New action/thriller The Marksman has Liam Neeson as Jim, a rancher on the Arizona border who becomes the unlikely defender of a young Mexican boy.
Directed by Robert Lorenz; with additional key cast that includes Katheryn Winnick and Teresa Ruiz; Jim desperately flees the cartel assassins who’ve pursued him into the U.S.
Why am I interested in this, even though it looks like it’ll follow a very similar formula to past Neeson movies? Very simple. It’s Neeson and the formula keeps being repeated because I’m still here to keep watching. That is all.
Juan Pablo Raba, Dylan Kenin, Luce Rains, Dominic Cancelliere, Chase Mullins, Alex Knight and Ming Wang also star.
Made In Italy (2020), Liam Neeson, Micheál Richardson, IFC Films
As expected, the beautiful views of the Tuscan landscape is my favourite thing about Liam Neeson’s latest comedy Made in ItalyIt’s just unfortunate that I didn’t find much else to love in writer/director James D’Arcy’s story besides the views.
I should have been prepared for Made in Italyto be less funny and more focused on grief. Especially since the plot has Neeson playing a father, accompanied by his estranged son (Micheál Richardson) while on a trip to Italy to sell a house he inherited from his late wife.
I had certain hopes and expectations about how charming Made in Italy was going to be. Not only did I find the movie inadequately charming, I didn’t find it as funny as its comedy categorisation would suggest. Furthermore, Richardson’s character Jack’s emotional journey development felt oddly inauthentic and ill-timed in parts.
Things did get a bit better when Neeson’s character became emotional at around the one hour, ten-minute mark. However, by that point I’d largely given up on any hopes of D’Arcy’s film redeeming itself and suddenly becoming less annoyingly predictable, and charming enough for me to forgive it’s earlier shortcomings.
Watch Made in Italy only if you’re extremely curious.
In new action/crime/drama, Honest Thief, Liam Neeson is Tom, a notorious bank robber inspired to lead an honest life, starting with turning himself in. The problem is that doing just that leads to him being double-crossed by two FBI agents.
Directed by Mark Williams; additional key cast includes Anthony Ramos, Kate Walsh and Jai Courtney.
This is highly reminiscent of Taken (2008). Yet, I don’t know that I care as long as it’s a good movie. Plus I just like Neeson.
Jeffrey Donovan, Robert Patrick, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Jose Guns Alves, Osmani Rodriguez and Janelle Feigley also star.
Liam Neeson’s latest movie is Made In Italy, a comedy about a bohemian artist who travels from London to Italy with his estranged son. They’re there for the purpose of selling the house they inherited from his late wife.
Written/ directed by James D’Arcy; additional key cast includes Valeria Bilello and Micheal Richardson.
It may or may not be true that one of the main reasons I’m interested in this movie is to ‘spend some time in Italy‘. I mean, I like Neeson too and I’m hoping for some laughs but, you know.
Lindsay Duncan, Marco Quaglia, Gian Marco Tavani and Helena Antonio also star.
Ordinary Love (2019), Liam Neeson, Lesley Manville
Liam Neeson, Lesley Manville and David Wilmot are the stars of Ordinary Love, the new Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn directed drama / romance about an everyday couple with a remarkable love.
A couple whose endearing devotion is clearly seen after a breast cancer diagnosis. One that sets them on a path to find the humour and grace to survive a year of adversity…
I’m ready to see this beautiful version of love and can’t wait to see Neeson in this non-action movie role.
Is this movie likely to make all single people feel more single than ever before? Absolutely! So let’s get ready to ‘suffer’ for this very promising piece of art.
one more thing… unsurprisingly perhaps, but I simply can’t see the the words ‘ordinary love’ and not instantly think of Sade’s beautiful classic, No Ordinary Love. You’re welcome.
Fo Cullen, Chloë Ní Dhúada, Matthew Sharpe, Vivien Monory, Stella McCusker, Desmond Edwards, Maggie Cronin, Melanie Clark Pullen, Geraldine McAlinden, Lalor Roddy, Esh Alladi and Amit Shah also star.
