scene, anchored by the brilliant Ed Harris, instantly elevates the entire film and serves as an entry point into a chain of unlikely events that couldn’t possibly happen in real life. But here we’re going to buy it, because Harris’ presence balances out Neeson’s recent, relentless pursuit to apparently play the exact same character for the rest of his life, though this one has just a little more depth than usual.

Jimmy exits the restaurant with Shawn’s goons in hot pursuit and spends the rest of the movie trying to protect Michael and his family.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra, Neeson’s collaborator for "Non-Stop" and "Unknown," keeps every scene feeling dirty and dangerous. Each chase scene, whether in a car or on foot, is intense. Even the finale is terrific, and rapper Common makes for an excellent and unrecognizable hi-tech hit man in pursuit of Jimmy and son.

The script also makes no apologies for Jimmy’s past behavior, which involves killing at least 17 men for Shawn. While Jimmy might be feeling a bit guilty, it’s not necessarily because he destroyed the lives of strangers, but because of the damage he did to his relationship with Michael in the process.

"Run All Night" starts out as a seemingly predictable, formulaic affair, but in the end it’s a heart-pounding thriller.

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Run all night.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 5 Reviews
• Kids Say 10 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Interesting characters in violent, choppy action thriller.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Run All Night is a revenge-driven action thriller starring Liam Neeson. The main character struggles with his past as a hit man and tries to find redemption, and his son tries not to follow in his father's footsteps by being a good father to his own children. But there's a…

Why Age 17+?

Extremely strong, frequent language includes "f--k," "motherf----r," "s--t," "bu

Very high body count; many characters are shot and killed, with gore/blood splat

A main character is shown drunk and passed out in a bar. He's also drunk while p

Innuendoes aren't frequent but are very strong.

Applebee's and Google Maps are mentioned.

Any Positive Content?

Themes include both revenge and finally accepting the consequences for your acti

Mike is a good guy trying to go straight and doing the best he can for his famil

Extremely strong, frequent language includes "f--k," "motherf----r," "s--t," "bulls--t," "t-ts," "a--hole," "ass," and "Jesus Christ" (as an exclamation).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Very high body count; many characters are shot and killed, with gore/blood splatters. Lots of fighting, punching, pounding, bashing, stabbing. A character's face is burned in a fire. Cops threaten a man with guns. Fire, explosions, car chases, and car crashes. A violent boxing match in gym.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A main character is shown drunk and passed out in a bar. He's also drunk while playing Santa (upsetting some children). The main character smokes cigarettes regularly. A minor character snorts cocaine. A packet of heroin is shown. Minor characters are drug dealers. A reference (in a song) to smoking pot. Some scenes of social drinking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Positive messages.

Themes include both revenge and finally accepting the consequences for your actions. A son tries to make up for his father's wrongs by being a good dad to his own kids and a mentor to others.

Positive Role Models

Mike is a good guy trying to go straight and doing the best he can for his family. He's shown being a good father, avoiding the mafia, and mentoring a fatherless boy at a local gym. But the main character has spent his life doing wrong, killing people, and even killing people who trust him. He suffers and gets drunk but finally has the chance to face the consequences for his actions -- and he steps up. He also refuses to let his son follow the same path. Other characters are bent on violent revenge.

Parents need to know that Run All Night is a revenge-driven action thriller starring Liam Neeson . The main character struggles with his past as a hit man and tries to find redemption, and his son tries not to follow in his father's footsteps by being a good father to his own children. But there's a high body count and tons of violence, with shooting, fighting, stabbing, bloody wounds, and blood spatters. There are also fires (a character's face is burned), explosions, car chases, and car crashes. Extremely strong, frequent language includes "f--k," "s--t," and much more; there's also some very strong (albeit occasional) innuendo. Minor characters are drug dealers and are seen snorting cocaine. A packet of heroin is also shown, and pot is referenced. The main character is often shown drunk, but he stops drinking while on the run. Messages of actions and consequences play into the story, which could provide some discussion for older teens. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (5)
• Kids say (10)

Based on 5 parent reviews

Don't mess with Liam neeson

What's the story.

