Joseph Duggar is taking a stand in his ongoing legal battle by demanding full access to the evidence and investigators involved in his child molestation case. 

The former reality television star has filed a formal motion through his legal team to ensure all information regarding the allegations is brought to light before he faces trial. 

This update comes after Joseph was arrested last month. He is currently facing multiple charges after allegedly molesting a minor back in 2020.

In a recent legal maneuver, Joseph’s attorneys have petitioned a Florida court for the authority to interrogate the specific investigators who interviewed the young accuser. The 31-year-old filed this request on Friday, May 1, seeking a subpoena that would force the disclosure of all data collected during the initial child abuse investigation. 

This request aims to pull information from multiple agencies, including the Department of Children & Families and the Child Protection Team, who spoke with the alleged victim before Joseph was taken into custody in Arkansas this past March. 

According to U.S. Weekly, Joseph’s defense team is also pushing to question any other law enforcement or protective services involved across state lines, particularly those in Arkansas.

The defense argues that receiving this witness testimony and the accompanying records is essential for a fair trial to determine Joseph’s guilt or innocence. 

Notably, the case centers on accusations that the “19 Kids and Counting” alum molested a victim, who is now 14, while on a family trip to Panama City Beach back in 2020. According to the allegations, the abuse occurred while the victim was nine years old and Joseph’s wife, Kendra, was pregnant with their third child. 

What Legal Experts Had To Say About Joseph Duggar’s Admission of Intent

While his defense team pushes for more information, legal experts are sounding the alarm about incriminating statements Joseph allegedly made before his arrest.

These specialists suggest that certain admissions could prove catastrophic for his case, as they directly address his state of mind during the timeframe of the alleged abuse. 

According to The Blast, Joseph allegedly stated that his “intentions were not pure” during a monitored conversation. Meanwhile, experts believe that this phrase provides the prosecution with strong evidence of criminal intent. 

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani explained that such a statement is highly damaging because it links the defendant to the victim and the specific timing of the reported incidents. 

Joseph Duggar Faces Strict Bond Conditions In Florida

The potential impact of Joseph’s statements on the trial has only increased the intensity of the legal proceedings as he fights the charges. 

During the hearing in Bay County, a judge set his bail at a substantial $600,000. Along with the high bond, the court imposed strict limitations on his freedom, including a mandatory no-contact order regarding the alleged victim, per The Blast.

The restrictions placed on the former reality star were extensive, with the judge further ruling that he cannot have any unsupervised contact with any minors. 

During the proceedings, Joseph’s legal representative emphasized that the 31-year-old has no prior criminal record and requested that he be treated like any other citizen, regardless of his past television fame. However, the prosecution argued against a low bond, stressing the extreme gravity of the charges involving a child.

Allegations of Family Retaliation Surface

Weeks after Joseph was hit with strict bond conditions, rumors surfaced, suggesting that his wife’s family was behind his legal troubles. 

According to reports from a social media influencer, it was actually Kendra’s parents, the Caldwell family, who initially contacted the police regarding the molestation charges. 

This claim suggests that the decision to turn in their son-in-law was a painful necessity because he refused to take responsibility for his own actions, as reported by The Blast. 

In the wake of these reports, claims also emerged that the Duggar family has retaliated against the Caldwells for their role in the investigation. 

The Caldwells are allegedly being forced out of their home, with reports indicating that their water and power have been shut off during this difficult time. Despite these tensions, the Caldwells have publicly stated they remain heartbroken by the situation but are committed to supporting their daughter, Kendra.

The Caldwell Family Faces Displacement and Financial Loss

The growing hostility between the two families has now resulted in a full-blown housing crisis for Kendra’s parents. Tensions reached a breaking point in the weeks following the arrest, leading to reports that Kendra’s relatives were effectively pushed off the property where they had been staying. 

The Blast reported that to cope with their sudden homelessness, the Caldwells launched a fundraising campaign to cover the costs of their relocation and emergency expenses.

