UNKNOWN (2011) (a review)

UNKNOWN (2011) (a review)

This is the action/thriller starring Liam Neeson he made as a follow-up to his hit film TAKEN. Also stars Diane Kruger and January Jones.

The story: Dr Martin Harris arrives in Germany for a conference. He leaves his briefcase at the airport and has to go back for it, but his car gets into an accident and he goes into a coma for four days. When he awakens and tries to find his wife, she denies knowing him and is with another man who claims that HE is Dr Martin Harris. Now he has to unravel the mystery to get his life back even as mysterious men begin to follow him.

Was it good?

It was okay. Not bad, but completely forgettable. The movie is light a brainless version of THE NET (with Sandra Bullock) or FLIGHT PLAN (with Jodie Foster). Both of those movies packed a much stronger punch because they really hammered where it hurts -- the feeling of losing something precious to you. In THE NET it was her life and her identity. She was someone who did everything on computer/over the internet and so had very few physical contacts with people and then suddenly she is on the outside of her own life. In FLIGHT PLAN it was a woman who had lost her husband and now was missing her daughter and no one believes her. This movie hits some of the same chords, but they never seem to resonate as hard. When his wife says she doesn't recognize him, they shuttle him off and the two are seperated quickly. There just wasn't much emotion there.

The other problem the movie has is the antagonist. In NET and FLIGHT PLAN, the antagonists seemed much more active, much more aggressive. In THE NET, they steal her identity to make her come to them after she received a disk, so we know what they are after at least. In FLIGHT PLAN, they try very hard to convince her she is crazy, but then use her daughter as bait because they need something from her. In UNKNOWN, they don't need him and they don't want him. Even when they are coming after him it feels more like an after thought. So while there is some tension, it just isn't that strong because their pursuit of him seems more like an after thought instead of him being an important part of their plan.

Still, it has a lot of fun stuff. It's great seeing Neeson in stuff like this (which I liked a lot more than AFTERLIFE or CHLOE). So if you are up for brain dead actiony fun, this is okay (but forgetable).

*** RENTAL ***

THE A-TEAM (2010) (a review)

THE A-TEAM (2010) (a review)

This is the feature film reboot of the classic 80's action/comedy tv series. I say classic because that's what other people call it. I've never seen the original. This reboot stars Liam Neeson, Patrick Bradley Cooper and Jessica Biel.

The story: a group of elite combat troops are framed after they try to recover some plates to make fake us currency from the Iraqi's, which they do but then everything goes screwy and because it was an off the books mission they are held accountable and sent to prison. In prison the leader (Hannibal, Liam Neeson) makes a deal to catch the real criminal and recover the plates if they clear their names. He breaks out, then breaks the others out and they go after the bad guy.

Was it good?

No.

This was a huge mess for me. It takes a while to get going since we see each of them individually and then coming together to form a group, all of which was pretty dumb to me. None of their little backstories really added anything and the whole forming the group seemed haphazard since there didn't seem to be any reason to form the group. It was just a very long intro. Yawn. Then they go on the first mission (that we see -- they apparently went on like 80 that we don't see), which is to recover these forgery plates...which I didn't really get. I mean, if they know how to forge US currency then sure you can take the plate but why wouldn't they just make more plates? So it's a mission and if you don't think about it it's fine, but it seemed pretty lame. Still, this is when it gets interesting. It's fun, silly action time and this part has the feel of what you'd expect. Then it goes haywire and they are sent to prison for...I'm still not sure. Not for stealing the plates or killing some guy, I think it's because they recovered the plates but no one told them too? Or because they can't prove that someone told them too? I don't know. It all seemed silly. Then we have them breaking out of prisons (they are each sent to a seperate prison) and reforming the group, which is repetitious since we have already seen the group form once. And then there's a lot of silly action stuff. By then I was bored and didn't really pay attention. Also, there's a romance angle between Bradley Cooper and Jessica Biel where she hates him but then comes to love him...which didn't fit in the movie and was totally lame.

I guess if you want stupid action with some lame one liners thrown in this is okay, but otherwise it's pretty bad.

*** AVOID ***