Liam Neeson continues his stint as a 60-something action star via 2015’s Run All Night. For years, Jimmy “The Gravedigger” Conlon (Neeson) served as a hit man for the mob. Along the way, he developed a close friendship with his boss, Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). Although Jimmy became a drunk and hit the skids, his connection to Shawn continues.

This relationship endures a severe test when Shawn’s loose-cannon son Danny (Boyd Holbrook) murders some Albanian gangsters. Jimmy’s estranged son Mike (Joel Kinnaman) witnesses this action and finds himself in Danny’s crosshairs.

Mike manages to escape but he doesn’t seem likely to survive for long. Jimmy comes to his aid and finds himself at odds with his longtime friend Shawn. We follow related conflicts along the way.

Previously paired for 2011’s Unknown and 2014’s Non-Stop, Run matches Neeson and director Jaume Collet-Serra for a third go-round. Of the prior two, Non-Stop worked best, as it offered brainless but fun action. On the other hand, Unknown gave us a limp update on Hitchcock.

Run All Night reunites the two for a more serious affair – in a nominal manner, at least. At its core, Run boasts the potential to give us something fairly rich and introspective. During its first act, it hints at the ways in which the choices Jimmy and Shawn made through their lives affect their offspring. These moments give the movie a shot at something more than just another action movie.

After that set-up, though, Run turns into… just another action movie. Not that I view this as a bad thing in and of itself. I enjoy the genre and think that a story such as this could be good, especially given the urgency of the timetable. All the events here take place over one evening, and this creates a sense of tension.

At times, Run becomes a fairly involving affair. Neeson does little more than revive his Taken character, but he does “badass” pretty well. Although I’m not sure I believe that Jimmy could come out of his drunken stupor as quickly as he does, but Neeson delivers a reasonably good performance.

It’s too bad Run revolves around so many clichés. It follows quite a few well-worn paths and can’t find a way to do much I’d call creative or fresh. Once it sets up its basic narrative elements, it becomes little more than straight-out action depicted in a fairly predictable manner with all sorts of easily anticipated character beats.

These factors mean that Run keeps us reasonably engaged across its 114 minutes but it never quite grabs hold of us like it could. Just a little more development and a smidgen of risk-taking might’ve lifted the film over the top. As it stands, Run gives us an entertaining but insubstantial diversion.

Run All Night appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Across the board, the transferred looked good.

Sharpness was mostly fine. A little softness occurred in some wide shots, and interiors could seem a but tentative, but those instances didn’t become a substantial concern. Overall definition seemed solid. I noticed no jagged edges or moiré effects, and the presentation lacked apparent edge haloes or other artifacts. I also saw no print flaws, as the movie always seemed clean.

In terms of colors, Run reflected Hollywood’s modern fascination with orange and teal. As tedious as that has become, the colors looked fine within the design parameters. In addition, blacks were dark and tight, while low-light shots were decent; some could be a bit dense, but they weren’t bad. This was a generally positive presentation.

As for the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, it added breadth to the experience. The movie didn’t deliver a rock-em-sock-em soundscape, but it managed to open up well, especially when it dealt with the street scenes; those showed a nice sense of the New York atmosphere.

A few louder sequences – usually connected to action beats– made more dynamic use of the spectrum, but those didn’t pop up with great frequency. Instead, the emphasis on general environment remained, and that was fine. I felt the soundfield fit the material.

Audio quality always pleased. Speech remained natural and concise, with no edginess or other flaws. Music sounded full and dynamic, while effects came across as accurate and clear. All of this suited the film and earned a solid “B”.

When we shift to extras, we find two featurettes. Shoot All Night runs 10 minutes, 26 seconds and offers comments from director Jaume Collet-Serra, writer Brad Ingelsby, producers Michael Tadross, Roy Lee and Brooklyn Weaver, stunt coordinator Mark Vanselow, 2nd unit director Doug Coleman, and actors Ed Harris, Liam Neeson, Common, Bruce McGill, Joel Kinnaman, Boyd Holbrook and Vincent D’Onofrio.

We get info about cast and performances, story/character areas, locations and shooting at night, stunts and action. This becomes a decent overview but not one that gives us much detail.

Liam Neeson: Action All Night fills six minutes, nine seconds with notes from Neeson, Collet-Serra, Tadross, Holbrook, Kinnaman, D’Onofrio, Common, Ingelsby, Weaver, Vanselow and actor Genesis Rodriguez. We learn about Neeson’s work in the film. This becomes little more than a puff piece to praise the actor.

Six Deleted Scenes fill a total of 16 minutes, 20 seconds. We find “Flashback” (2:34), “Price at Strip Club” (1:07), “Magic Trick” (0:56), “Eddie” (5:31), “Hospital” (2:58) and “Shawn Basement” (2:14). These mix new pieces and extensions of existing scenes. Some minor character tidbits emerge but none of them seem especially significant.

The disc opens with ads for Entourage and San Andreas. No trailer for Run shows up here.

A second disc provides a DVD copy of Run. It includes the deleted scenes but lacks the other extras.

As an action flick, Run All Night comes with exciting moments, but it feels like something of a disappointment. That’s because it aspires to become something more substantial and can’t match those goals. The Blu-ray brings us generally good picture and audio along with some minor supplements. Run ends up as a moderately interesting thriller without a lot of substance.