Kendra’s father, Paul Caldwell, provided a public update explaining that their decision to stand up for the vulnerable led directly to the loss of their home and their jobs. 

Notably, he made it clear that the money raised would not be used to help anyone accused of child abuse, further distancing his family from Joseph’s defense.

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One Alt scent, in particular, saved me $320: Crystal. This perfume was inspired by Baccarat Rouge 540, the iconic scent from Maison Francis Kurkdjian that is the epitome of wealth. The original is instantly recognizable with notes of saffron, jasmine and cedarwood. However, Alt Crystal smells so eerily similar I couldn’t tell the difference in a blind test — and I write about perfume for a living. Trust me, my nose almost always knows, but this time I was stumped.

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The scent of Alt Crystal isn’t the only thing that wowed me about the perfume. Despite the price, Alt manages to last all day long — an impressive feat for such an affordable brand. This is because rather than being an eau de parfum, it’s an extrait, which means it has a higher concentration of fragrance oils, making the scent linger much longer.

If you want to fool people into thinking you own Baccarat Rouge 540, this will certainly do the trick. That said, when people ask if I’m wearing the instantly recognizable scent, I prefer to be honest. Why gatekeep Alt when people can’t tell the difference? Plus, if people are able to enjoy a once-unattainable scent for themselves with this affordable take, they should!

I’m slowly but surely adding more of Alt’s interpretations of iconic — and expensive — perfumes to my collection. Next on my list: Amber Angel. There are plenty more options on the site, too, and you can’t go wrong with any of them.

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Mel Brooks‘ new science fiction spoof, Spaceballs: The New One, is reuniting its old cast members and adding some new stars, including Lewis Pullman. While Pullman is enjoying working with his father, Bill Pullman, who starred as the roguish space bandit Lone Starr in the original, he’s heaping praise on every aspect of the production, including the decades-in-the-making return of a cinematic comedy icon. He discussed the film with Collider’s Steve Weintraub while promoting his new Netflix film, Remarkably Bright Creatures, which debuts on the streamer this week.

Pullman was especially impressed by the return of Rick Moranis, who is returning from a multi-decade hiatus from the big screen to play arch-villain Dark Helmet. According to Pullman, the SCTV star hadn’t missed a step. “I think just hearing him do the Dark Helmet voice, and him just slipping back into it so, so seamlessly. It was just a mind-boggling moment because that voice lives in my brain free of rent,” said Pullman. “Just hearing him find it again — he didn’t even have to find it; it was just right there — was just a dream come true.”

Pullman also lavished praise on the script, which was penned by longtime Spaceballs fans Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, and Josh Gad; Gad also stars in the film. And while the original film was largely a Star Wars spoof (with some nods to Star Trek, Alien, and Planet of the Apes), Pullman says The New One goes above and beyond:

“The writers, Dan, Benji, and Josh, really took advantage of the whole concept in the best way possible. So many times, I think being a fan of something can really help invigorate it. I think them working with Mel to keep what we love so much about Spaceballs, and then also just expound on it and expand on it… Anyone who’s a fan of anything will probably get a reference in there at some point.”

The gags aren’t limited to the script, either: Pullman also found that the production designers had crammed so many gags into a spaceship console that he’s hopeful the film will be “a freeze frame fest of people freeze framing this movie and zooming in and seeing the detail that went into this.” However, he can’t tease what the movie’s marketing team will do to top the Dune 2 sandworm popcorn bucket, but he “can’t wait to see.” And as far as working with his father goes, Pullman compared and contrasted it with the G-forces he was subjected to while filming Top Gun: Maverick. He told Collider, “One was kind of mind-melting, and the other was body-melting, and both were challenging in their own ways. Both were very exciting and exhilarating in their own ways.” Spaceballs: The New One also stars Daphne Zuniga, Keke Palmer, Anthony Carrigan, and George Wyner; it is directed by Josh Greenbaum. It will invade theaters on April 23, 2027.

