‘Absolution’ Review: The Liam Neeson Action Revenge Genre Winds Down as He Plays an Enforcer with Memory Issues
variety.comOwen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Liam Neeson recently said that he’s planning to retire from the action revenge genre that injected his career with a second life, starting with “Taken” back in 2008.
Neeson was 55 when he shot that movie — old enough to play a hardened former CIA operative, ageless enough that we believed in his strength and speed and badass vigor.
In the 16 years since, the Liam Neeson vigilante B-movie with attitude became its own genre. I’m one of many who look forward to these films and enjoy, in theory, their no-frills sadistic mayhem.
But the truth is that Neeson, with his towering presence and sinewy resolve, is always better than the movies themselves. In memory, most of them blur together, and it’s amazing how much they all still feel powered by that speech in “Taken” (“I can tell you I don’t have any money.
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