Movie Review: Run All Night (2015)

Genre: Action Thriller  

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra  

Starring: Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, Joel Kinnaman, Vincent D'Onofrio, Common, Nick Nolte, Genesis Rodriguez, Boyd Holbrook, Bruce McGill  

Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: In New York City, Jimmy (Liam Neeson) is an aging hitman working for his life-long friend, mobster Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). Shawn's unhinged son Danny (Boyd Holbrook) instigates a bloodbath witnessed by Jimmy's estranged son Mike (Joel Kinnaman), a limousine driver and family man who wants nothing to do with his father. Over one long night, Jimmy has to protect Mike and his family from Shawn's wrath, a corrupt police force, and a professional assassin (Common), while police Detective Harding (Vincent D'Onofrio) tries to pick up the pieces.

What Works Well: The father-son redemption story is elevated by an exceptional cast in top form. In the interludes between uncompromising action set-pieces, Liam Neeson and Ed Harris share several scenes full of sorrow, lament, the weight of history, and an understanding of a looming fate. Neeson's Jimmy is increasingly unable to hide from the ghosts of his victims, but now finds a purpose in a mission to rescue his son and maybe get a glimpse of family life. Director Jaume Collet-Serra adds style by cutting through the darkness with glistening swoopiness.

What Does Not Work As Well: Many of the action scenes are prolonged beyond what is necessary, including a long-winded car pursuit, a chaotic search-and-escape through a large apartment complex, and a subway station hide-and-seek sequence. In contrast, several interesting secondary characters including Mike's wife (Genesis Rodriguez) and Jimmy's brother (Nick Nolte) and mother (Lois Smith) are short changed.

Key Quote:

Jimmy: It's your regrets that haunt you in your final moments. Everything you've failed to be. Everyone you let down. Everything you'd go back and change, if only you had more time.

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Movie Review: Ice Road: Vengeance (2025)

Genre: Action Thriller 

Director: Jonathan Hensleigh  

Starring: Liam Neeson, Fan Bingbing, Bernard Curry, Grace O'Sullivan  

Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: Ice road trucker Mike McCann (Liam Neeson) travels to Katmandu to spread his deceased brother's ashes on Mount Everest. While on a bus, Mike and his guide Dhani Yangchen (Fan Bingbing) are held hostage by criminals targeting Vijay Rai, the scion of a benevolent family involved in a land dispute over the construction of a new dam. Mike and Dhani team up with Spike, the bus driver, and Starr, the daughter of a non-profit activist, to protect Vijay and flee from the attackers along the treacherous roads of Nepal. 

What Works Well: This surprisingly-better-than-it-needed-to-be sequel benefits from Liam Neeson in fine form, Fan Bingbing's steely determination, and scenic but exceptionally dangerous mountain roads. The well-resourced villains include ruthless local thugs, difficult-to-kill hired mercenaries, and corrupt police officers, and the simple story of traditions versus infrastructure is enough to drive momentum. The action scenes arrive with the expected frequency and deliver uncompromising thrills.

What Does Not Work As Well: The CGI work is on a budget, character evolutions are non-existent, and the large and obvious logic gaps adhere to the best traditions of B-movies aiming for a basic adrenaline rush.

Key Quote:

Mike: The ayes have it.

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Movie Review: Absolution (2024)

Genre: Drama Thriller  

Director: Hans Petter Moland  

Starring: Liam Neeson, Ron Perlman  

Running Time: 112 minutes  

Synopsis: In Boston, Thug (Liam Neeson) is an aging underworld enforcer working for gang boss Charlie Connor (Ron Perlman). A former boxer, Thug is suffering memory lapses and is diagnosed with incurable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). He tries to repair a long-broken relationship with his daughter Daisy, creates a bond with his grandson Dre, and starts a new romance. Thug does not get along with Charlie's son Kyle (Daniel Diemer), and his disillusionment worsens when he learns about the cargo being transported by gangs between New York and Boston.

What Works Well: In this soaked character study, Liam Neeson delivers a grizzled, lived-in performance as a low-level goon exceeding his best-by date. Director Hans Petter Moland creates an end-of-the-road mood of despair filled with too many regrets and not enough time, but Thug will nonetheless attempt to make up for past errors, many of them passed on from previous generations. The dream sequences with Thug's father are a nice touch, and the few action scenes are welcome exclamation points within a book-of-life's last chapter.

What Does Not Work As Well: The emotional tone is only ever sombre or downbeat, and the pacing is excessively ponderous. Thug is surrounded by plenty of secondary characters (daughter, grandson, boss, boss' son, new lover, other gangsters and their victims), all of them genuine but none of them progressing beyond basic definitions.

Key Quote:

Dre: Mom said you were in prison. What for?

Thug: Not walking away.