Based on the best-selling 2022 novel of the same name by Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures centers around Tova (Sally Field), a lonely widow who works as a nighttime caretaker at the local aquarium. There, she makes a pair of new friends: Cameron (Pullman), a luckless young man who also works for the aquarium, and Marcellus (voiced by Alfred Molina), a giant Pacific octopus who lives there. Directed by Olivia Newman (Where the Crawdads Sing), it also stars Colm Meaney, Joan Chen, Kathy Baker, Beth Grant, Sofia Black-D’Elia, and Laura Harris. It will premiere on Netflix on May 8.

Next up for Pullman is Avengers: Doomsday, in which he’ll reprise the dual role of Bob and the Sentry from last year’s Thunderbolts. On the horizon are Wishful Thinking, a science fiction rom-com that pairs him with Maya Hawke, and Baton, a sports drama with Camila Mendes and Danny Ramirez (who also directs).

Spaceballs: The New One will be released on April 23, 2027. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

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April 23, 2027

Writers

Dan Hernandez, Josh Gad, Benji Samit

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20 years after it enchanted and horrified audiences at the Cannes Film Festival, one of director Guillermo del Toro‘s greatest films is returning to the French Riviera for a second bow. The film broke records when it debuted there in 2006, and now it’s coming back in an all-new 4K restoration, painstakingly supervised by del Toro himself. It will kick off the festival with a screening on May 12.

According to reports, Pan’s Labyrinth will headline the Cannes Classics showcase of classic films at Cannes this year. The film made its international debut at Cannes in 2006; there, it earned a 22-minute-long standing ovation, which is still the longest ovation in Cannes history. Other notable films being screened at Cannes Classics this year include Akira Kurosawa‘s debut feature, Sugata Sanshiro; Chen Kaige’s 1993 classic Farewell My Concubine; Ken Russell’s long-unavailable horror film The Devils; and Orson Welles‘ post-war thriller The Stranger. It will also see the debut of several new film-making documentaries, including Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern, Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean (which features narration by Cate Blanchett and Kenneth Branagh), and the latest chapter in Mark Cousins‘ history of non-fiction film, The Story of Documentary Film (The 70s).

What Is ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ About?

Set in fascist-controlled Spain in 1944, Pan’s Labyrinth centers around young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero); her new stepfather is Captain Vidal (Sergi López), a devotee of General Franco’s, and her mother (Ariadna Gil) is pregnant with his son. Vidal is attempting to root out the local Maquis insurgents, unaware that his housekeeper, Mercedes (María Verdú) is in league with them. Meanwhile, Ofelia discovers a fantastical underworld where she meets the monstrous Faun (Doug Jones), who believes she is the reincarnation of the lost Princess Moanna. She must undergo three trials to prove her worthiness to rule once more. During the course of those tasks, she encounters a variety of bizarre creatures, none more horrific than the child-eating Pale Man (Jones again). However, the horrors of the real world threaten to collide with her fantasies. The film was a hit with critics and audiences upon its initial release, and will be getting a theatrical re-release this fall.

This year’s Cannes Classics program is dedicated to late art director and production designer Dean Tavoularis, who died in France last month. A frequent collaborator with Francis Ford Coppola, he worked on The Godfather and its sequels, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now; he also contributed to Bonnie and Clyde, Zabriskie Point, and The Ninth Gate.

A 4K restoration of Pan’s Labyrinth will premiere at the Cannes Classics film festival on May 12. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

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Release Date

January 19, 2007

Runtime

118 minutes

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By Joshua Tyler
| Published 19 seconds ago

Robert A. Heinlein is, without question, one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. That’s especially evident when you look at his earlier work.

Heinlein changed as he aged. His work became more pointed, more bitter, and the sexual freedom he espoused in his work turned into something more libidinous. He never stopped creating great works, though, and he never stopped coming up with innovative ideas.

