![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZTAyY2UzN2EtMjc4My00Njk3LThhMGYtZjFhODViZDMzZTBjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,25,500,281_.jpg)
Liam Neeson in Mark Williams’ action thriller Blacklight. Courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment.
Liam Neeson has enjoyed an unusual career arc. The distinguished actor wasn’t considered an action hero until he unleashed his now-famous “particular set of skills” on the bad dudes what snatched his daughter in 2008’s Taken. At the time, he was 60 – an age when actors not named Bronson, Willis or Eastwood begin slowing down, rather than ramping up the adrenaline levels in their script selections. Unfortunately, this outing, Blacklight, fails to land in his admirably lengthy plus column.
In the string of Taken flicks and others, his motivation was personal and familial. Some comedian remarked that after three Taken adventures, his Bryan Mills character may not be a hero – just a really negligent dad. This time Neeson strays into clandestine political machinations in a vehicle that’s as poorly timed as it was written.
Leeson’s Travis...
Liam Neeson has enjoyed an unusual career arc. The distinguished actor wasn’t considered an action hero until he unleashed his now-famous “particular set of skills” on the bad dudes what snatched his daughter in 2008’s Taken. At the time, he was 60 – an age when actors not named Bronson, Willis or Eastwood begin slowing down, rather than ramping up the adrenaline levels in their script selections. Unfortunately, this outing, Blacklight, fails to land in his admirably lengthy plus column.
In the string of Taken flicks and others, his motivation was personal and familial. Some comedian remarked that after three Taken adventures, his Bryan Mills character may not be a hero – just a really negligent dad. This time Neeson strays into clandestine political machinations in a vehicle that’s as poorly timed as it was written.
Leeson’s Travis...
- 2/11/2022
- by Mark Glass
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNmYwNzVkYTUtNDI0OS00OTdhLTkzYmItOTA1MjQyN2U2ZjY5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)
If “Blacklight” were any more generic, it would have a barcode instead of opening credits, and jettison its title in favor of a stenciled label: Liam Neeson Thriller. But if you approach it with sufficiently lowered expectations, and have fond memories of the ’70s paranoid dramas that obviously inspired director and co-writer Mark Williams, this might be your house-brand jam. That might not be enough for you to rush inside a multiplex to catch this time-killer during what likely will be a fleeting “Only In Theaters” run. “Blacklight” probably will play best when it reaches its natural habitat on streaming platform menus.
Continuing his seemingly endless run as the action-hero equivalent of Dad Jeans, Neeson brings his reliably effective world-weary gravitas to the role of Travis Block, a free-lance “fixer” for FBI director and long-time buddy Gabriel Robinson (Aidan Quinn). Block is frequently tasked with extracting deep-cover agents when their cover is blown — or,...
Continuing his seemingly endless run as the action-hero equivalent of Dad Jeans, Neeson brings his reliably effective world-weary gravitas to the role of Travis Block, a free-lance “fixer” for FBI director and long-time buddy Gabriel Robinson (Aidan Quinn). Block is frequently tasked with extracting deep-cover agents when their cover is blown — or,...
- 2/10/2022
- by Joe Leydon
- Variety Film + TV
![Taken (2008)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDA0ODYzZGMtOGI3ZS00YTdjLTk0ZjEtYzA0Zjg3MDM4OTA4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUzMDUzNTI3._V1_QL75_UY207_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Taken (2008)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDA0ODYzZGMtOGI3ZS00YTdjLTk0ZjEtYzA0Zjg3MDM4OTA4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUzMDUzNTI3._V1_QL75_UY207_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
Since “Taken” in 2008, Liam Neeson has starred in so many movies where he plays a character who protects, rescues, mourns, or avenges his family that it seems somewhat pointless to invest deeply enough in the latest to care whether it’s better than its predecessors, much less if it’s individually good or bad.
Directed, produced, and cowritten by Mark Williams (Neeson’s 2020 film “Honest Thief”), “Blacklight” is an unsurprisingly tepid action thriller which extends this odd phase of Neeson’s career, but the best thing that can probably be said about it is that it’s not materially worse than most of the others.
Williams coaches Neeson through another of the actor’s increasingly familiar gruff-but-sensitive performances while telling the story of the kind of black-bag man whose simultaneous political obsolescence and extrajudicial necessity movies like this too frequently want to explore without possessing the narrative or intellectual sophistication...
Directed, produced, and cowritten by Mark Williams (Neeson’s 2020 film “Honest Thief”), “Blacklight” is an unsurprisingly tepid action thriller which extends this odd phase of Neeson’s career, but the best thing that can probably be said about it is that it’s not materially worse than most of the others.
Williams coaches Neeson through another of the actor’s increasingly familiar gruff-but-sensitive performances while telling the story of the kind of black-bag man whose simultaneous political obsolescence and extrajudicial necessity movies like this too frequently want to explore without possessing the narrative or intellectual sophistication...
- 2/9/2022
- by Todd Gilchrist
- The Wrap
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