Jimmy Conlon ( Liam Neeson ) is an aging hit man who struggles with money and booze, even though he still has the respect of his childhood friend, successful gangster Shawn Maguire ( Ed Harris ). Jimmy's son, Mike ( Joel Kinnaman ), has a family, works a legitimate job, and even mentors kids at a local boxing gym, but he wants nothing to do with Jimmy. Then Mike finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when he witnesses Shawn's loose-cannon son, Danny ( Boyd Holbrook ), killing some dangerous thugs. Danny turns his gun on Mike, but Jimmy saves Mike by shooting Danny. Unfortunately, everyone thinks Mike is to blame, so Shawn's gang, a contract killer ( Common ), and the cops all chase after both father and son over the course of one long night.

Is It Any Good?

Director Jaume Collet-Serra , who's made two other Liam Neeson movies -- Unknown (2011) and Non-Stop (2014) -- isn't exactly subtle, and his movies can't quite be called tightly crafted or clever. He's not a master of action scenes, and the chases and shootouts in RUN ALL NIGHT are fairly choppy and without a good sense of space. But what he does have is the knowledge of just how to use Neeson in an action thriller.

Collet-Serra understands the appeal of older, stoic Irish actor -- and what he brings to the screen that a chiseled twentysomething does not. Collet-Serra creates the movie's finest moments in the humanity of the character interactions, creating a space where all of the primary players grew up together in the same New York neighborhood and are prone to talking or joking before trying to kill one another. The scenes with Neeson and Harris especially resonate with the weight of an unspoken bond that goes back long before the story started.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Run All Night 's violence . How did it affect you? Does it enhance or detract from the story? How does it compare to what you might see in a horror movie? Which has more impact? Why?

Why do you think Neeson's character is shown drinking so much in the beginning of the story? What does it say about him that he's able to stop in the second part of the story? Do you think that was intended to send a particular message?

Revenge is key motivator in the movie. Do you think revenge is ever justified? What are other ways to deal with anger?

The main character decides to disappear from his son's life, rather than stay and be a poor role model. Do you agree with his choice?

One character mentors a kid by teaching him how to box. Does this seem like a positive or a negative act?

Movie Details

• In theaters : March 13, 2015
• On DVD or streaming : June 16, 2015
• Cast : Liam Neeson , Ed Harris , Joel Kinnaman
• Director : Jaume Collet-Serra
• Studio : Warner Bros.
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Run time : 114 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : strong violence, language including sexual references, and some drug use
• Last updated : July 27, 2023

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Description by Wikipedia

Run All Night is a 2015 American action crime thriller film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by Brad Ingelsby. The film stars Liam Neeson, Joel Kinnaman, Common and Ed Harris, and was released on March 13, 2015.

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• ‘Saturday Night’ Review: Jason Reitman’s Zany, Brilliant And Outrageously Funny Ode To ‘SNL’s Opening Night Hits The Comic Bull’s Eye – Telluride Film Festival

By Pete Hammond

Pete Hammond

Awards Columnist/Chief Film Critic

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A top director once told me 90% of the success of his movies is casting. If you get that right, you are on your way.

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Minutes before showtime it appeared it would not fly and nothing was going right, even to the point of Michaels getting accidentally sprayed with red paint from a machine that had not been operating properly. The decision to go live was still in doubt just 10 minutes before when Tebet, fully doubting Michaels, says, “Show me Saturday Night.” Your pulse will be pounding watching this remarkable scene take hold.

Remarkably, there is such a wealth of pure gold comic situations inherent in this idea that Saturday Night becomes an even better movie than all of the comedies that were spawned by the talent honed on SNL (many produced by Michaels himself). Before its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on Saturday night (of course), Reitman said his two dreams were to be a director and to write on SNL. Here he has merged both with a treasure trove of material that has been hiding in plain sight over the past half century but now has been turned into the funniest film of 2024, no easy trick since making a movie about making comedy is full of landmines. This crew doesn’t step on any of them.