Heinlein’s early and mid-career work is regarded as genius, and he’s one of the original fathers of meaningful, modern science fiction. Robert A. Heinlein was called the “Dean of Science Fiction” and he’s also written a lot of books, forty-plus years of material.

Not all of his books have aged well, though. In particular, activists have a problem with Farnham’s Freehold.

The Controversy Around Farnham’s Freehold

So what is all the controversy about? The book takes place in a dystopian world where people with dark skin are the most technologically advanced and powerful on the planet. In a sense, it’s even a little like Wakanda. Or, Wakanda if the Wakandans were evil slave owners.

Critics argue that Heinlein’s portrayal of the dominant black culture in the novel reinforces negative stereotypes about African-descended people, depicting them as cruel and barbaric. Was that his intention? Or was it his intention to portray African-descended people as super smart, advanced, and the most successful? That’s where the questions start.

Heinlein Had Africans Enslaving Whites

In the future of Farnham’s Freehold, technologically advanced African-descended people have enslaved whites. This has been interpreted by some as a reactionary fantasy, reinforcing the fear of a reversal of racial power structures. This aspect of the novel has been criticized for its potential to perpetuate white supremacist fears.

It seems somewhat unlikely that this was Heinlein’s intention. Supporters of his writing argue that he was attempting a satirical critique of people’s views of racial power dynamics. Heinlein himself never spoke on the controversy. He died in 1988, and back then, no one interpreted the book as it is today, in modern cancel culture. For years after Heinlein’s death, Farnham’s Freehold was viewed as a satirical critique of racism, intended to challenge readers’ assumptions about race and power.

Robert A. Heinlein’s First Allegiance Was To Freedom

Given the nature of his other work, it’s hard to imagine Heinlein actually set out to write some sort of crazy racist narrative. His other books were symbols of the free-love hippie movement, which challenged cultural norms back when it wasn’t acceptable to do so.

Heinlein’s entire ethos, in everything else he wrote, is built around total personal freedom and total equality for everyone. Those ideas were pretty radical at the time. Some of them still are.

The Story Of Farnham’s Freehold

On the level of the quality of Heinlein’s writing, Farnham’s Freehold was one of his better efforts. The book begins with a Cold War-era tale of a family hiding inside a home-constructed bomb shelter when the doomsday clock strikes midnight and nuclear war lands right on top of them.

The interesting thing about Heinlein’s writing, perhaps here more than in anything else he’s ever done, is how he manages to convey a vivid picture of what’s happening without bothering with actual visual descriptions of the environment in which he thrusts his characters. Rather than describing the way his world looks, Heinlein chooses to describe how his characters react to it, and through them, his readers not only get the picture, but sometimes a deeper understanding than they’d get had he simply described surface knowledge.

Emotions Come Alive In The Destruction Of Everything

In Farnham’s Freehold, the book’s most mind-blowing moment happens early on, as Heinlein’s male and female leads huddle inside their homemade bomb shelter, the floor shaking and the world above them exploding, and with nothing but death awaiting them, they engage in a kiss, which leads to hinted at sex. Heinlein is often sexual in his later writing, but this specific book was written in 1964, and anything more than a makeout session in mid-explosion probably would have been deemed pornography by that era’s censors.

What’s amazing about it is the way he threads their fear, terror, passion, lust, and all of their emotions at that moment into the fabric of his story to make their horrible, terrifying situation come vibrantly alive. For that moment, you’re there in that bunker with them, with the world ending all around you, in a place where none of the things you used to care about matter since, at best, you’ll be dead in a few hours.

Time Traveling To A Future Run By Wakanda

Of course, the entire book doesn’t take place in a bomb shelter, and if you’ve read the dust jacket on it, then you know that the nuclear explosions above somehow slam their little shelter forward in time to a future where white people live in slavery, and everything we’ve ever known is buried under thousands of years of dust. The book never works quite as well once Farnham and his little group are forced to interact with that future, but for the controversy-free first half, when they’re alone and trying to eke out an existence, the novel soars.

