Blacklight
Liam Neeson continues the ‘He will hunt them. He will find them. He will kill them.’ shtick.
License to kill: Liam Neeson
He has a very particular set of skills. Skills he has acquired over a very long career. Liam Neeson has made a métier on the success of that speech from the Luc Besson-penned Taken. Upholding the tradition of the 90s’ action hero, Neeson has become a staple of the genre, rarely appearing on screen without a gun in hand. He’s taken that hard-boiled, ageing badass persona to such films as Taken 2, Non-Stop, Taken 3, and Honest Thief. Like Harrison Ford before him, he brings legitimacy and integrity to these work-worn men. He’s a fine actor and deserves screen material to match; Glenn Leyburn’s fantastic Ordinary Love comes to mind. Yet there’s something reassuring about that soothing Irish baritone issuing threats, taking care of business and working overtime. 69-year old Neeson shows no signs of slowing down — or giving up his onscreen weapons. Upcoming action thrillers include Memory and In the Land of Saints and Sinners, where he’s set to play such diverse roles as an assassin-for-hire and a recently retired assassin. Audiences can only hope these will be considerably better actioners than the vaguely titled Blacklight.
Director Mark Williams seems to have strong feelings about the FBI. In Honest Thief, it was two rogue FBI agents that caused reformed bandit Liam Neeson so much trouble. Here Neeson plays Travis Block, an off-the-books FBI fixer ordered to get rogue FBI agent Dusty Crane (Taylor John Smith) back in line. Life as an on-call FBI operative and a doting grandfather don’t exactly mix. It’s easy to forget a school pick-up when you’re in a high-speed chase with a garbage truck. Travis’ daughter becomes concerned that his precautions over family safety have developed into paranoia. Perhaps she has a point, given Block’s obsessive-compulsive behaviour and the stun gun flashlight he gifts his granddaughter. Yet it doesn’t take long before Travis becomes embroiled in dirty dealings— and as you may have guessed, finds his family at risk.
This is the type of action-thriller where the bad guys stop to reload at precisely the right moment. Where vehicular pursuits incur massive property damage and FBI agents launch into gunplay at will. At least there’s a little specificity to Neeson’s character, who does things in threes, obsessively cleans, and has a system for replacing each Bud Light removed from his fridge. Here’s a cinephile challenge; name five other films with a POV shot from inside the fridge (Hint: there’s another mentioned in this review.) Though Neeson is a master of making dialogue sound credible, there’s nothing new here. Blacklight just haphazardly checks the necessary boxes for an action movie. The end-credits song lyrics ironically declare that “every story needs a hero”. Well, the reverse is also true.
CHAD KENNERK
Cast: Liam Neeson, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Taylor John Smith, Aidan Quinn, Claire van der Boom, Yael Stone, Andrew Shaw, Mel Jarnson.
Dir Mark Williams, Pro Mark Williams, Paul Currie, Myles Nestel, Alevé Loh and Coco Xiaolu Ma, Screenplay Nick May and Mark Williams, Ph Shelly Johnson, Pro Des Michelle McGahey, Ed Michael P. Shawver, Music Mark Isham, Costumes Emma Kingsbury and Katherine Milne, Sound Hayden Collow and Paul Pirola.
Zero Gravity Management/Footloose Productions/The Solution Entertainment Group/Sina Studios/Fourstar Films/Elevate Production Finance-Open Road Films/Briarcliff Entertainment.
104 mins. USA/Australia/China. 2022. US Rel: 11 February 2022. Cert. PG-13.
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