Unknown Reviews
An average movie
Posted : 10 years, 4 months ago on 13 November 2013 09:000 comments, Reply to this entry
Unknown review
Posted : 11 years, 2 months ago on 8 January 2013 10:370 comments, Reply to this entry
Unknown review
Posted : 12 years, 3 months ago on 13 December 2011 07:580 comments, Reply to this entry
A very dark, intense and entertaining ride.
Posted : 12 years, 4 months ago on 26 November 2011 12:21From a critical perspective, Unknown is not going to be an Oscar contender in the slightest because we have seen so many films similar to it in the past, but as a whole, it delivers exactly what was expected of it: entertainment at its highest quality and a strong candidate for a night-in on a Friday or Saturday. It entertains its audience with exhilarating and explosive action with a very shocking plot twist, and in recent years there hasnāt really been as many powerful twists and turns that occur in Unknown.
Liam Neeson returns to action in a huge way as biochemist Dr. Martin Harris! As well as Taken and previously taking part in other action films, Neeson proves himself worthy as a possible candidate for The Expendables (should there be a third film). Considering his age is at 59 years old, Neeson brings forth a character that isnāt only intense, emotional and badass to watch, but also charms on-screen with women decades younger than him! His on-screen relationship with January Jones was very powerful and provided a lot of raw affect to it, but the bond that he has with Diane Kruger is even stronger as they slowly develop a liking for each other.
German-born actress Diane Kruger proved herself worthy of a Hollywood actress most notably in her role as Bridget Von Hammersmark in Quentin Tarantinoās Inglourious Basterds, but now stars in her latest major role since then and goes on to be part of something very different that we hadnāt seen from her before. Considering that the story is in fact set in Germany, she perfectly defines the characteristics of her portrayed character Gina: blonde German, sexy, has a desired heart and yet the innocence of a young woman. It would be great to see Kruger return again in an action film like this in the future. Another young shining star January Jones portrays Elizabeth āLizā Harris (the wife of Dr. Martin Harris), and although she does not appear throughout the majority of the film, her performance was very good! Oscar nominated actor Frank Langella makes a supporting appearance too. This cast joins the forces of Americans and Germans into one film, and considering that itās set in Germany with the majority being American characters and actors, it worked incredibly well.
Spanish film director Jaume Collet-Serra, whoās previous works consisted of House Of Wax, Goal! 2: Living The Dream and Orphan. With these films behind his back despite none of them receiving critical acclaim, he goes on to make his fourth feature film that is in an identical action style from directors such as Paul Greengrass and Christopher Nolan. Collet-Serra generally mixed approximately five genres (action, drama, mystery, romance, thriller) at once and manages to provide many different emotions for the viewers to reflect on whilst watching the film, as well as the aftermath when the credits roll. The action scenes werenāt overloaded with visual effects like youād see in the Transformers series amongst other films in recent memory, and in Unknown the effects were clear enough to feel the reality of whatās going on within the film, and to take the journey with the characters.
Overall, Unknown is a solid, action-packed thrill ride that is a great popcorn film and will keep you off the edge of your seat all the way through. Liam Neeson never ceases to bore his audience in any of his action films, and hopefully heāll never lose that. From a personal point of view, the idea of a sequel might be interesting to see although it is unlikely. Collet-Serraās work in this one battles with George Nolfiās work on The Adjustment Bureau due to the similarities and both were released at almost the exact same time. However, although the latter just about prevails through, Unknown really isnāt far behind, and still remains as one of the most entertaining films of 2011.
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Unknown review
Posted : 12 years, 7 months ago on 16 August 2011 10:040 comments, Reply to this entry
Excellent
Posted : 12 years, 9 months ago on 21 June 2011 03:29First, the adaptation is one of a kind. The book takes place in Paris, while the movie is set in Berlin; there are other differences, mainly HOW the story is told; however the main idea is there: Martin Harris, after waking up from a coma, discovers that another man has taken not only his wife but his identity. He has only his memory left. How will Martin Harris prove it and is he the real Martin Harris...
Second, the way Jaume Collet-Serra directed the film, kept me wondering where it was going (and I kept hoping that it was not predictable like other movies had been before this one), it certainly was an unpredictable ending and not boring at all. Quite an original adaptation to the screen.
Third, the actors. All excellent. (Except January Jones. She is just not credible.) Liam Neeson as Martin Harris is simply fabulous; Aidan Quinn as "the other" Martin Harris is stunning! Bruno Ganz has a small role, but what a performance!! and Sebastian Koch, well he's just amazing. Diane Kruger, also excellent with her accent, plays a taxi driver.
Lastly, one of the best car chases in film history is in this film.
All in all, despite the horrible performance by Jones, it's one of the best suspense/thriller I've seen.