Of course it is also that casting that makes the difference in buying into this at all, so many of the actors asked to play such recognizable stars, and they all hit it out of the park. Anchoring it all is LaBelle’s Michaels, and he hits the perfect tone throughout surrounded by nightmarish events that threaten to blow his dream to smithereens. Other standouts in a cast full of them are Cory Michael Smith’s spot-on Chevy Chase; Lamorne Morris’s Garrett Morris (no relation), who gets a choice scene doing a musical warm-up number; Matt Wood’s John Belushi, playing a comic genius on the edge; Nicholas Braun ‘s twin roles of Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman; Tommy Dewey’s cutting Michael O’Donoghue, a key creative component of the early SNL; and a chilling, pitch-perfect J.K. Simmons as ’50s NBC Variety kingpin Milton Berle, a perfect juxtaposition to NBC’s comedy past just as he stops by NBC’s about-to-be comedy future . Simmons nails Berle’s visit to the set, amidst all this chaos , in a brief but unforgettable turn that has to be seen to be believed (and that includes his legendary manhood).

With less screen time, Ella Hunt’s lovely Gilda Radner, Kim Matula’s Jane Curtin and Emily Fairn’s Larraine Newman hit their marks here as well, especially in the female construction worker sketch re-created for the movie with a riotous Dylan O’ Brien’s Dan Aykroyd as the sexual object of their affection. Rachel Sennott is also excellent as writer Rosie Shuster, who was trying to keep her marriage to Michaels secret. And a personal shout-out to Finn Wolfhard as the hapless NBC page standing in front of 30 Rock hocking tickets to get people in to see this new show no one had ever heard of. It kind of made me tear up a bit because two days later after SNL’s premiere I would start my first show business job as an NBC page.

One false move and this whole ambitious soufflé could have fallen, but Reitman steers this all in style creating on the great movies about show business I have ever seen — and I have seen a lot of them. It is a shame that comedy is not always given its due, often dismissed as light compared to heavy dramas, the kind usually on display at Telluride and other festivals. Saturday Night is a breath of fresh air, and I know Reitman’s father, the late great Ivan Reitman whose films include Ghostbusters, Stripes, Twins and on and on, would be a proud dad.

Producers are Jason Blumenfeld, Peter Rice, Reitman and Kenan.

Title: Saturday Night Festival: Telluride Distributor: Columbia Pictures Release date: October 11, 2024 Director: Jason Reitman Screenwriters: Gil Kenan & Jason Reitman Cast: Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Corey Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Tommy Dewey, Willem Dafoe, J.K. Simmons, Jon Batiste, Naomi McPherson Running Time: 1 hr and 43 mins

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‘Saturday Night’ Review: Jason Reitman Finds the Right Ensemble to Capture the Lunacy From Which ‘SNL’ Was Born

Sure, the film is a love letter to an American television institution, but Reitman includes the drugs, egos and opening-night setbacks that nearly killed 'Saturday Night Live.'

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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• ‘Saturday Night’ Review: Jason Reitman Finds the Right Ensemble to Capture the Lunacy From Which ‘SNL’ Was Born 1 day ago

Over nearly 1,000 episodes, “ Saturday Night Live” has given America some of its most successful comedians, iconic characters and quotable catchphrases. Now, just one year shy of the pop phenom’s 50th anniversary, director Jason Reitman gives back, turning an oral history of the very first episode into a rowdy, delectably profane backstage homage. “Saturday Night” kicks off at 10 p.m. on Oct. 11, 1975, and ticks its way in practically real time to Chevy Chase’s delivery of the infamous opening line. Fine, but who plays Chevy Chase? Or Gilda Radner? Or John Belushi, for that matter?

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Some of his cast aren’t even comedians by trade, such as Cory Michael Smith, the young Chevy Chase ringer, who’s acted mostly in Todd Haynes movies until now. I’d never before seen Matt Wood, who plays John Belushi, and certainly didn’t expect “Succession” cousin Nicholas Braun to appear in dual roles as Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson. (Yes, Henson did puppetry, for the grown-up “Land of Gorch” segments, throughout the first season.)

That’s easily three hours of material, which explains how Billy Crystal (Nicholas Podany) and many others wound up getting cut. But 90 minutes out, Michaels refuses to accept that he can’t somehow cram it all in. To skeptical boss Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman), he insists, “You can’t expect them to recognize something they’ve never seen before.” To the all-powerful affiliates, he explains how “SNL” will be the first variety show made “by and for the generation that grew up on television.” And to NBC television exec David Tebet (Willem Dafoe), who’s ready to fall back on a rerun of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” at a moment’s notice, he does his best to look confident amid the chaos.