Ordinary Love Release Dates: December 6th, 2019 (UK); …2019 (US)…
Men In Black – International (2019), Emma Thompson, Sony Pictures Entertainment
Instead of the focus being solely on a big alien threat that needs eliminating, in Men In Black – International,there’s the pressing matter of a mole within the MIB organisation to deal with.
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Liam Neeson and Emma Thompson, my favourite thing about Men In Black – International is the visual effects and Emma Thompson’s character. All the other key characters weren’t terrible but unfortunately the script for director F. Gary Gray’s movie just seemed overly complicated and not as exciting as initially hoped.
Hemsworth and T. Thompson’s chemistry did help matters. Nevertheless, approximately twenty minutes into the movie, I realised I was missing Will Smith’sMen In Black (1997)performance. There’s something about his comedic expertise that I feel would have added an extra layer of humour and fun to this film. To be clear, I’m definitely not saying ‘Put Smith in this movie and it would have been great overall’, because for that to be true, a much better story and script is required. I just think that Men In Black – International could have been better, more exciting and funny.
One other little highlight is the well choreographed fight scenes. They helped me to stop dwelling too much on some of the dodgy dialogue, my general disappointment and the cheap plastic toy gun noises made by some of the MIB weapons early on in the movie.
Watch Men In Black – International if you’re curious. It’s kind of fun. It’s just not especially good.
Widows (2018), Liam Neeson, Viola Davis, 20th Century Fox
Directed by Steve McQueen (Shame 2011); starring Viola Davis, Colin Farrell, Daniel Kaluuya, Liam Neeson and Robert Duvall, Widows is without a doubt very well acted and devoid of any dull moments. There are one or two unexpected turns I enjoyed and everyone performs very well in McQueen’s crime / thriller, a story about four women in need of a way to survive after their husbands’ criminal activities leave them in massive debt.
I’ll start by say that I generally appreciate the quality in movies where everything isn’t overly explained. I like moments where the audience is trusted to connect the dots and make sense of things. Widows is a movie that has a handful of such moments which are well executed. Yet, I’d also say that the ending aside, McQueen’s film feels oddly incomplete somehow.
The feeling of incompleteness comes first from not knowing enough of the back story of some of the characters. We get to know a fair amount about a few key players but I was certainly left wanting when it came to Cynthia Erivo’s very intriguing Belle, for example.
Widows (2018), Cynthia Erivo, Michelle Rodriguez, 20th Century Fox
There are also questions I had pertaining to one or two of the dead bodies and how they were disposed of. You may be reading this and be thinking: ‘The brown notebook, silly!’ And you wouldn’t be wrong by saying that. Nevertheless, I still wanted to be fully convinced by how the story played out especially when it came to the widows’ turn to criminality. Unfortunately, even though I came close to being convinced, I just wasn’t – not completely.
It may may well be that I’ve seen far too many television crime dramas / thrillers that show just the right amount in order for me to buy a story wholeheartedly. Either way I’m now of the mind that Widows may have been better suited to a miniseries format. That way it wouldn’t feel quite so heavily edited and somehow incomplete. There’d certainly be more time for me to get to know a greater number of the characters in a more satisfying way.
Every one performs well but my favourite performance in Widows is delivered by Farrell. I really enjoyed watching his super entitled politician’s son character and listening to what sounded like a very convincing accent. Elizabeth Debicki also delivered some fun turns I wanted more of.
Overall, Widows may not be my favourite McQueen movie but it definitely isn’t bad either. Perhaps you’ll find that it couldn’t possibly be more complete.
Based on 2014’s Norwegian movie, In Order of Disappearance, new action/thriller Cold Pursuit stars Liam Neeson as a snowplow driver seeking revenge against the drug dealers he thinks killed his son.
Directed by Hans Petter Moland; additional key cast includes Emmy Rossum and Tom Bateman.
There’s the obvious Taken (2018) vibes which make up part of the appeal of this movie. The story does intrigue me but I just want to see Liam Neeson kick ass in his special Neeson style.
William Forsythe, Laura Dern, Julia Jones, Elysia Rotaru, Domenick Lombardozzi and Raoul Max Trujillo also star.
The Movie My Life 