I can't say any more without spoiling it, so what are you waiting for? Rent it, buy it, I don't care which, but good heavens, go watch it! You won't regret it.
*For those interested, the book is "Hors de moi" by Didier van Cauwelaert.
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Tries to hard
Posted : 12 years, 9 months ago on 19 June 2011 08:180 comments, Reply to this entry
Smart, diverting thriller entertainment
Posted : 12 years, 10 months ago on 5 June 2011 06:29
You could be easily forgiven for suspecting that Unknown is merely an unofficial sequel to 2009's surprise hit Taken. The trailers depicted a formidable Liam Neeson manoeuvring the back alleys of a European city full of unsavoury characters who need an ass-kicking. Yet, this is not Taken 2. With Unknown, director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) and his writers (adapting the novel Out of My Head) have produced a thriller paying homage to the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, John Frankenheimer and other directors who enjoyed putting a conventional everyman through the wringer. More or less an amalgam of The Bourne Identity and The Fugitive, 2011's Unknown may remind you of other films, but it does not recycle much in terms of narrative twists; pulling together a unique, original story that's sufficiently intense, bursting with intrigue and capable of withstanding scrutiny.
With the intent of attending a biotechnology summit, Dr. Martin Harris (Neeson) arrives in wintry Berlin with his beautiful wife Liz (Jones). Realising his important briefcase was left at the airport, Martin takes a taxi back to retrieve it but becomes involved in a near-fatal car accident along the way. Upon waking up from a coma four days later without his ID or passport, Martin's memory is foggy. Leaving the hospital against his doctor's orders, Martin finds that the world has ostensibly rejected him - Liz denies his identity, while another man (Quinn) claims to be the "real" Martin Harris and has the paperwork to prove it. Upset, disorientated and frustrated, Martin hits the streets to uncover what seems to be a conspiracy, hiring the investigative skills of a former Stasi agent (Ganz) while searching for the taxi driver who was with him at the start (Kruger) to help solve the mystery.
Perpetually keeping the suspense and intrigue quotient high is the utter hopelessness of Martin's situation, and his bewilderment that's forcing him to second-guess everything, including his own sanity. For a premise like this, we can only accept the concept as long as the writers have a legitimate explanation up their sleeve, and as long as the thrills can keep us engaged. Unknown delivers on both counts. The film is not as action-packed as Taken since it is more of a restrained thriller than a brainless action fiesta, but there are a few exhilarating set-pieces throughout leading to the final nail-biting climax. As for the central riddle, the filmmakers did a great job of guarding it. Minor clues are scattered throughout the picture pertaining to what is actually happening, but the twist is hard to figure it out. And when the final reveal arrives at long last, it is well-judged. While a lot of potentially premise-destroyed questions arise throughout Unknown, the eventual explanation deals with them all. However, it's a tad disappointing that the film succumbs to the "I tell you everything before I kill you" clichƩ.
The proceedings of Unknown unfold in Berlin, unlike the book. It was a smart creative decision to set the film in Berlin - to outsiders, the city is cold and forbidding. There is a vague whiff of Cold War mystique compounding the inherent unease of Martin's situation. By shooting in Berlin, more tension is automatically afforded to the atmosphere. Technical contributions in this respect are solid - Flavio MartĆnez Labiano's cinematography is icy and crisp, and it sets an impeccable atmosphere that's heightened by the tense score by John Ottman and Alexander Rudd. Director Collet-Serra also managed to keep even the most mundane happenings interesting, with early scenes being pervaded with an intense, engrossing vibe (for instance, the scene in which Martin first confronts his wife after the accident is riveting). The only technical downside is a tendency to rely on contemporary "shaky-cam/rapid-fire editing" techniques for the action, which can be disorientating. There are one or two occasions when the geography of a scene is poorly established, and these techniques exacerbate the confusion.
Liam Neeson is an inherently authoritarian screen presence. He is the point of identification, and his acting gravitas provides weight to what could have been a forgettable thriller. Neeson is in Taken mode here, which is to say he's more of a traditional action hero. With that said, though, his acting talents are better used here - he was more of a blunt instrument in Taken, whereas in Unknown his abilities are stretched for the drama of the story (though to be fair, he is an awesome blunt instrument). Alongside Neeson, January Jones' performance as Martin's wife is extremely blank, and Aidan Quinn carries out his duties well enough in the role of the other Martin Harris without being spectacular. At the other end of the spectrum, Diane Kruger, Frank Langella and Sebastian Koch fare a lot better, while Bruno Ganz is an utter scene-stealer as the former Stasi agent who agrees to help Martin. Ganz's brilliant scenes seem to have been pilfered from another, smarter movie. While that may sound like a bad thing, it improves Unknown's overall dramatic weight and scope, though it's unfortunate the film built around these scenes is not quite as mature as them.
