Where I Watched It: On Demand
English Audio Description Available?: Yes
I was just thinking to myself, it’s been five minutes… has Liam Neeson made another film yet? It’s kind of funny when you look at his career and see how normal it was, then Taken happened, and all of a sudden this actor’s actor is playing consistently in action films where he’s a guy with a particular set of skills.
And for a while, it was fun. Not that the world ever needed sequels to Taken (or a TV show for that matter), but I enjoyed several Neeson action/thrillers. Non Stop, Unknown, A Walk Among The Tombstones, The Commuter, and my favorite of the bunch, Run All night all fall into this zone. Then, something happened, and streaming started absorbing his films, and his mass output was used to survive the pandemic, and I don’t even believe his first project this year even went theatrical.
Now, he’s back playing the greatest hits. He’s once again a guy with a particular set of skills, except this time, he’s so old that the twist to this film is that his race against time isn’t against an organization or an impending deadline, but rather Alzheimer’s. Yes, Neeson is now making Alzheimer’s movies.
I suppose there was nowhere else to go. He’s played out the particular set of skills trope so many times, the only other place he can go now is into these weird areas. However, unlike the first Neeson film of 2022, this film isn’t total and complete garbage.
It’s not great either. So don’t get excited. He snagged the director of Casino Royale, Martin Campbell, so you know this film at least had a fighting chance to not suck. Then he called upon Guy Pearce. now, that really doesn’t mean shit, because the last film featured Aidan Quinn, but it’s nice to know Pearce was on board. Then, they also got Monica Bellucci, before filling up the cast with random people they found on the street that had never acted in their life. One of the biggest failures of this film was the casting director, who spent their money on God knows what, because none of these other actors will ever be heard from again.
Somewhere in here is a messed up script about a young girl being sex trafficked by her father to rich and powerful people, and the move to hire an assassin to kill her. But instead, his heart grew five sizes that day, and the man bites dog, and we have a movie. Although, even though the assassin now has a conscience, the law still frowns upon contract killing. It’s OK though, because his Alzheimer’s will soon come in as a factor to this Oscar winning plot.
Beneath all this is an audio description team tasked with having to describe yet another Neeson project, so i feel for them, and I’m sad they wern’t listed in the credits. Since Neeson’s character is rapidly deteriorating, they had to work in all of that into the plot as well. At least it’s not as sad as watching Ray Liotta’s last role where he played someone who was dying. Neeson, to my knowledge doesn’t have Alzheimer’s or Dementia, though this will be an odd rewatch if that ever came to fruition.
Will you like it? I don’t know. Probably not. Though that could be said of many of his films, yet they keep happening. So, somewhere out there, people love this shit, and those people will eat this up. But those who take the time to read a random review on a blog, are likely discerning enough to only want Neeson at his best, and while he has managed a better film than his last, this is still far from being a top 10 neeson film.
Like the title suggests, ten years from now, you unironically will not remember this.
Final Grade: C