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Movie Review: In The Land Of Saints And Sinners (2023)

Genre: Crime Drama  

Director: Robert Lorenz  

Starring: Liam Neeson, Kerry Condon, Ciaran Hinds  

Running Time: 106 minutes  

Synopsis: The setting is a rural village in 1970s Ireland. A small IRA unit led by the fiery Doireann (Kerry Condon) is hiding in the area after a botched bombing mission. Finbar Murphy (Liam Neeson) is a local book trader and friends with the town's law officer Vinnie (Ciaran Hinds), but secretly Finbar's real job is to assassinate targets selected by his handler Robert (Colm Meaney). After he decides to retire from killing, Finbar tangles with Doireann's brother, leading to more violence.

What Works Well: Liam Neeson transports his late-career persona as a quiet man capable of brutality to Ireland during The Troubles, and the change of scenery works. Director Robert Lorenz leverages the milieu to surround Finbar Murphy with a rich tapestry of friends, neighbours, shopkeepers, upstarts, veterans, and militants, with the added bonus of beautiful Irish scenery. The ethnic conflict and local score-settling provide Finbar plenty of opportunities to exercise his dark side, and the scenes of violence deftly demonstrate the resultant corrosion of the soul.

What Does Not Work As Well: Finbar's gun-for-hire assassination tasks for Robert appear to fly under all law enforcement radars and remain shrouded in mystery, limiting his background context. With so many local character side-stories brought into focus, some are inevitably neglected in the final act, including a budding fiddler and Doireann's sister-in-law (Sarah Greene) and her daughter.

Conclusion: In this corner of Ireland, saints can be sinners.



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Movie Review: Marlowe (2022)

Genre: Crime Drama Neo-Noir  

Director: Neil Jordan  

Starring: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, Danny Huston  

Running Time: 109 minutes  

Synopsis: In Los Angeles of 1939, private detective Philip Marlowe (Liam Neeson) is hired by the married and wealthy Clare Cavendish (Diana Kruger) to find her missing lover Nico Petersen. Marlowe's investigation leads him to Floyd Hanson (Danny Huston), manager of the exclusive Corbata Club; Clare's retired movie star mother Dorothy Quincannon (Jessica Lange); studio boss O'Reilly; mobster Lou Hendricks (Alan Cumming); and Nico's sister Lynn (Daniela Melchior). As the dead bodies start to accumulate, Marlowe is drawn into a conspiracy involving the cross-border drug trade.

What Works Well: Although the shine is artificial, the pre-war Los Angeles era is recreated with affection. The plot is suitably complicated and features the required mix of crime, cover-up, jealousy, lust, triple-crosses, and quests for elusive objects and power, all swirling around elites and wannabes who should know better.

What Does Not Work As Well: Despite borrowing Raymond Chandler's legendary creation, the milieu and people never progress beyond a sense of dress-up: neither the locations nor outfits look lived-in. The dialogue is contrived, over-extending the writing talent and leaving the characters devoid of genuineness and struggling against an empathy void. Plot twists and coincidences are more bizarre than impressive, with an apparently key influencer largely invisible and plenty of loose ends abandoned in a blizzard of unconvincing explanations.

Conclusion: The stuff that disappointments are made of.



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Movie Review: Retribution (2023)

Genre: Thriller  

Director: Nimród Antal  

Starring: Liam Neeson, Matthew Modine, Embeth Davidtz  

Running Time: 90 minutes  

Synopsis: In Berlin, hedge fund manager Matt Turner (Liam Neeson) is distracted by work and ignoring his wife Heather (Embeth Davidtz). While driving his two kids to school, a mysterious caller informs him there is a bomb under his seat. With other car bombs targeting associates of his business partner Anders Muller (Matthew Modine), Matt needs to keep driving and follow instructions to stay alive, while Europol agent Angela Brickmann (Noma Dumezweni) leads the police response.

What Works Well: This mash-up of Speed and Phone Booth benefits from picturesque Berlin locations, rational action scene editing, and Liam Neeson wringing every bit of regret from a preoccupied father and husband suddenly facing mortality. The Mercedes SUV where most of the movie takes places competes with Neeson for the central starring role.

What Does Not Work As Well: None of the plot details make any sense or survive scrutiny, starting with a villain who opts for the most convoluted body-littered path to riches. The laws of physics apply only intermittently, police chases and interventions are irrational, and key characters often side-step the most obvious action in favour of script requirements.

Conclusion: Displays some vigour, but mostly drives in all the wrong directions.



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Movie Review: The Marksman (2021)

Genre: Action Drama  

Director: Robert Lorenz  

Starring: Liam Neeson, Katheryn Winnick, Teresa Ruiz  

Running Time: 108 minutes  

Synopsis: Recently widowed and struggling financially, ex-Marine Jim Hanson (Liam Neeson) owns an Arizona ranch adjacent to the border. In Mexico, Rosa (Teresa Ruiz) and her young son Miguel are forced to flee from a violent cartel. They stumble across the fence and into Jim's path, barely ahead of cartel enforcer Mauricio (Juan Pablo Raba) and his goons. When Rosa succumbs to injuries, Jim takes on the responsibility of getting Miguel to safety, even if he has to disobey the wishes of border agent Sarah (Katheryn Winnick), who is also his step-daughter.

