So seldom do I get to say this: He was right. In spades.
I was right there at the edge of my seat, heart pitter-pattering just like it did when I was a kid and fully involved in the great spaghetti westerns like my favorite at the time--Sabata. But this is no western. It's a contemporary survival thriller that you could imagine--if you've got a great imagination--being penned by Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa, together, drunk, on Bergman's misty private island off the coast of Sweden in January.
If you liked RUNAWAY TRAIN and THE EDGE, you'll love this. But it ain't for wussies. If you're squeamish, be prepared to switch theaters fast. Or stop off at the doc's on the way home for anti-depressants. This existentialism ramped up to a blistering, beautiful degree.
I agree, Pete. We caught it this weekend and I will say it's one of the best flicks I've seen in years ... a thinking person's action film.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy everything Liam Neeson is in, although a couple films in recent years (i.e CLASH OF THE TITANS and the STAR WARS series) were definitely just a big paycheck/little work required roles for him.
ReplyDeleteJust this week I watched TAKEN. While perhaps written off simply as an action flick, I was empathetic to his situation of doing whatever it takes to get his abducted daughter home safely.
I really loved him in KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, too. I thought his role conveyed a sad weariness in the powerful but disillusioned Baron of Ibelin.
I am looking forward to getting out with the Mrs. to take in THE GREY.
Tom Roberts
Black Dog Books
PS-- I nearly forgot, I enjoyed him as well is what may have been his his first, or at least one of his earliest film roles, in THE BOUNTY playing a disgruntled seaman opposite Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins. Good stuff!