THE sins of two fathers are visited upon their sons in Jaume Collet Serra’s sleek action thriller set on the rain-lashed streets of New York.

The Spanish director, who was at the helm of Unknown and Non-Stop, reunites with Liam Neeson for this propulsive genre piece, casting the hulking Irish actor as a booze-sodden hitman who will stop at nothing to protect his loved ones.

Handily, the role is an amalgamation of Neeson's last two films – A Walk Among The Tombstones and Taken 3 – so he barely breaks sweat as an emotionally scarred anti-hero who punctuates bruising fisticuffs with pithy mantras: “I wanted a better life for you than the one I chose for myself.”

Brad Ingelsby’s script lays on the Catholic guilt with a trowel, making clear that for every crime – and there are plenty in Run All Night – there must be swift, brutal punishment.

“I’ve done terrible things in my life, things for which I can never be forgiven,” confesses hitman Jimmy Conlon (Neeson).

For more than 30 years, Jimmy has outfoxed tenacious Detective John Harding (Vincent D'Onofrio) and slayed targets at the behest of his best friend, mob boss Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris).

Alcohol is Jimmy’s solace from his manifold transgressions, which have cast him adrift from his son Mike (Joel Kinnaman), who works as a limousine driver and has an expectant wife, Gabriela (Genesis Rodriguez) and two daughters.

One fateful night, Mike witnesses Shawn’s reckless son Danny (Boyd Holbrook) killing an Albanian thug.

Danny takes to heart his father’s words – “You've made a mess, it’s time someone other than me cleaned it up” – and resolves to silence the only witness.

Inevitably, Jimmy becomes embroiled in this deadly game of cat and mouse and he sides with his flesh and blood.

“I’m the only one that cared about you and that all ended one hour ago,”

barks Shawn, unleashing his mob dogs of war including an assassin called Price (Common) to hunt down Jimmy and his boy.

Run All Night opens with one character on the brink of death and then rewinds 16 hours, confidently staging testosterone-fuelled set pieces including the required high-speed car chase and a daredevil escape from a burning building.

Collet-Serra energises static scenes with swirling camerawork, enhanced with a high-energy soundtrack courtesy of Dutch dance producer Junkie XL.

Screenwriter Ingelsby condenses each strained relationship to one or two scenes of succinct dialogue, including a terrific bout of verbal sparring between Neeson and Harris in a restaurant.

Both actors land glancing blows in limited shared screen time.

Swedish actor Kinnaman, last seen encased in Robocop's metallic armour, sports a convincing New York accent as his character takes parenting lessons in a hail of bullets.

You learn quickly when there’s a gun to your head.