Farnham’s Freehold is worth reading for that first half alone. The rest is, perhaps, worth reading too, if only to decide for yourself that controversial, modern-biased interpretation of his work is what Robert A. Heinlein actually intended. If you’re asking me, I doubt it.

FARNHAM’S FREEHOLD BOOK SCORE

Beyond the Gates explores what really happened to Lynette Wise (Dominique Madison) and whether Dr. Lia Whitmore (Cecelia Specht) got revenge on the conwoman who bilked her. Is Lynette dead and her only remains are in plasma bags up for sale by the red market ring?

I want to talk about some bigger reveals that may come soon about this criminal enterprise. Dr. Lia may not be the only major player in the plasma ring. The big boss may surprise us and maybe somebody that we already know.

Is Dr. Lia The Big Boss Of The Plasma Ring on Beyond the Gates?

So, this red market plasma ring has been on my mind for a while. I’ve been trying to kind of mentally map out the web. I don’t think Dr. Lia is the big boss. Maybe she’s the co-boss. Or maybe there’s one person above her. She is a physician and a chief of staff at Garland Memorial.

Not exactly somebody you think of as a criminal. But this enterprise needs that element. So, I think the not so good doctor is working with somebody who is a much worse criminal. And I have suspected for quite a while that Joey Armstrong (Jon Lindstrom) is her secret partner who handles the underworld angle of it all while Dr. Lia handles the medical side of things.

Lia & Joey partners on BTG?

So, Joey and Dr. Lia may be the partners operating this ring. There have been some red flags where Joey’s been on phone calls that seemed related to the plasma ring activities and Joey’s also given Randy Parker (Maurice P. Kerry) orders that sound like they might relate to Dr. Lia’s red market stuff.

If you remember, Joey has given Randy orders about overseeing shipments and made some cryptic remarks that feel like Easter eggs pointing to Joey being the criminal counterpart to the medical side of the ring because those orders came on the backside of us seeing some conversations about the plasma ring.

How Do Dr. Lia And Joey Know Each Other on Beyond the Gates?

So, that has me wondering something else. How do Dr. Lia and Joey know each other? It’s a small town up there. I mean, Dr. Lia knows Marcel Malone (Darryl W. Handy) very well, who is the dirty cop on Joey’s payroll. That’s a lot of overlap So, maybe Dr. Lia and Joey are secret siblings. That would be kind of interesting.

They’re of an age, you know, but also he told Vanessa McBride (Lauren Buglioli) about his cheating ex-wife that broke his heart. So, I wonder if Dr. Lia was the ex. Either way, whether they’re cousins, siblings, possibly exes, I think whatever relationship that Joey and Dr. Lia have, they might have kept it on the down low because of her standing as a well-respected physician.

However, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a tie of some sort, whether it’s blood, whether it’s marriage, between Joey and Dr. Lia. We all know that she is as ruthless and cutthroat as Joey any day of the week. Dr. Lia targeted Grayson Perez (Jordie Vilasuso) because she knew he was desperate for money to help take care of his sick mom.

Beyond the Gates: Lia is Ruthless on BTG

Dr. Lia is cutthroat, much more like a gangster than somebody that you would expect to have the compassion of a physician who takes care of people and saves lives. She was only slightly annoyed when the bad guy stabbed Grayson, but mostly because Dr. Lia wanted to make sure that Grayson kept working. And now it seems like the threat to Ashley Morgan (Jen Jacob) is coming from Dr. Lia on Beyond the Gates.

More specifically, I think a minion that she ordered to snap the photo and send that threat to Grayson because Dr. Lia was up at the hospital at the time. That was around the time where she was snapping at Kat Richardson (Colby Muhammad). So, I’m sure it was some henchman that took the photo of Ashley and sent the text to Grayson.