What Works Well: The illegal border crossing crisis is humanized under stark desert skies, and Liam Neeson oozes the pain of days gone and the unshakeable duty to do right. This is a well-controlled road-trip-chase drama punctuated by some action, as grizzled veteran and young boy get to know each other. The short but impactful investment in villain Mauricio impresses. He is introduced as yearning for a brother-in-arms soldier's identity, with a notable payoff in the climax. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Despite the good coat of polish, this is a B-movie with truncated ambitions and cringey dialogue. Plenty of narrative short-cuts are required to make the plot work, including Mexican gangsters seemingly having large swaths of the US enforcement apparatus in their pocket.

Conclusion: Enough shots hit the target to earn a solid mark.



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Movie Review: Memory (2022)

Genre: Thriller  

Director: Martin Campbell  

Starring: Liam Neeson, Guy Pearce, Monica Bellucci, Taj Atwal  

Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: In the Texas-Mexico border region, aging assassin-for-hire Alex Lewis (Liam Neeson) is experiencing early signs of dementia, including memory loss. He refuses an assignment to kill a 13 year-old child trafficking victim and turns against his employers. Meantime, FBI agents Vincent Serra and Linda Amistead (Guy Pearce and Taj Atwal) and Mexico's agent Marquez (Harold Torres) are investigating a child trafficking ring, while wealthy real estate mogul Davana Sealman (Monica Bellucci) exerts influence and hides secrets.

What Works Well: This B-movie almost succeeds in covering up its low budget, aided by investments in side plots like creeping dementia, child trafficking, and high-level corruption. The presence of Liam Neeson (old for the role but functional), Guy Pearce (fittingly bedraggled), and Monica Bellucci (evil but underused) elevates quality, and they are ably supported by a feisty Taj Atwal. Ex-Bond director Martin Campbell keeps the action hopping with multiple converging storylines punctuated by controlled action scenes.

What Does Not Work As Well: The script tries too hard, and eventually becomes cluttered with several seemingly important characters making grand entrances only to be summarily dispatched. The creaky production values are exposed by some throwaway sequences and one glaring discontinuity where a crime scene magically relocates from a parkade to a highway. The rushed ending scatters loose ends all over the screen.

Conclusion: Neither instantly forgettable not terribly memorable.



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Movie Review: Made In Italy (2020)

Genre: Father-Son Drama Comedy

Director: James D'Arcy

Starring: Liam Neeson, Lindsay Duncan, Micheál Richardson, Valeria Bilello

Running Time: 93 minutes

Synopsis: In London, Jack (Micheál Richardson) is going through a divorce and needs to raise funds for an art gallery purchase. He convinces his reclusive and formerly famous artist father Robert Foster (Liam Neeson, Micheál's real-life dad) to sell the Tuscany villa they co-own. In Italy, real estate agent Kate (Lindsay Duncan) advises Jack and Robert that they need to repair the derelict property before it can sell. As the work proceeds, Jack meets local divorced restaurateur Natalia (Valeria Bilello), while father and son start to confront the many unspoken issues between them.

What Works Well: The familiar male inability to properly communicate and express emotions anchors the drama, while most of the moments of humour, many revolving around an angry wall-sized painting at the villa, find their target. The Tuscany locations are idyllic, Liam Neeson carries the tortured artist load with suitable annoyance, and the running time is short and sweet.

What Does Not Work As Well: Almost all the underlying issues - divorce, death, guilt, disappointment -  are familiar in the extreme, and layered onto a traditional father-son relationship defined by self-applied inadequacy, emotional abandonment, and mistrust. The only surprise is the almost complete absence of originality. Some of the climactic moments are theatrically cringey.

Conclusion: Made with conviction but lacking inventiveness.



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Movie Review: Ordinary Love (2019)

A romantic drama, Ordinary Love is a simple story of a well-matched couple navigating an unwelcome health crisis.

In Belfast, Joan and Tom Thompson (Lesley Manville and Liam Neeson) are a long-married couple, both retired and still comfortably in love, although the death of their daughter in an accident years prior still hurts. Now Joan feels a lump in her left breast, and after tests reveal the presence of cancer, she embarks on treatment involving surgery and chemotherapy. Tom provides full support, but the endless hospital visits and uncertain outcomes test the marriage's harmony.

A two-person character study, Ordinary Love tracks a year-long journey through the medical system. Refreshingly, writer Owen McCafferty is interested in capturing the coping habits of adjusted adults, and co-directors Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn construct a tidy, histrionics-free drama. No villains intrude on this story, even the medical system functions when and as needed, and most scenes portray mundane but essential hospital procedures and their physical and emotional after effects.

The ordinary title underlines the normalcy of often ignored long-lasting unions, and the pragmatism Joan and Tom bring into their year of turmoil does mean the film lacks sparks. This sophisticated marriage balances on communication, demonstrated appreciation, companionship, sensuality, and limitless love. The couple do lose their composure on a couple of testing occasions, but are quick to recalibrate. 

