Unknown (2011)

Unknown surprised me. I knew little about this movie, aside from the fact that it stars Liam Neeson (which was enough to get me to watch it), but it's entertaining. It does a good job of messing with your mind and making you feel as disoriented as the protagonist does. However, it's a bit far-fetched, and as much as I like January Jones, she's not a very good actress. Nevertheless, it's worth a watch.

Liam Neeson has a very particular set of skills and instead of using them to save his family, this time he's using them to save himself. Dr. Martin Harris (Neeson) has gone to Berlin, with his wife, for a medical conference, when an accident has left him in a coma. Upon awaking, no one knows who he is, not even his wife, but worse than that, there is another person walking around claiming to be Martin Harris. I don't know about you, but after three Taken movies and a handful of similar film, all starring Liam Neeson, playing the same type of character in the same type of situations, I've gotten pretty tired of him and his particular set of skills. At least the Taken movies moved at a reasonable pace and had more than a narrow focus, the same can't be said for Unknown. Parts of this film are as slow as can be, featuring Neeson and company sitting around talking about what could be going on and what to do before they show them doing it. They story is also so narrowly focused, that it leaves little flexibility for anything else. This film is as serious as it gets, it is a hundred percent focused on the story at all times, and Liam Neeson is as dry as the banks of the Colorado River. The chase scenes were cool, the conspiracy around everything was well written, but all in all this film feels very long and moves way too slowly for an action thriller, not to mention, I think I speak for everyone when I say we've had more than enough of Liam Neeson in these type of films.

Judging by the poster and the plot synopsis this movie seemed like a cash-in on the success of "Taken" (even more so than "Taken 2"), but I was surprised by the different style and the fact that Neeson is slightly less implausibly bad-ass. He's just an average guy that tries to prove everybody is framing him, he doesn't do much fighting but it isn't required to keep the compelling plot interesting. The story is genuinely well-crafted and gives you a conclusion that you don't see coming from miles away (unless you're amazing at that type of thing). Oh, and Bruno "hey, isn't that Hitler from Der Untergang?" Ganz is in this, a highly underrated actor that effortlessly adds a bit of class to any movie he's in. In the end things may get a bit unbelievable, but the movie's twist is such a great find that I doubt you'll mind the lack of realism.

UNKNOWN, another one of recent action star Liam Neeson's winter season offerings, is fairly entertaining, but also very implausible. Liam Neeson plays Martin Harris, a scientist who is attending a biotech conference in Berlin with his wife. Or is he? After an accident, he is left with no identification and no proof of who he is, and everyone is claiming they don't know him. He then proceeds to find out who he is. This type of mystery/thriller has been done before, although perhaps not as slickly as this one. The movie ERASED, starring Aaron Eckhart comes to mind, although that pales in comparison to this in terms of just about everything. Liam Neeson once again shows that he makes a capable, if unexpected, action star and he also has the acting chops to give it some weight. January Jones as his wife, however, is practically a non-entity. She practically sleepwalks through her limited role and doesn't really give off anything resembling human emotion, although that might have been on purpose. To accurately describe my reasoning would delve into spoiler territory, so I'll just leave it at that. Diane Kruger also gave a good performance as an immigrant taxi driver who helps out Liam Neeson's character. Aside from him, she's given the most screen time and is given a nice back story, to boot. Rounding out the cast are Bruno Ganz and Frank Langella. Although neither one of them had a lot of screen time (one might say they were underutilized), they did own the few scenes they were in. In terms of technical quality, the film was decent. There was a fair amount of hand-held camera-work, but none of it was too "shaky" and the fight scenes were comprehensible. There was even a couple good car chases. There was also some nice on-location shooting in Berlin, although the visual palette of the film didn't really bring out anything spectacular. Narrative-wise, the film is preposterous but still fun. There was a couple of moments where I laughed out loud due to how ridiculous things were, but overall I just accepted that the whole premise was far-fetched and went with it. Now, being mostly a dumb action movie, you wouldn't expect it to have much in the way of pertinent themes or sociopolitical commentary, but they did manage to shoehorn some in via Bruno Ganz's character, a former Stasi agent and a Saudi prince who is bankrolling a GMO project. Nothing too deep is said, but it was nice that they acknowledged that these things exist. As a whole, the movie is OK. It moves along at a good pace and is never boring. Still, discerning moviegoers would be justified in skipping it if they don't like this brand of action movie.