Lionsgate finally found a place for the 2022 thriller “1992” to be released, the last weekend of summer, traditionally a dumping ground for films that can’t find a theatrical home.

But that allows this solid if unsurprising Tyrese Gibson star vehicle a moment in the sun, and gives his late co-star Ray Liotta, who died shortly after this film was completed, a flinty curtail call.

Few actors are better at playing “old school” and “gangster” hard than Gibson, cast here as an ex-con trying to raise his troubled teen, only to have the Rodney King Verdict riots and a mid-riot murderous armed robbery at the factory where he works hurl him back into the violent life he’s tried to escape.

And nobody was a better bad guy than Liotta, a blue-eyed fury who made malevolence his brand in a career that ran from “Something Wild” to “Goodfellas” to “Cocaine Bear.”

Director and co-writer Ariel Vromen returns to something closer to his “Iceman” form with this heist-gone-wrong variation on a theme from “Trespass.”

It’s the end of April, 1992. Los Angeles, California and America are bracing for a Simi Valley verdict in the case of cops, caught on video beating up an unarmed Black motorist named Rodney King.

Gibson plays Mercer “Merc” Bey, whose “O.G. Merc” keychain is the only reminder he allows himself of his former life. The gang banger is six months out of jail, with temporary custody of his teen son Antoine (Christopher Ammanuel), which is a challenge.

“You’re a boy that I’m tryin’ to raise to be a MAN.”

With the bubbling cauldron that tells all that a riot might be on the horizon, Antoine could go either way.

Scott Eastwood is Reagan, a breaking-and-entering specialist who has been trying to sell his little brother Dennis (Dylan Arnold) and father Lowell (Liotta) on a catalytic converter factory heist that is “out of our league” with “too much security” for them to attempt, the old man decides.

But April 29, 1992, all that changes. A verdict comes in (summed up in TV coverage from the day). A jury lets the abusive cops go. The heist — of platinum ingots used to make converters — is on.

“Turns out, all we needed was 12 racist mother—-ers out in Simi Valley,” they crow, the script’s best line.

The robbery of the nearly-empty factory goes deathly wrong. And when Merc manages to get his kid to the supposed “safety” of his workplace, it goes completely off the rails. Two hardened gangster patriarchs face off in a battle of wits and will.

The best scenes in “1992” establish Merc’s bonafides as a tough man trying to be righteous — stepping up to stop intimidation at a Korean-owned bodega, letting former gang brothers know he’s not about that any more.

Liotta’s steely “My word is law” dictatorship over “the fruit of my loins” is implicit, with older son Reagan bristling at his father’s limitations and younger son Dylan cowed into following orders.

The script and Eastwood’s performance of it soften his character into a son ready to rebel against the old man, even in the middle of the job.

The riots are well presented — real footage and recreations — but it’s more a TV coverage “presentational” experience than a harrowing and immersive one.

Attempts to have the gang mirror the racial attitudes of the “all white” Simi Valley jury feel strained and half-worked-out. The racism and police aggression that sparked the riots is nicely suggested in a couple of tense scenes mid-riot, including a humiliating traffic stop.

The action beats feature brawls and shoot-outs are overty-designed to cut the odds (gang of six vs. father-and-son), with a chase or two thrown in and a grim finale struggles to summon up “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” and “Trespass” echoes.

Gibson and Liotta are magnetic, but the picture feels rushed and unfinished in places — blown lines, under-developed relationships, etc.

But even straining to get to the label “solid,” “1992” delivers on the two things its intent and delayed release promise. It’s a Gibson showcase and a Liotta curtain call worth seeing, shortcomings be damned.

Rating: R, bloody violence, profanity

Cast: Tyrese Gibson, Scott Eastwood, Christopher Ammanuel, Michael Beasley, Oleg Taktarov, Ori Pfeffer and Ray Liotta.

Credits: Directed by Ariel Vromen, scripted by Sascha Penn and Ariel Vromen. A Lionsgate release.

Running time: 1:36