Former hit-man Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) finds himself on a collision course with mob boss and former employer Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris) after he kills Shawn's son Danny Maguire (Boyd Holbrook) when Danny attempts to shoot Jimmy's son Mike (Joel Kinnaman). Jimmy and Mike's father/son relationship is poor, but the two men find they must put their differences aside and work together to try to stay one step ahead of Shawn and his mob who are seeking vengeance against the two men.
Here we are again with another Neeson action vehicle and yes it is hard to see Neeson as anyone other than Brian Mills when watching these sort of films. That being said if you're prepared to accept with this film that 'what you see is what you get' then there is still some enjoyment to be had from this picture.
In some ways this is quite an interesting film as to me it had no real antagonist; although Conlon and Maguire end up facing off against each other these two men are practically civilians at the start; Neeson has retired and leads a fairly quiet life where his only vice seems to be that he likes his booze a bit too much. Harris is a man that has made some dodgy decisions in the past and wants to leave that life behind him and stay legit. The two men are friends in the early stages with Maguire very much looking after Conlon due to his fragile emotional state. This does give the face off more emotional weight than most action films as you really feel that this is the last thing that the two men want to do and it kind of creates a bit of tension in an indirect manner.
Although I liked this film it's another action film that suffers from some problematic writing; my main issue in terms of character and writing lay with Neeson's character Jimmy Conlon; his son portrays him as a bad father and forbids him from seeing his children, but at no point are we offered any insight or explanation as to what his failings were or why Jimmy and his son fell out? If Jimmy was shown as being an uncaring and selfish individual at any point during this film then his failings would have been self-explanatory, but he is very protective of his son and does everything he can to keep him out of harms way??? This is not a big deal and in no way impacts on one's enjoyment of the film, but it's sloppiness and poor character development such as this that often drags many action films down. In some ways this has a knock on effect with the 'family dynamics' and whilst they're necessary to try to present an emotional core all these efforts become practically redundant when we're given no understanding of the root cause. There are other narrative issues such as Conlon going from being an inept alcoholic one minute to being a super tough assassin the next minute, but again these things are a given nowadays for action films.
At 110 minutes this film is a little too long and this is further evidenced by a moderately tense but ridiculously long final act.
Taken for what it is then this is an enjoyable action thriller (particularly if you can ignore all the gaps in the writing). Neeson and Harris are superb as usual and the supporting cast are all solid as well. If you've enjoyed Neeson's previous action outings then this is worth a look.
Here we are again with another Neeson action vehicle and yes it is hard to see Neeson as anyone other than Brian Mills when watching these sort of films. That being said if you're prepared to accept with this film that 'what you see is what you get' then there is still some enjoyment to be had from this picture.
In some ways this is quite an interesting film as to me it had no real antagonist; although Conlon and Maguire end up facing off against each other these two men are practically civilians at the start; Neeson has retired and leads a fairly quiet life where his only vice seems to be that he likes his booze a bit too much. Harris is a man that has made some dodgy decisions in the past and wants to leave that life behind him and stay legit. The two men are friends in the early stages with Maguire very much looking after Conlon due to his fragile emotional state. This does give the face off more emotional weight than most action films as you really feel that this is the last thing that the two men want to do and it kind of creates a bit of tension in an indirect manner.
Although I liked this film it's another action film that suffers from some problematic writing; my main issue in terms of character and writing lay with Neeson's character Jimmy Conlon; his son portrays him as a bad father and forbids him from seeing his children, but at no point are we offered any insight or explanation as to what his failings were or why Jimmy and his son fell out? If Jimmy was shown as being an uncaring and selfish individual at any point during this film then his failings would have been self-explanatory, but he is very protective of his son and does everything he can to keep him out of harms way??? This is not a big deal and in no way impacts on one's enjoyment of the film, but it's sloppiness and poor character development such as this that often drags many action films down. In some ways this has a knock on effect with the 'family dynamics' and whilst they're necessary to try to present an emotional core all these efforts become practically redundant when we're given no understanding of the root cause. There are other narrative issues such as Conlon going from being an inept alcoholic one minute to being a super tough assassin the next minute, but again these things are a given nowadays for action films.
At 110 minutes this film is a little too long and this is further evidenced by a moderately tense but ridiculously long final act.
Taken for what it is then this is an enjoyable action thriller (particularly if you can ignore all the gaps in the writing). Neeson and Harris are superb as usual and the supporting cast are all solid as well. If you've enjoyed Neeson's previous action outings then this is worth a look.