Barros D'Sa and Leyburn inject vibrancy by actively seeking interesting perspectives and playful lighting, with an emphasis on orderly symmetry, straight lines, and stark contrasts. The palette is dominated by the grey skies of Northern Ireland and the equally grey aesthetics of hospitals and doctors' offices.

The film demands perfect central performances, and Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville provide an immediate sense of two people comfortable in their own skin and just as comfortable as a couple aware of entrenched quirks and instinctively calibrated rhythms. As the patient subjected to a barrage of medical procedures, Manville pushes into a raw and physically demanding performance. The only other notable characters are gay couple Peter and Steve (David Wilmot and Amit Shah). They are also going through cancer treatment, providing Joan and Tom an opportunity to compare, contrast, and interact.

No extraordinary acts reside within Ordinary Love - other than the quiet demonstration of resiliency, seemingly effortless but actually nurtured over decades.



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Movie Review: Blacklight (2022)

An action thriller, Blacklight rehashes tired ideas with plastic production values and an inane script.

In Washington DC, political nominee Sofia Flores is murdered in a staged hit-and-run. Meanwhile the FBI's off-the-books fixer Travis Block (Liam Neeson) extracts an undercover agent after her identity is revealed by a violent white nationalist group. Despite suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder, Travis has been quietly helping FBI Director Gabriel Robinson (Aidan Quinn) for years, but now wants to slow down and spend more time with his granddaughter.

But his plans to drift into retirement are disrupted when disgruntled FBI agent Dusty Crane approaches reporter Mira Jones (Emmy Raver-Lampman) with shocking revelations about Flores' death and a secret program run by Robinson targeting civilians. Travis attempts to bring Dusty under control, but assassins are soon in pursuit.

The plot becomes more ludicrous with every passing scene, the car chases are boring, the shoot-outs are muddled and over-the-top, the production design is flat, and the dialogue is at the first-draft level. Other than Neeson, the acting sinks to daytime television levels. Blacklight is an embarrassment all around, director and co-writer Mark Williams somehow frittering a production budget of $40 million on a witless and instantly forgettable debacle.

The levels of ineptitude are staggering. The hit-and-run death of a popular political candidate in Washington DC is shrugged off. Dusty exposes himself to exceptional risks arranging in-person meetings to provide information he could have sent in an email. An FBI agent is gunned down on the street and no one bothers to investigate. An enormous gunfight takes place at the home of the FBI Director, leaving about a dozen dead bodies littered on the premises, and not one siren is heard in the distance. And family members are threatened...by being placed in a witness protection program.

Neeson cruises through Blacklight seemingly oblivious to the surrounding dross. At 70 he is far too old for the role, but at least his grandfather label is the only plot element that rings true.



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Movie Review: Before And After (1996)

A choppy crime and legal drama, Before And After flounders in search of logic and focus.

In a rural Massachusetts community, pediatrician Dr. Carolyn Ryan (Meryl Streep) is married to industrial sculptor Ben (Liam Neeson). Their life is shattered when their son Jacob (Edward Furlong) becomes the prime suspect in the murder of local teenager Martha Taverner. Jacob, who is now missing, was the last person seen with the victim.

Carolyn is convinced it's all a misunderstanding. But Ben finds and destroys apparent evidence of foul play he finds in the trunk of Jacob's car. When the young man is apprehended, Carolyn and Ben hire lawyer Panos Demeris (Alfred Molina) to mount a defence. Not satisfied with evidence tampering, Ben fabricates a fake narrative to try and secure a not guilty verdict for his son.

An adaptation of a Rosellen Brown book, Before And After features a decent small-town mood, and the occasional spark in conveying a family in turmoil. As the narrator pondering the life-changing impact of a sudden crisis, daughter Judith (Julia Weldon) adds a peripheral but important observer's presence.

But otherwise, this drama barely rises above routine television fare, the Ted Tally script several drafts away from cinematic quality and never settling on a compelling theme. Stooping to the level of an asinine story, director Barbet Schroeder fails to leverage the talent at his disposal. Meryl Streep is caught in material well beneath her standards and delivers a disengaged, almost comatose performance. Liam Neeson oscillates between concerned father and outright boor working hard to make a bad situation worse.

Schroeder builds up to legal showdowns but never enters the courtroom, engaging instead in pre and post theatrics. Other structural problems arrive early then multiply. Ben never pauses to think whether the evidence in his son's trunk may vindicate rather incriminate, while prime suspect Jacob remains silent when it suits the script, then suddenly decides to spill the beans. Still thinking he is the smartest person in the community when plenty of clues suggest otherwise, Ben concots a web of lies that would never survive rudimentary examination. By this bewildering point, father, mother, son, and lawyer carry divergent agendas and different versions of the same events into the legal proceedings.

The one consistent thread is a dad's complex and misplaced devotion expressed through ill-advised acts and short-tempered confrontations. Guilty or not, with Ben as a father Jacob is already doomed.



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Movie Review: Honest Thief (2020)

A crime thriller, Honest Thief offers an interesting protagonist but is otherwise formulaic to a fault.

