Directed by
Scott Frank
Starring
Liam Neeson
Dan Stevens
David Harbour
Let’s stretch poetic licence as
far as we can here and rename A Walk
Among The Tombstones. Let’s give it a more appropriate title. Let’s give it
something that really gets to the heart of the movie. Taken – Light. There, that was easy! And therein lays the problem.
Much like the affliction that will haunt Aaron Paul throughout his career, if
you give Liam Neeson a gun and a phone, you are automatically watching Taken.
Since the massive success of Taken, Neeson has starred in The Grey, Taken 2, The Dark Knight Rises, Battleship
and Wrath Of The Titans. It’s
almost as if Schindler’s List never
happened.
The reason I refer to the movie
as Taken - Light is because that’s what
it is. Imagine Taken if you
subtracted the majority of the budget, nobody travelled to Europe and if our
hero “hunted down” what were, ultimately, cheaper, tackier bad guys. The movie
even tries to replicate the epic phone conversation from Taken which we all know by now. It fails. Miserably. The lines are
feeble and the movie lacks the suspense necessary to make this flick anything
other than a poor substitute for the real thing. No, non-alcoholic beer is not
just as nice and no, Diet Coke is not as satisfying.
As an exercise in fairness, let’s
examine the movie as if Taken never
happened. Neeson plays the part of Matt Scudder, an ex-cop turned off-the-books
private detective who has the skills to make life difficult for yada yada yada.
The main story revolves around the kidnapping of drug dealers’ wives. Yes, you
read that correctly. We are expected to feel pity for drug dealers – the bane
of modern society. Are we to just pretend that these people don’t have horrible day jobs that prey off
the weak and the vulnerable?
“Oh I am sorry Mr Hitler, I will
try to get your wife back in your loving arms as soon as possible.” Something
about that picture doesn’t quite command my empathy.
The action is substandard for
what is an action movie and perhaps most alarmingly, there are no chase scenes
in a movie that cries out for one. In fact, the story is so
undeserving of your empathy that you are left to look for something that
warrants your affection.
This brings me
the best thing about AWATT; the relationship between Neeson and his homeless
young protégé, played by Brian Bradley. The bond between the odd couple of
crime detection draws you in, makes you laugh and really care about the two of
them by the end. This is the movie’s greatest achievement. One thing the makers
of the movie did right was to utilise Neeson’s great talent as an actor. They
effectively try to build the movie around the relationships between him and his
co-stars. The only problem is, the story was pathetic for the most part. Even
by the end of the movie, other than Neeson and his little buddy, I did not care
a jot about any of the other players in the movie. The bad guys were more
slapstick than intimidating and I feel as though I actually know less about Neeson’s
character than I did when the movie began. Sure, there’s the odd life-changing,
epiphanous flashback straight from an 80's B movie but it presents you with more
questions than answers. Namely, why did Neeson ever shave off that goatee? Spartans faces are in right now and for most they are disgraceful but on Neeson,
he looks like a proud, carnivorous beast, straight from the planes of the
Serengeti – magnificent!
Movies don’t have to be made on
huge budgets but if you don’t have the budget, you need a fine cast and a
riveting story to make a good movie. Neeson fails to save this movie from
becoming the parody of an action movie that it is.
The ending - if you can call it
that - while final, leaves a sour taste in the mouth. The t's are crossed and
the lower case j's are dotted…but is that it? Is that all we get? The movie
builds up to a huge climax but for some reason we’re not allowed to see it. Did
they run out of money to shoot the most important part of the film? Perhaps
this is a kick in the face to the punters, just like the end of The Sopranos. One would hope not - that show
gave us years of riveting televisual orgasms to qualify that anomaly.
I should probably try and say
nice things about the movie now. Well, there are two. Sometimes the movie is so
dark and unerring that it echoes some of the taboo subjects from the thrilling
Prisoners, starring Hugh Jackman. The movie pushes boundaries and moral
buttons, even if only for a short time. However, the biggest positive of the
movie is the fact that Neeson doesn’t have a horrible ex-wife named after
laundry detergent and a spoiled-rotten daughter ruining his existence as he
tries to save the day. That’s one thing that this movie has over Taken…and that is about it!
The movie’s tagline is also the
film’s most stirring line – “people are afraid of all the wrong things”. This alludes
to a darkness could have opened a door to a whole new movie and could have separated
the film from everything Taken about
the movie. Sadly, they didn’t have the bravery or testicular fortitude to
follow through. Very disappointing - much like the movie itself.
As for Neeson; it says it all
when there is a Taken 3 in the works
and a cinematic masterpiece like Schindler’s
List will never happen again. Money talks and the people want dross!
Rating - UUU
Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6Ttj9tXzCA
