Run All Night

Run All Night is the grittiest Neeson action film and the most underrated. Neeson plays an aging mob hitman who must protect his estranged son (Joel Kinnaman) after the son witnesses a murder committed by the crime boss’s son. Ed Harris, as Neeson’s lifelong best friend and the mob boss who must now kill him, brings genuine tragedy to the antagonist role. The film plays out across one brutal night in New York, and Collet-Serra’s direction captures the city’s darkness with a cold, rain-soaked atmosphere. The car chase through a burning housing project and the final snowy confrontation are top-tier Neeson action. This is the Neeson film that should have launched a franchise.