Tom Dolan (Liam Neeson) is an aging professional non-violent bank safe robber known as the In and Out Bandit. Never caught or identified, he has successfully committed multiple thefts in various states over many years, stealing a total of $9 million. He moves to the Boston area where he meets and falls in love with divorcée Annie Wilkins (Kate Walsh). One year later, Tom is ready to leave crime behind and settle down with Annie, and he decides to first clear his conscious by surrendering to the FBI. He connects with Agent Sam Baker (Robert Patrick) and proposes to return all the money in exchange for a short sentence at a minimum security prison.

Agents Nivens (Jai Courtney) and Hall (Anthony Ramos) are dispatched to close the deal, but the corrupt Nivens spots an opportunity to steal the money and pressures Hall to go along. Baker's untimely appearance results in a shooting. Tom and Annie find themselves on the run with Tom now accused of murder, while Baker's partner Agent Sean Meyers (Jeffrey Donovan) starts to investigate.

The character of Tom Dolan provides Honest Thief with an intriguing-enough core. Liam Neeson injects gruff humanity into the gentleman thief, and just about sells Dolan's difficult decision to turn himself in and admit his crimes. The driving motivation is his love for Annie, and the script by Steve Allrich and director Mark Williams deserves credit for placing a caring, non-violent central character into the middle of an otherwise stock thriller.

Unfortunately, Honest Thief stumbles everywhere else. Logic gaps and lack of attention to details are a constant hazard, including Dolan carelessly yielding the keys to his storage locker, and then bad guys Nivens and Hall stealing boxes full of cash under the watchful gaze of security cameras. Later, a car is totalled but re-emerges unscathed in the following scenes (unless it's a hastily procured replica).

The action scenes are rudimentary and repetitive, with director Williams demonstrating a penchant for plenty of bullets fired but few bullets hitting any meaningful targets. The physical combat scuffles involving 67 year old Neeson are even less convincing, despite Dolan's purported background as a mine-clearing Marine. And once the stage is set with Dolan framed and Meyers dragged into the investigation, the outcome is crushingly predictable.

In the supporting roles, Jai Courtney has limited room to expand on prime villain Agent Nivens, merrily descending into industrial-scale criminality and expecting no one to notice. Jeffrey Donovan fares better as the recently divorced Agent Meyers, his ex-wife's dog providing a nice touch. Honest Thief is honest enough as functional entertainment, but honestly not that good.



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Movie Review: The Ice Road (2021)

A truckers-in-danger thriller, The Ice Road enjoys some impressive visuals, plenty of rumbling heavy machinery, and wild action, but cannot overcome a plastic script and tired plot.

In northern Manitoba, a devastating explosion at the Katka diamond mine traps 26 men underground. With oxygen running out within 30 hours, a desperate plea is issued for truckers willing to risk delivering heavy rescue equipment on fragile ice roads, a month past the safe season for ground transport.

Truck company owner Jim Goldenrod (Laurence Fishburne) responds to the call and recruits driver Mike McCann (Liam Neeson) and his ace mechanic brother Gurty (Marcus Thomas), a veteran suffering from brain injuries. Cree woman Tantoo (Amber Midthunder) joins them as the third driver of three similarly equipped trucks, while insurance company representative Varnay (Benjamin Walker) tags along. The trip is already precarious, but evil conspiratorial forces are at play.

Co-funded by the Government of Manitoba and mashing no less a classic than The Wages Of Fear with television’s Ice Road Truckers, The Ice Road offers the basis of a good idea but falls well short of delivering the necessary goods. Writer and director Jonathan Hensleigh works from a script several drafts away from a final product. The incomprehensible elements include an illogical nefarious plot at the mine, a timeline that seems to ignore the many hours needed to deploy the necessary heavy equipment, and a bewildering thin-the-herd drama among the trapped miners. Willing but under-powered cast members appear to get one take to spout dull lines of dialogue with understandable befuddlement.

The on-the-ice action is modestly tolerable but driven over-the-top by rampant CGI, while many seemingly difficult hurdles (such as how to recover two massive trucks both tipped onto their sides in the middle of nowhere) are merrily skipped over with no technical explanation necessary. The easy-to-spot villain turns into an indestructible force more powerful than anything mother nature can throw at our protagonists. Here Liam Neeson usually saves the day by dragging whatever material is thrown at him towards respectability, but this time the load is too heavy. While moments between the brothers Mike and Gurty offer some warmth in the frigid surroundings, Neeson is reduced to trying too hard.

Amber Midthunder as Tantoo offers the other tolerable side-story, her character battling racist attitudes and a chequered history with Goldenrod as she persists to save her brother among the trapped men. But despite hints of worthwhile entertainment, The Ice Road falls through the cracks.



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Movie Review: The Next Three Days (2010)

A prison escape thriller, The Next Three Days features an ordinary man hatching an extraordinary plot to save his wife from a life behind bars.

In Pittsburgh, John and Lara Brennan (Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks) are a typical middle class couple raising their young son Luke. John is a community college teacher and Lara is an office worker, but their life is suddenly turned upside down when she is arrested and convicted for murdering her boss, a crime she strenuously denies committing. But with circumstantial evidence stacked against her, all appeals are denied.

