Continuously appearing on the silver screen in many genres from 1978 to present, Liam Neeson is a talented artist loved by audiences around the world. However, on his journey from 2008 until now, there have been increasing problems.
When going to the theater to watch this Irish actor perform in “Retribution” premiering on August 25, 2023, the audience felt disappointed.
In the movie Liam Neeson plays Matt Turner, a very successful investment banking businessman. He and his wife and two teenage children live in a beautiful villa in Berlin, but they are not happy. Matt is more preoccupied with work than family matters to the point that his wife, Heather (played by Embeth Davidtz), secretly divorces him. The younger son, Zack (Jack Champion), is stubborn, arrogant and doesn’t need to hide how much he hates his father; And her daughter Emily (Lilly Aspell) is at the age of dreaming about love, so she doesn’t care about her father.
One morning, sitting behind the wheel of the shiny Mercedes SUV taking them to school, Matt was startled by the sound of his phone ringing to the music of the children’s song “Row Row Row Your Boat Gently down the stream” coming from under his seat. . A strange voice warned that there was a bomb planted under the chair, which would explode as soon as Matt or his two children opened the door. Lest Matt believe it was no joke, a nearby car exploded! “Tell your wife to take 50,000 euros from the bank vault, give it to the guy in the blue suit and leave as if nothing happened,” the strange voice ordered.
But while following her husband’s wishes, Heather was arrested by Europol police. Then the strange voice asked Matt for 200 million euros, causing Matt to find his boss and business partner (played by Matthew Modine). Who would have thought that the boss was also threatened that if he didn’t give money, he would die with a bomb in the car. Just like that, the movie drags the audience into a chase across Berlin, with many bomb explosions… The ending, of course, is happy for Matt, his wife and two children.
Critics say “Retribution” is Liam Neeson’s worst movie. Many people were disappointed, not expecting director Nimrod Antal (Predators , Vacancy ) to make such a poor crime film, even though this is a remake of El Desconocido of Spanish cinema in 2015 and was once popular. Pictures of Germany and Korea have been recreated. People are also surprised why Liam Neeson doesn’t accept other roles, more suitable for his age. At the age of 71, Liam Neeson is no longer suitable for tough action roles.
In his film career, Liam Neeson has left many bold marks, in many very different film genres, including the historical films The Bounty (1984, with Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson); The Mission (1986, with Robert de Niro and Jeremy Irons); crime film The Dead Pool (1988, with Clint Estwood); comedy film Husbands and Wives (1992 with many senior and senior actors such as Mia Farrow, Woody Allen, Sydney Pollack…); modern historical film Michael Collins (1996); crime gang movie Gangsters in New York (2002, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day Lewis)…
Liam Neeson also acts very well in tense crime movies, especially with Taken shown in 2018 (playing Brian Mills, a former CIA agent who takes action to save his wife and daughter). After Taken , Liam Neeson became a familiar face of action movies: The Marksman; Blacklight ; Honest Thief (bank robbery expert); Unknown ; Commuter ; Run All Night ; Non-Stop ; A Walk Among the Tombstones …; and there were two more Taken films to follow (2012 and 2014). Liam Neeson was also praised for several adventure films and hero roles in dangerous situations, such as The Ice Road (2020), The Gray (2011).
In fact, Liam Neeson – the Northern Irish actor who everyone has loved since his role as Oskar Schindler, a Nazi who saved thousands of Jews in the masterpiece Schindler’s List directed by Steven Spielberg – was aware of this. the problem of his age.
In 2021, he said on the small screen of Entertainment Tonight, “I know age makes me stop with this genre. And I also know that action movies will eventually come to an end. No matter how stupid the audience is, they will boo, “Oh this Liam Neeson guy, he seems to be 71, 72, 73 years old!” So I know at some point I will have to stop.”
But not yet, in the coming months, audiences will still see Liam Neeson in a series of films, including three crime films In the Land of Saints and Sinners and Thug ; Thug and Cold Storage . But Liam Neeson certainly will not leave as many memorable impressions as his previous roles, including the role of 19-year prison prisoner Jean Valjean in Les Misérables by Danish director Bille August in 1997.
