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Initial Thought: Well it looks like a slightly different take on the Taken series. Liam Neeson is now becoming typecast as the middle aged badass. He is awesome I just wish they could do something different with him now. Anyways besides being unoriginal it still looks somewhat entertaining.
Characters/Acting: It has a pretty interesting cast that includes rising actor Joel Kinnaman and veterans like Ed Harris and Vincent D'Onofrio. I don't expect any bad performances, but then again everyone stumbles as some point take for instance Cuba Gooding Jr. who just can't stay away from AWFUL Direct to DVD films. It's a shame Liam Neeson is basically the same character as usual. Although he is quite unlikeable in the beginning. Joel Kinnaman was great, but there were a few moments where I wanted to smack his character upside his head. Ed Harris was great as the "villain". I like a good villain that can be sophisticated and intelligent while still doing what they deem is right. Even Common was pretty entertaining here in a different role than I'm used to for him.
Story: So it's a kill or be killed kind of movie. The death of one mobster's son makes him want the head of the other one. I couldn't help but think that this movie didn't really have too much originality. Hell there are a few moments that are almost redone takes from Taken. The writer also took some of his ideas from Out of the Furnace and put them here. I think Liam Neeson broke many of the rules of Fight Club with Holt McCallany. Near the ending reminded me of Out of the Furnace where the bad guy is running away, but he gets shot in the back. The story is so sluggish and even with the action it barely held my attention. I think the last 15 minutes or so were the best and most original of the entire movie. It was somewhat bittersweet.
Directing/Writing: So this is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra who has typecasted Liam Neeson in 2 other films Unknown and Non-Stop. Both of which I actually thought were enjoyable. Hopefully he can do it a third time. He had also directed Orphan which was a really twisted but well done movie. His first movie that I saw was House of Wax though with Paris Hilton. He has definitely learned his lesson though since then. The only other movie I saw written by Brad Ingelsby was Out of the Furnace which I really enjoyed and it was a plus because of Zoe Saldana.
Final Thought: This was full of cliches and rehashes of the works of the writer and director. Nothing here was anything new. The only thing good thing about this was Ed Harris's performance and Liam Neeson still kicks some ass. The action was alright too, but nothing that really stands out in these kinds of movies. It's not awful. It's just unoriginal and kind of boring. The ending just wasn't impressive enough to fix the mess that this film was. If you have seen Taken and/or Out of the Furnace then you have already seen this. I would say to skip on this one.