In desperation, John consults with prison escape expert Damon Pennington (Liam Neeson), and starts to plan a breakout for Lara. He surveils the prison to identify weak points, attempts to buy forged papers from dangerous underworld types, and sells the house to raise money, all while holding onto his job, caring for Luke as a single parent, and regularly visiting Lara without revealing what he is up to. John's amateurish mistakes threaten his plan and endanger his life, but when he learns Lara will be transferred to another prison, he is forced to act.

Written and directed by Paul Haggis and delivered in a measured flashback structure, The Next Three Days is a remake of the 2008 French movie Pour Elle. This is a well-paced and tense thriller, building excitement around a familiar couple thrust into an existential crisis. The deep connection between husband and wife infuses John's otherwise insane quest with nobility, and the film asks how far an ordinary man will go to save his wife. The answer passes through plenty of bungling and missteps, providing the narrative with a thread of anxious fragility. 

The plot rides on John's everyman attributes as an undoubtedly smart man also indisputably out of his depth, and Russell Crowe admirably sinks into the role. This is Crowe with grim determination, an amateur's fresh set of eyes, some beginner's luck, and little else, starting from a clean slate of inexperience to try and devise an audacious breakout. Haggis wrestles dangerous charm out of his antics, but also pushes too hard in some muddled entanglements with thug-types.

Other less than stellar moments include patchy representations of police work consisting of several undefined detectives running in different directions, and only an abstract recreation of the trigger crime event with no sympathy for the victim.

Elizabeth Banks contributes steel and passion, but fades out for long stretches. The cast also includes Brian Dennehy as John's emotionally distant father and Olivia Wilde as a single mom in John's neighbourhood. With small but pivotal contributions, both will influence the outcome. 

The final third switches gears into the electrifying escape-in-progress, Haggis disclosing just enough about John's plan to confirm all will not go well. Unexpected twists and detours demand on-the-fly improvisation, and as John and Lara attempt to navigate their way out of a difficult maze, The Next Three Days deploys deliciously surprising ploys. An amateur has no clue but also no preconceptions, and the uncertainty delivers manic enjoyment.



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Movie Review: Suspect (1987)

A second-rate courtroom drama, Suspect suffers from far-fetched character behaviour, stilted dialogue and uninspired performances.

In Washington DC, respected senior judge Justice Lowell (Thomas Barbour) shockingly takes his own life. Soon after, Justice Department clerk Elizabeth Quinn (Katie O'Hare) is found murdered. The main suspect in the Quinn case is homeless hobo Carl Wayne Anderson (Liam Neeson), a Vietnam War veteran rendered deaf and dumb by post-war afflictions.

Overworked public defendant Kathleen Riley (Cher) is assigned to defend Carl, with Judge Helms (John Mahoney) presiding at the trial and Charlie Stella (Joe Mantegna) prosecuting. Enterprising milk industry lobbyist Eddie Sanger (Dennis Quaid) is on the jury and starts discretely helping Kathleen by uncovering evidence that could prove Carl's innocence. Kathleen and Eddie also start to get attracted to each other, threatening the integrity of the trial.

While the talent on both sides of the camera suggests a quality production, Suspect never convinces. Writer Eric Roth scrounges for obscure ideas and arrives at a slick lobbyist deciding, for never explained reasons but maybe having something to do with irritation at being unable to avoid jury duty, to play amateur detective, contaminating the trial not just by colluding with the public defendant but also pursuing her romantically.

Elsewhere the accused Carl Anderson as a deaf and dumb victim of an uncaring society is an interesting angle, but director Peter Yates is never quite able to navigate to a place where the disabilities are just a plot enhancement and not a cinematic hindrance. Liam Neeson, by not saying a word, elevates himself above most of the rest of the material. 

As for the larger conspiracy surrounding Elizabeth Quinn's death, Riley and Sanger eventually uncover corruption from years past involving powerful people, although not powerful enough to remove incriminating evidence from a filing cabinet drawer accessible to any lowly clerk.

The courtroom verbal sparring borders on bland, both Cher and a disinterested Joe Mantegna defaulting to conviction-free blank line readings and fake over-emoting. A couple of badly executed and tension-free action scenes are thrown in, including Cher running around in an empty building with an assailant in pursuit for what seems like an eternity. The very next day she is back in the courtroom, but really, with a rushed and raucous ending flattening all remaining plot credibility, she need not have bothered.



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Movie Review: Shining Through (1992)

A World War Two spy drama and romance, Shining Through enjoys sterling production values but suffers from wonky plot elements.

An elderly Linda Voss (Melanie Griffith) is being interviewed by the BBC about her experiences during World War Two. In flashback, she recounts her story starting in 1940. Half-Jewish, raised by working class parents in Queens, fluent in German, and a big fan of movies about war and espionage, Linda secures a secretarial job in Manhattan. She is assigned to assist undercover intelligence officer Ed Leland (Michael Douglas) as he questions German immigrants about the locations of factories and rail lines in their homeland. 

