This week on "Justin Hall At The Movies," I'll be reviewing Liam Neeson as an assassin who can't remember in "Memory."
Let's face it. Ever since he made Taken, Liam Neeson's career has been stuck on repeat. He's played a variation on that character for so long that it's become self-parody.
Obviously, he likes to keep doing it because his latest effort, Memory, is another example of his embracing the "been there, done that" formula with diminishing returns. No surprise.
Neeson plays Alex Lewis, an assassin bouncing between Texas and Mexico. He refuses to kill on his latest job because his target is a little girl. He becomes pursued by the FBI and Mexico as they begin to investigate his series of crimes.
Guy Pearce is the FBI agent in charge of tracking down Alex, but his investigation only leads down a path of predictable plot twists we can see coming before he does. Pearce is a talented actor, but he feels subjugated to playing like a ripoff of Tommy Lee Jones' character in The Fugitive. Just have the dry humor surgically removed.
While Alex is on the run trying to put the pieces together as to why the girl was targeted, he begins suffering from advanced memory loss which causes him to forget where he is or what he's doing and his speech to suffer.
Monica Bellucci costars as a woman who might have possible connections to the case, but she also might be double-dealing everyone she knows. This is another wasted character that we already know her role about halfway through.
At almost 70 years old, Neeson can still deliver a moment or two where he can kick a little butt, but the action in this movie isn't very exciting and it doesn't leave any kind of impression.
I'm having the strangest feeling of deja vu, but I know what I'm talking when I say that Neeson is simply taking the action roles that Harrison Ford doesn't want to do. I guess that all depends on your tolerance of watching Neeson do the action shtick.
You're not gonna see much in Memory that hasn't been done before and better. I'm not sure if it's uncanny that the movie references Memento also starring Pierce as we get a few scenes where Neeson has to make notes on his arm of times, places and names in order to remember. Maybe I'm giving it too much credit.
As it is, the movie has lifeless performances and a dull script that constantly loses credibility as it progresses and the final scenes are such clunkers that I'm astonished the filmmakers were allowed to go in that direction.
Memory has an appropriate plot because by the end, I didn't care whether or not I remembered it.
Let's face it. Ever since he made Taken, Liam Neeson's career has been stuck on repeat. He's played a variation on that character for so long that it's become self-parody.
Obviously, he likes to keep doing it because his latest effort, Memory, is another example of his embracing the "been there, done that" formula with diminishing returns. No surprise.
Neeson plays Alex Lewis, an assassin bouncing between Texas and Mexico. He refuses to kill on his latest job because his target is a little girl. He becomes pursued by the FBI and Mexico as they begin to investigate his series of crimes.
Guy Pearce is the FBI agent in charge of tracking down Alex, but his investigation only leads down a path of predictable plot twists we can see coming before he does. Pearce is a talented actor, but he feels subjugated to playing like a ripoff of Tommy Lee Jones' character in The Fugitive. Just have the dry humor surgically removed.
While Alex is on the run trying to put the pieces together as to why the girl was targeted, he begins suffering from advanced memory loss which causes him to forget where he is or what he's doing and his speech to suffer.
Monica Bellucci costars as a woman who might have possible connections to the case, but she also might be double-dealing everyone she knows. This is another wasted character that we already know her role about halfway through.
At almost 70 years old, Neeson can still deliver a moment or two where he can kick a little butt, but the action in this movie isn't very exciting and it doesn't leave any kind of impression.
I'm having the strangest feeling of deja vu, but I know what I'm talking when I say that Neeson is simply taking the action roles that Harrison Ford doesn't want to do. I guess that all depends on your tolerance of watching Neeson do the action shtick.
You're not gonna see much in Memory that hasn't been done before and better. I'm not sure if it's uncanny that the movie references Memento also starring Pierce as we get a few scenes where Neeson has to make notes on his arm of times, places and names in order to remember. Maybe I'm giving it too much credit.
As it is, the movie has lifeless performances and a dull script that constantly loses credibility as it progresses and the final scenes are such clunkers that I'm astonished the filmmakers were allowed to go in that direction.
Memory has an appropriate plot because by the end, I didn't care whether or not I remembered it.
Grade: C-(Rated R for violence, some bloody images and language throughout.)