Lynette Conned Dr. Lia Too

And now we find out that Lynette is a problem not just for Hayley Lawson (Marquita Goings) and Randy, but also for Dr. Lia. When Tomas Navarro (AlexAlegria) was researching the list of people that Lynette had conned, he came across Dr. Lia’s name, but didn’t recognize it. But Kat did instantly. So, she was the one who hustled over to Garland Memorial to ask Dr. Lia some questions about Lynette.

And it turns out the cute con had drained Dr. Lia’s investment accounts and told Kat that she only recently found out that the charges against Lynette were dropped. Dr. Lia kind of played it off when Kat mentioned Lynette up and disappearing. And then Dr. Lia walked away from the conversation, kind of making it clear it’s a waste of time. You know how she does people.

Lynette though was clearly a problem for Dr. Lia. And Lynette was a problem that Randy needed to take care of because Lynette was out of control with her blackmail demands on Hayley and was threatening to out her to Bill Hamilton (Timon Kyle Durrett) and ruin her life.

And Hayley had already promised that she would take Randy down with her. So even though he’s been sleeping with Lynette and enjoying the horizontal mambo, Randy’s not going to go down like that for just some booty call, especially from a con woman. So, I do agree that Lynette and Hayley are on the crazy hot spectrum. You know, the crazier the girl, the hotter she is in the sack. But all that being said, Lynette’s not steamy enough for Randy to let her wreck his life.

Lynette Had It Coming on

And let’s be clear, whatever happened to Lynette, girl had it coming. She was a lost cause. She was horrible. Hayley is too, if I’m being honest, and I cannot wait for her life to explode and Bill to find out he’s been played on a long con. But to be fair, he had already been ruining his marriage to Dani for years before Hayley came on the scene. You know, Bill was a repeat cheater who was throwing his life with Dani away. And she just kept turning a blind eye to what Bill was doing, but it was eroding her and ruining their marriage. And then Hayley was just the final straw that finally blew them up apart.

So, no, I don’t feel sorry for Bill and I hope that Dani laughs right in his face when Bill finds out that everybody was right about Hayley and he was wrong. And Bill might find out about it because of her association with Lynette, who Tomas is hard at work digging into.

So, I suspect that he’s going to find lots of dirty stuff about Lynette, including her ties to Hayley, aka Val. I assume that’s short for Valerie, which is her real name, which her husband doesn’t even know. Hayley’s just the name she used for this scam on Bill. So, it’ll all come crashing down. And even if Lynette is dead, which I do suspect she is, she may be the catalyst for Hayley losing everything anyway.

What Did Randy Do To Lynette on BTG?

So, my theory is that Randy is Joey’s contact with the red market ring and he manages deliveries and oversees things while Joey sticks closer to the casino. And when Hayley told him, told Randy that Lynette was about to out them, you know, Randy might have handed Lynette over to the red market plasma people to drain dry. Or Randy might have called Dr. Lia and said, “Look, I know that this Lynette girl did this. Do you want her?” You know, he might have handed her over.

Beyond the Gates: Lynette still Alive?

Now, there’s always a chance that Lynette is alive but just locked away somewhere. You know, Randy might have stuck Lynette in a storage closet somewhere with a bucket and box of granola bars, you know, until he decides what to do. Randy did like getting sexy with Lynette. But he also knows she is out of control and is a huge risk.

Or Randy might have convinced Lynette to lie low before she gets them all killed. You know, there’s a chance Randy got through to her, but to me, that seems the least likely outcome because Lynette is unhinged, greedy, and has zero self-control. And she thinks she can get away with threatening anybody she wants.

So, I’ll admit I’m 100% fine if Lynette is dead, gone, dusted, and she is in a pile of red bags, you know, with her plasma drained out, and all that’s left is a husk of her that was just tossed into the Potomac River. So, we’ll see.

