3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Retribution

2023,  Nimród Antal (Predators) -- download

I honestly expected I would have a few posts of movies with Antal, lumping him into the category of "European directors provided the occasional Hollywood flick because they made a name for themselves", but, really, Predators was the only one I wrote about. But I do recall seeing and really enjoying 2003's Kontroll which means here, in Toronto, so likely Toronto After Dark or TIFF ? Also, he has done more in Hollywood than he ever did when he moved to Hungary to build a film career, actually have been born in California.

Anywayz. Another Liam Neeson as aging ____ movie (never really did the tag) and I still think they are being muddy with his supposed age in these movies. Neeson is 71. In the movie, he has two teenage kids and worked as a financier for his German company for 18 years. That would have made him 53 before he started working there and had the kids. I shouldn't be ageist, as it is possible to start a life in your mid-fifties, but ... likely? Let's just chalk it up for my own age and identity issues.

Anywayz. Matt Turner (Liam Neeson, The Ice Road) is a financier who very quickly is portrayed as a bit shady, a bit manipulative and is used by his CEO Anders Muller (Matthew Modine, Stranger Things) to get clients to do as is needed. And there is tension in his family. On his way driving his kids to school, something he never does, he is contacted via a planted mobile phone and alerted there is a bomb under his seat. If he stops driving, calls the cops or gets out of the car, it will blow up. To confirm the authenticity of his claims, the masked voice on the other end of the phone blows up one of Turner's colleagues in front of him, which also frames Matt as the bomber. The masked voice wants money, because of course he does, from a hidden slush fund that Matt and Muller have hidden away in Dubai.

The movie is typical cat & mouse, misdirection and chase scenes. Neeson is, of course, very capable as the man trying to wrest back control of a terrible situation and very believable as the fearful dad. The rest is just the usual playbook of these movies, which is not inherently bad, for I did enjoy watching it, as I almost always do, but I wouldn't have complained about a bit more meat to the story.