(ESP-ENG) Retribution - Always a fan of Liam Neeson!
Hello friends, good vibes to all.
There is a particularity that Liam Neeson's films have and that is that he is always in trouble where his children are in the middle of the situation and being him, a capable man no matter what he does, he will look for a way to get out of the conflict he is in unscathed. As I say in the title I am a big fan of Neeson and his films, from Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars, Hannibal in A-Team to Bryan Mills in Taken. The career of this actor has been vast and he has great movies to his credit, maybe I've seen them all, I don't know, but what I am sure is that almost none of them are completely bad, even the weakest is enjoyable without problems.
That's what happens with Retribution. We are facing a film which by Liam's standards is a bit "slow and quiet" because here we will not see him give a single blow for example, which in itself is already rare because that is one of his great signatures. But we must remember that time does not pass in vain, Neeson is over 70 years old so the body is not the same, making a physically demanding film I think it is no longer in the plans of the American actor. For your reference Taken came out in 2008 and there he already looked a certain age. Yet here we are talking about another thriller where Liam has to prevent part of his family from dying. Without further ado, let's go and talk a little bit about this new film.
This story begins with Matt Turner (Liam Neeson) who is a man who is in business, looking for clients to sign contracts in the form of investment and thus multiply their money in the future. It is a complicated job because when money is involved there is usually greed and avarice and Matt would soon experience that. He is married and has two children, typical relationship a little distant because of the same job but still strives to be. One morning when he was about to take his children to school he received a mysterious call, a distorted voice let him know that his car had explosives under the seats and that if he did not want to die with his children he had to comply with all the demands that he would be asking throughout the conversation.
This is when the film starts, when it becomes a fast-paced thriller where the number one enemy is time. We will see how Matt will try to do the possible and impossible to get out of the hell he is in with the difficulty that he has his two children in the back seat. I have to say that it is a strange film and I say this because of the conclusions I came to after having seen it: it is a film that certainly entertained me but deep down I know that it is anything but a good production and that I only finished watching it because I wanted to be faithful to Liam, who despite this I consider that he gave a good performance.
The whole film takes place inside a car, that's where everything unfolds. There are no big or very elaborate action scenes, everything is focused on the call of this anonymous person, being focused on fulfilling the requests and the most important thing: not getting out of the car. Reading this you might think that the plot is very limited, and yes, a little bit the truth, it is zero depth and goes to the point, it does not care what is being done outside the car, all that falls in the background and that is something that I did not like, the more information and context there is for me will always be better everything. What happens? - In spite of this, the story manages to capture your attention and at least keep you from getting bored, in my case it managed to keep my attention.
As I said, everything is very flat, the script is the most basic thing you are going to see, it is even predictable, except at the end there is a kind of plot twist that I honestly did not expect. The detail is that this surprise goes a little bit to the trash with the closure they tried to give it, I think the worst of it all is precisely the way it ends, it did not convince me at all, it was very rushed and uncreative and I repeat, incredibly predictable. Did it hurt the movie? - No, because it is complicated to damage it being what it is, rather it made that any good extra opinion that I could have had was not possible.
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Since there are no scenes that merit a review, it is difficult to continue talking about the film itself. The most remarkable thing in this aspect is a couple of chases that were pretty average, nothing extraordinary and little else really. That's why we should talk about Liam and how he handled a role in which I think we see another side to what we are used to him. Usually his characters are physical, always developed under the premise that things can be solved by brute force, at the point of blows but this is not the case. Here we see a much more dramatic Liam, more suffering and on the ropes; there are few times when he has the situation under control.
There's not much demand on his character, he's always sitting there driving so, at least to me, it seemed strange. I think it's a decent performance though, you get to empathize with him a bit. Otherwise, as is almost routine in these movies, the supporting characters are just that, totally unremarkable. Something that stressed me a lot is the police, in this case the agent who puts the face, a total nonsense, asking obvious questions, lukewarm performance, zero weight in the plot, rather than help was a hindrance. Undoubtedly there are many questionable things here but well, we understand that not all Liam Neeson movies will be a success.
A 6/10 and there's not much of a place to grab this attempt at an action movie. I can understand if you don't want to see it, in my case I did because really and as I have made clear throughout the review, I am a fan of Liam's work. It's an hour and a half film where there is a thriller that might keep your attention and which is perfect to pass some time when there is nothing to watch. I'll leave the trailer below.
¡Un abrazo a todos, nos vemos en la próxima!
Well my people that's all for today, I hope you liked it.
¡A hug to everyone, see you next time!
Saludos amigo, me encantó tu review, como fiel creyente de Neeson intentando ver todo lo bueno en la peli, te felicito porque yo lo haría igual, ya que para mí es uno de los mejores actores de acción y lo será por la eternidad, pero, tal como dices, el tiempo no pasa en vano 🥲, recuerdo que él decía que en todas sus películas, antes de la última de busqueda implacable, sus escenas de acción eran filmadas por él, es un hombre de admirar, de verdad que sí, ésta película no la había visto, asi que te agradezco la reseña amigo 💞
Muchas gracias, amiga!
Y si, Liam es de esos actores top que sin mucho ruido siempre ha destacado por hacer films que evocan la acción en su máxima expresión. En este caso y por entiendo que es un remake no va tanto de eso a pesar de que igual es una película que se deja ver. No tira golpes pero su actuación es buena, como siempre. Si tienes tiempo y como ya veo que eres tan fanática como yo, creo que deberías de echarle un ojo, solo por él y no tanto por lo que el film pueda ofrecer.
Saludosss!
De verdad son más de 70 años, no lo sabía. Si está viejo, que triste, pronto se acabarán esas buenas películas de su parte, yo también soy muy fan.
No me llama la atención que todo sea dentro de un carro, más que lenta, pienso que puede ser un poco aburrida. Pero se le puede dar la oportunidad.
Yo pensé lo mismo pero fíjate que no, si es monótona a veces y cae en lo predecible pero creo que se deja ver. Noes ni de cerca la mejor película de él pero bueno, la edad y que el papel también es distinto.
Saludos hermano!