
Retribution review – Liam Neeson on autopilot in car-bomb action thriller

Once again, Neeson’s fictional family is danger – this time on an explosive school run – but the action is driverless
A bomb disposal thriller should usually be good for some cheesy entertainment. But this feels generic and unexcitingly acted, a by-the-numbers bit of work, remade from the 2015 Spanish movie El Desconocido, or The Stranger, starring Luis Tosar, which was itself borrowing heavily from such high-concept Hollywood jeopardy items as Speed and Phone Booth. And putting Liam Neeson in this new version is all too clearly designed to appeal to another customer fanbase, that of Neeson’s kidnap drama franchise Taken.
Neeson is in every sense phoning it in as Matt Turner, a financial trader in Berlin, living in a flashy house, working too hard, worried that clients are getting cross due to the risky investment advice he’s been giving lately and hardly realising his marriage is crumbling due to his neglect.
A bomb disposal thriller should usually be good for some cheesy entertainment. But this feels generic and unexcitingly acted, a by-the-numbers bit of work, remade from the 2015 Spanish movie El Desconocido, or The Stranger, starring Luis Tosar, which was itself borrowing heavily from such high-concept Hollywood jeopardy items as Speed and Phone Booth. And putting Liam Neeson in this new version is all too clearly designed to appeal to another customer fanbase, that of Neeson’s kidnap drama franchise Taken.
Neeson is in every sense phoning it in as Matt Turner, a financial trader in Berlin, living in a flashy house, working too hard, worried that clients are getting cross due to the risky investment advice he’s been giving lately and hardly realising his marriage is crumbling due to his neglect.
- 10/26/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
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