Like the shambolic productions in so many backstage movies, it’s a wonder that “SNL” ever made it to air, judging by the disorder Reitman re-creates here — all true to (or at least inspired by) interviews with everyone alive at the time who would share their memories of that historic night. A falling lighting rig nearly crushes Belushi and Radner (Ella Hunt) during rehearsal, one of the sets catches fire, drugs are ingested, egos are inflamed and no one can account for the llama roaming the halls (that gag is a nod to later seasons’ penchant for placing a random llama in backstage scenes).

Reitman isn’t the first to take audiences behind the scenes of “SNL” and its ilk — “30 Rock,” “Studio 60” and “The Larry Sanders Show” all demystified that world — but he does it so convincingly, “Saturday Night” seems destined to be the way we remember the night that changed television: with Radner riding the camera crane like an MGM showgirl and sad-clown Belushi taking a quiet moment on the ice.

The logistical complexity of orchestrating so many moving parts seems every bit as daunting as, say, “Birdman” or “Babylon.” The difference is, Reitman isn’t showing off. If he stages an elaborate tracking shot through multiple sets, it’s because the material calls for it. Michaels and his fellow crew members — including Rosie Shuster (the great Rachel Sennott), to whom he is married, though she’s constantly flirting with Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien) — are never not multitasking. Pile all their stresses on top of one another, and there’s enough anxiety here to power New York City.

Looking for the right music to match that feeling, Reitman settled on Jon Batiste, who also plays musical guest Billy Preston. Batiste supplies a jumpy jazz score — full of clangs, bangs, rattles and drums — that’s both innovative (recorded live, like the show) and effective. By design, it sucks up every last molecule of air at times, going so far as to drown out important dialogue in the film’s Dolby Atmos sound mix. The instant Michaels steps into the control room (where Robert Wuhl mans the deck), the music stops and audiences can catch their breath … but not for long.

Described by Tebet as “a handsome funny Gentile” with sky’s-the-limit potential, Chase is cocky and combative with his co-stars, especially Belushi. But legendary comedian Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons) is cockier in the movie’s most memorable — and outrageous — cameo. Together, Berle and Carson represent the titans of TV comedy until that time. Carson held such power that he could make or break a young stand-up’s career simply by inviting the comic to sit on his couch. Then “SNL” came along, and suddenly, appearing on Michaels’ show made them stars (as it did for Steve Martin and such early cast members as Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy).

What then-30-year-old Michaels understood — and LaBelle captures, alongside a sense of near-crippling panic — was that younger audiences wanted something that spoke to them, even if it meant testing the limits of NBC’s Standards department (represented here by Catherine Curtin, whose humorless censor lands the film’s biggest laughs). One of modern television’s most influential figures, Michaels possesses a clear vision, but also the wisdom to trust in talent, as when he steps aside to let Chase host Weekend Update. Not all his ideas work, as the Killer Bees (and most of the films he’s produced) would prove.

But that night was special. Reitman chronicles a turning point in television that reshaped America’s sense of humor — one that had been forecast by countercultural breakouts like Lenny Bruce, Cheech and Chong and the show’s first host, George Carlin (Matthew Rhys). It’s good that Reitman (who co-wrote with Gil Kenan) waited until now, after a decadelong cold streak in the “Juno” wunderkind’s career, to take on such a project. He’s tasted failure, and even though “SNL” went on to break every record, we have to believe it could flop for the film to work. Just look who gets the last laugh.

Reviewed at Telluride Film Festival, Aug. 31, 2024. Also in Toronto Film Festival. Running time: 109 MIN.

• Production: A Sony release of a Columbia Pictures presentation of a Reitman/Kenan production. Producers: Jason Blumenfeld, Peter Rice, Jason Reitman, Gil Kenan. Executive producers: Erica Mills, JoAnn Perritano.
• Crew: Director: Jason Reitman. Screenplay: Gil Kenan & Jason Reitman. Camera: Eric Steelberg. Editors: Nathan Orloff, Shane Reid. Music: Jon Batiste.
• With: Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Tommy Dewey, Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys, J.K. Simmons, Jon Batiste, Naomi McPherson, Robert Wuhl.

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