They fall in love, but Linda and Ed's romance is interrupted when the US joins the war and he is deployed behind enemy lines. When he re-emerges she volunteers for a dangerous spy mission to infiltrate a Nazi commander's home and steal bomb-manufacturing secrets. In Berlin Linda connects with Allied spies Friedrichs (John Gielgud) and the alluring Margrete von Eberstein (Joely Richardson). After some mishaps she secures employment as a domestic worker for General Franz-Otto Dietrich (Liam Neeson), and attempts to track down Jewish relatives who may be hiding from the Nazis.

An adaptation of the Susan Isaacs novel written and directed by David Seltzer, Shining Through exudes quality thanks to a polished look. The 1940s are recreated in fine detail, both in the United States and especially in Germany under the Nazis. With filming locations in eastern Germany just after unification, Seltzer captures picturesque streetscapes, buildings, offices, mansions, uniforms, cars, trams and trains from the era. Nazi symbols dominate, Germany on a full war footing but also starting to experience the sting of Allied bombing raids.

But while the visuals are rich, the story is handicapped by a higher than usual level of clunkiness, the plot holes threatening to swallow the entire adventure. Ed is a master spy frequently operating in enemy territory but cannot speak a word of German. He agrees to deploy the untrained and half-Jewish Linda into the field for a crucial mission. The seemingly well-connected and rich Dietrich hires Linda to live in his home and look after his children without the most basic confirmation of her background. She then hustles his young but observant children around on buses and into a fishmonger's store run by an Allied spy.

The action scenes are equally improbable, including a confrontation with a double agent and a climax at a border crossing, both veering towards death-defying over-the-top melodramatics.

Melanie Griffith helps navigate the rough patches with a seductively gutsy performance. Michael Douglas is surprisingly stone faced, and as a result the romance between Ed and Linda operates at only lukewarm temperatures. Liam Neeson hints at a complex character residing within Dietrich, and deserved more screen time.

Peppered with references to 1940s World War Two movies, Shining Through rides an innocent and old fashioned attitude all the way to a pat ending, but the feel-good intentions are forced to shine through perforated logic.



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Movie Review: Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down The White House (2017)

A political drama and biography, Mark Felt lifts the curtain to reveal a glimpse of the man behind the Watergate information leaks.

It's 1972 in Washington D.C, and legendary FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover dies from a stroke. His loyal Deputy Mark Felt (Liam Neeson), a staunch defender of the agency's mission, has every expectation he will be promoted to the top job. Instead the Nixon White House appoints inexperienced bureaucrat Pat Grey (Marton Csokas) as Acting Director. Mark's loyal wife Audrey (Diane Lane) is as disappointed as her husband.

The break-in at the Watergate Hotel starts to the make the news, and Felt mobilizes the FBI to investigate. But in short order pressure mounts from the White House to wind down the probe. Felt finds it increasingly difficult to function in an FBI subjugated by politics and witch hunts, and starts secretly feeding classified information to Time reporter Sandy Smith (Bruce Greenwood) and the Washington Post's Bob Woodward (Julian Morris).

At age 91 in 2005, Mark Felt revealed his identity as the informer known as Deep Throat, and he died just three years later. The film is caught in the gap between his story as a person and his famous whistleblower actions that helped bring down President Richard Nixon. In the end director and writer Peter Landesman, adapting the books by Felt and John O'Connor, offers a middling portrait of the man and a muddled foray into the political scandal.

Mark Felt spends large chunks of time away from the Watergate drama, occupied with an inside look at the FBI's machinations, good and bad. The agency's pride, efficiency and professionalism are a firewall against political interference, and the rot starts to spread when the White House seizes the opportunity of Hoover's death to plant one of their own at the organization's head. Felt tries to defend the fort, but it's a losing battle and eventually he resorts to press leaks as a weapon of last resort.

Maybe because the men surrounding Nixon are largely absent from the narrative and the White House's perspective is conveyed in television snippets, once Watergate erupts and grips the nation, the film is surprisingly inert. Landesman skips explaining the gravity of what Felt passed on to reporters, and a rush to the end credits leaves an empty feeling.

Felt's home life is introduced through a few interactions with his wife Audrey and their shared trauma over the disappearance of their daughter Joan (Maika Monroe) presumably to the world of hippie communes. The domestic sub-plot is conflated with the bombing campaign perpetrated by the Weather Underground. While all the background adds good context, it also serves to detract from Felt's role in one of the nation's greatest political dramas.

Liam Neeson is reliable if rather monotonal as an upstanding and upright FBI agent incredulous as the agency atrophies from the top. He defines the film's suitably nondescript shade, perhaps the best tribute to the man who managed to change history and remain totally invisible.

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Movie Review: A Prayer For The Dying (1987)

A character study set in the shadow of the Irish Troubles, A Prayer For The Dying offers a plethora of moral dilemmas but is hampered by choppy momentum. 