By Zack Zagranis
| Published 1 hour ago

Everyone knows by now that Liam Neeson has a particular set of skills that he’s acquired over a long career in Hollywood. Skills that make him a dream come true for action movie fans. Those skills are on full display in the 2015 underrated action gem Run All Night.

In Run All Night, Liam Neeson plays a perpetually drunk former hitman, Jimmy “The Gravedigger” Conlon, forced to go against his best friend and former boss Shawn Maguire, played by Ed Harris, in order to save his son, Mike Conlon, played by Joel Kinnaman. Along with Neeson and Harris, the film also stars Daredevil‘s Vincent D’Onofrio as Detective John Harding and Genesis Rodriguez of Tusk fame.

Run All Night was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra from a screenplay written by Brad Ingelsby, creator of the popular HBO Max mini-series Mare of Easttown. The film marked the 3rd collaboration between Liam Neeson and Collet-Serra. The duo previously worked together on the movies Unknown and Non-Stop.

In 2012, Warner Bros. purchased Ingelsby’s script, then titled The All-Nighter, for six figures. The following year, Liam Neeson joined the cast right around the time Jaume Collet-Serra came aboard the project. The movie was scored by frequent Zack Snyder collaborator Junkie XL, who thought it would be more interesting to base the score on emotional beats rather than let the action dictate the musical direction.

Run All Night was a minor Box-Office success, grossing $26.5 million domestically and another $45.1 million overseas, for a grand total of $71.56 million, against a production budget of $50 million. Interestingly, the audience for the Liam Neeson action-thriller was 52% female on its opening weekend, a number considered high for an all-male action movie. The figure just helps to further dispel the stereotype that only guys like to see people crashing cars and beating the crap out of each other.

Run All Night is just one of several action movies starring late-career Liam Neeson. Ever since 2008’s Taken, Neeson has focused almost exclusively on action/crime movies. In addition to Taken 2 and 3, Neeson has appeared in at least 20 other movies that IMDb considers either action, crime, or both.

To say the man is being typecast is an understatement. To put it another way, when a trailer for a Liam Neeson movie comes on, most fans assume it’s a Taken sequel until told otherwise.

That’s not to say that the Northern Ireland-born actor hasn’t dabbled in other genres in the last 15 years. In the last decade and a half, Liam Neeson has managed to squeeze in a few romantic dramas, such as Made in Italy and Ordinary Love, along with a handful of cameos here and there. Perhaps Neeson’s oddest collaborations have been with American Dad creator Seth MacFarlane, who cast him as the lead in 2025’s The Naked Gun reboot.

MacFarlane lso put Liam Neeson in his other live-action endeavors like A Million Ways to Die in the West, Ted 2, and The Orville, as well as using the actor for a few bits on Family Guy. Neeson is known primarily for serious roles, making it even weirder that Seth casts him exclusively as comedy relief. For whatever reason, it works.

Neeson’s cameo in Ted 2 as a grocery store customer buying Trix is easily the funniest gag in the movie.

Cameos aside, action movies really have become Liam Neeson’s bread and butter lately. Not just any action movies, either, but the kind where an old, grizzled ex-CIA agent/mob hitman/bank robber comes back and grimaces his way through one last job. His characters are the grimdark versions of the wisecracking, one-liner-spouting action heroes of the ’80s played by actors like Schwarzenegger and Stallone.

Where Arnold’s characters would snap a foe’s neck on an airplane and then tell the flight attendant, “Don’t disturb my friend. He’s dead tired.” Liam Neeson’s character gives the bad guys a speech that basically amounts to “I’m a highly trained killer, and I’m gonna hunt you down and murder you.”

But that’s ok. Liam Neeson, after all, has a particular set of skills that includes playing badasses over 60. Why not stick to what you’re good at? If Neeson’s particular kind of bleak, gritty action movie is your thing, you could do a lot worse than Run All Night.