Unknown is smart, diverting entertainment. It is well-plotted, with a story that allows for plenty of intrigue and a few nice action scenes, not to mention some tantalising foreshadowing and clues that add texture without explicitly giving away the final reveal. Sure, the film remains mainstream in the way it leans on Hollywood conventions to see it through and deem it marketable, but it's smarter and more thoughtful than your usual slice of action-thriller entertainment.
7.8/10
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Unknown (2011)
Posted : 13 years, 1 month ago on 28 February 2011 11:440 comments, Reply to this entry
TBR: Unknown
Posted : 13 years, 5 months ago on 22 October 2010 03:06This thriller will star Liam Neeson. Itās supposed to be his next project once he completes The A-Team and Clash of the Titans.
The script was written by Oliver Butcher & Stephen Cornwell (the guys behind Guy Ritchieās next movie, The Gamekeeper), with some revisions by Dead Like Meās Karl Gajdusek. The story is based on Didier Van Cauwelaertās French novel Hors de moi (published under the title Out of My Head in the US). Unlike in the book, the movie isnāt set in Paris but in Berlin (money, money, money).
Whatās it about? Well, it centers on Dr. Martin Harris, a botanist who arrives in Berlin with his wife Liz for a conference (he has been invited to speak at the āWorld Biotechnology Forumā). After forgetting something at the airport, he takes a taxi back to get it. His plans are cut short however when the car crashes into a river. His life is saved by the mysterious taxi driver, Gina. Martin wakes up in a hospital; three days have passed while he was in a coma. He discovers that another man (Martin B) has taken his identity and has replaced him in every way. Even Liz, the wife, doesnāt seem to recognize her husband.
Lost in a foreign country with no papers, a small amount of cash, and no way back, the ārealā Martin tries to uncover the truth behind the most extreme case of identity theft ever. He also seem to have some killers going after him for some reason.
Has our hero gone completely off the rails (is he who he thinks he is), or is there really a giant conspiracy trying to replace him?
At first glance this looks like an interesting thriller with some paranoiac elements echoing The Game. Weāre also quickly thrown into the action with the crash already happening around page five.
That said, this is no Taken. In Unknown White Male, I wouldnāt say Neeson kicks lots of asses, as weāre talking more of a deadly cat-and-mouse game throughout Berlin (involving at one point a train colliding with a Land Rover, āpushing the mangled wreck along the tracks into a tunnel [in] a tail of sparksā). The motto here is more ārun and hide from the bad guysā than āgo hunt themā.
It takes also a lot of time to get decent answers to some of the stuff going on. For the most part it feels like a long chase with no end in sight.
In a way, it looked like a cross between UPNās 1995 Bruce Greenwood series, Nowhere Man (virtually the same basic premise), and especially a āreverseā Jason Bourne (mainly the first one). Itās kind of a giant mash-up between those two stories only set in Berlin.
Martin even has his own foreign female side-kick that later becomes a love interest and helps him uncover the truth. Whereas in Jason Bourne it was Franka Potenteās Marie, here itās the character of Gina. Not much originality unfortunately.
And this brings me to two of the main points I want to make about the film.
First, about half-way through the story, the movie shifts tone into a more spy-based thriller. The ārealā Martin seems to be hunted by a unit (named Section 15) described by one of the characters as:
Freelance, deniable. Theyād work for whoever would pay ā public sector, private sector. Second-to-none in their planning and efficiency. They never failed. Whatās more, they were invisible. Theyād strike, and nobody would even know there had been foul play.
To be clear, weāre talking about an elite assassin squad known for its secrecy. Yet, in the film, weāre witnesses to dozens of murders, crashes, and explosions. So what gives? I mean thatās what Iād call a hell of a mess to clean.
Also, there is this whole deal about the Biotech conference that is never really explained. Even though it is hinted around the end that one of the characterās research was around the ādevelopment of a new strain of corn to be made available worldwide without patent or copyright costs,ā it still does not justify some of the actions made by a few of the main characters (going back to that āmessā thing).
Now, the second comment concerns a major twist that occurs about two-third into the movie.
I wonāt say what it is exactly because itās pretty major in the storyline, but like The Gameās final twist, this is a revelation that makes you reevaluate the whole shebang. The surprise is so big that it might be hard to swallow for some.
It even stretches this āreverseā Jason Bourne comparison to the max as youāll see (when the film comes out, you cheat). And if you really, really, want to know the twist, go read the bookās last pages.
Overall, this was a decent read, but the finished product might look like a poor manās Jason Bourne.
Shooting for Unknown White Male is slated to start around January in Berlin. As said above, Liam Neeson is set to star as the ārealā Martin Harris. No clue as of now on who will play Martin B, Liz, or Gina. Joel Silverās Dark Castle is producing the pic with a release date around 2011.
credits:www.tv-calling.com/unknown-white-male-script-review/
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