In Northern Ireland an Irish Republican Army unit including Martin Fallon (Mickey Rourke) and Liam Docherty (Liam Neeson) mistakenly blows up a bus full of school girls. Martin flees to London and attempts to put violence behind him, but mortician and mobster boss Jack Meehan (Alan Bates) and his psychotic brother Billy (Christopher Fulford) pressure Martin into one last murder to eliminate an underworld rival in exchange for a new passport and money.

Martin reluctantly commits the murder, but is witnessed in the act by Father Da Costa (Bob Hoskins). Martin spares the priest's life but follows him to his church and confesses to the murder in the confession booth, forcing the Father into silence. Meehan is unhappy about the loose end and sets about intimidating both Martin and Da Costa. Docherty embarks on his own search to bring Martin back into the revolutionary fold, while Martin starts to develop feelings for Da Costa's blind niece Anna (Sammi Davis).

A drama with snippets of action and tension, A Prayer For The Dying works best as an examination of regret as the dark shadows of Martin Fallon's victims finally catch up with him. The film's focus is on the collision between his intentions to start anew and the reality of his reputation as an expert in killing. A hardened criminal cannot just walk away, and everyone from his former IRA colleagues to the gangsters of London and English enforcement authorities are interested in finding and pressuring him.

The film is based on a Jack Higgins novel, and he helped to co-write the script. Mike Hodges directs, and both are victimized by content spread too thin. By the time the characters are all introduced and the tense dynamic is established between Fallon, Da Costa and Meehan, the film stalls. Hodges has to find a rickety excuse to keep Fallon hanging around near the church, and chunks of screen time are consumed by uninteresting side quests including the unhinged Billy running loose, the clunky romance between Fallon and Anna, and Da Costa tangling with Meehan.

Mickey Rourke sports bright red hair as a neon sign to his Irishness, but does not bother to change it to any other colour once Fallon is designated Britain's most wanted fugitive. Rourke's performance walks a tightrope between cool and disinterested, and ultimately he does just enough to hold the film together. Bob Hoskins never quite convinces as an ex-military operative now playing at being a man of religion. Alan Bates bites into the role of Jack Meehan with an expensive overcoat, shiny teeth and a snarky smile, taking immense pride in preparing corpses for burials and ordering his goons to create more.

Fallon has to decide whether to kill or not, Da Costa whether to betray his vows and talk or not, and Meehan whether he can tolerate witnesses to his dirty work. A Prayer For The Dying asks the right questions, but is not as good at concentrating on the answers.

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Movie Review: Taken (2008)

An action thriller, Taken is a slick pursuit film enhanced by an unrelenting pace, polished execution and Liam Neeson in a career re-defining performance.

In California, Bryan Mills (Neeson) has retired from a career as a CIA undercover operative to settle near his seventeen year old daughter Kim (Maggie Grace), an aspiring singer. Bryan's constant absence from home caused the breakup of his marriage to Lenore (Famke Janssen), and he is now hoping to make up for lost time by being part of his daughter's life.

Bryan reluctantly agrees to allow Kim to travel to Paris for a sightseeing adventure with her friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy), and his worst fears come true when they are both abducted by a brutal gang of Albanian human traffickers. Learning Kim will be sold into sex slavery within hours, Bryan swings into action and travels to Paris to pursue the kidnappers in an attempt to locate and free his daughter.

Produced and co-written by Luc Besson, Taken recasts Liam Neeson as an unlikely action hero, here as a man with "a very particular set of skills" and more than willing to use them as necessary. The film is often exhilarating, combining Parisian settings with a bull-in-a-china-shop mentality as Mills does a good impression of a bowling ball knocking down all the pins in the path of finding his daughter.

In addition to Besson's touch and Pierre Morel's controlled direction, Taken rises above typical action fare thanks to a concerted effort in the first third to colour in the pertinent details of Bryan Mills' life. He has retired early to try and reconnect with his daughter and make amends for all the times he was never present, and Kim is now the reluctant centre of his universe. He maintains a strained but functional relationship with his remarried ex-wife, and Neeson is convincing as a good guy willing to fully dedicate himself to domesticity, owning his past and accepting his failings.

The asymmetrical father-daughter bond sits at the heart of the film, and makes his quest all the more intense. The abduction scene with Mills on the other end of Kim's phone as she tries to hide from her assailants is an excellent foundation for the manic action to come, and once Mills packs his bags and heads to Paris, the French capital will never be quite the same again.

His ability to emerge victorious in numerous encounters with countless foes is of course ridiculous, but also ridiculously fun. Mills quickly latches onto the outer edges of the Albanian gang and works his way towards the centre in a wondrous series of set-piece featuring car chases (with a yacht thrown in for good measure), infiltrations, impersonations, explosions, torture, close quarters combat and no shortage of rapid fire killings.

Along the way he also exposes look-the-other-way French police corruption, and Taken shines a much needed light on the horrific human trafficking industry, modern-day for-profit slavery exploited by organized crime. Bryan Mills sets out to rescue his daughter with steely determination, but tragically innumerable current and future real Kims also need urgent help.

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