I watched Hostages with Liam Neeson. almost fell asleep

The Russian box office will release a new thriller “Hostages” with Liam Neeson in the main video.

The trailer promised thrilling drama, suspense, mystery and unpredictability. That is something more than just another thriller in the collection of Liam Neeson.

But, unfortunately, the potential of the story was missed. But first things first.

The remake you didn’t expect

What is the movie about: On a typical morning, Matt Turner, a hedge fund worker from Berlin, gets into the car to take the children to school and after the trip to the most business meeting.
But the hero receives a phone call with an artificially altered voice, informing him that bombs are fixed under the seats, and they will explode if someone tries to get out of the car.

The plot of the film is quite banal, and it may seem to an experienced viewer that he has already seen this somewhere, and he will be right.

Yes, this is another remake, already the third in a row!

In 2015, the Spanish thriller The Stranger was released, and three years later, German filmmakers took the tie in their version of Keep Out!. Three years later, the film was re-shot in South Korea. And finally, the scriptwriter in Hollywood.

And this is one of the main problems of the novelty – the viewer has something to compare with.

The hero is too correct, already sickening

Neeson’s character, which at first glance seems very interesting, soon becomes a typical noble hero. This is a contradiction in the initial concept, according to which in the Spanish version of the film the hero was much more morally deficient. And the Korean version of the film reveals the hero from different angles.

But the protagonist of the new film is simply devoid of complexity and ambiguity. This, in turn, leads to the fact that any intrigue and tension that could be given to the description of the plot disappear.

This Neeson doesn’t want to kill

Alas, 95% of the running time Neeson plays a character unusual for the viewer.

For the last 15 years, he has been the reason I have any living existence at all. Whether it’s the villains who kidnapped his child in “Hostage”, the terrorists on a flight call in “Air Marshal”, the cartel bandits from the movie “Snowplow”, or even the wild wolves from the movie “Heat”.

Liam ordered everyone tough and without compromise. Well, if it concerned his loved ones, there were no options at all. We all knew there would be corpses.

But in “Hostages” Neeson plays an unstable father, forgets about his signature style of intimidating gangsters on the phone and generally doesn’t move much. The latter, of course, is understandable, but it’s still not the Neeson we’re all used to. Forget the time when the hero played Bill Bad Boys and rescued hostages – in the new film he is portrayed with an even more dangerous enemy: the seat of his car.

Sweating nervously and trying to calm his children down, Neeson’s character simply travels to Berlin, where the action is taking place, and the enigmatic bomb tech must be energetically catered to. Sad picture.

Heroes are driving a car, the plot stands still

In connection with the “sterility” the main character of the film looks too banal. Plot twists? At the level of the road circle. expected voltage? I know that from the thought that the battery of the phone can be discharged. A game of cat and mouse? The cat is lazy, the mouse doesn’t care.

The original Spanish version of this movie came out so-so. complex moral storybut the moral of Hostages is pretty simple: don’t remake unless you plan on adding something new or at least interesting.

Despite the very high-quality pleasant picture, watching a movie is boring. The operator is really trying, loves the rule of the golden ratio, uses a stabilizer, looking for interesting angles.

But how can all this help a film in which everything is too expensive and stupid in places? To the point that the writers forget some characters just in the course of the story.

As for the action – everything is bad here. Regardless of the explosions and car chases, the cameos are unique and unconvincing. This is especially disappointing, given that the film’s director, Nimrod Antal, has previously worked on action films like Predators, for example.

The “unexpected” plot twist involving a real atrocity, followed by a conversation between and the protagonist, is reminiscent of the very mundane philosophical discussions characteristic of mediocre action films. Those very films of the early 90s, where the villain proudly said that he was really smart and that he calculated all the moves. Almost.

The film leaves a feeling of dissatisfaction and missed opportunities. Neeson, who has become a symbol of late action films, is undoubtedly better material than another B-movie.

At this rate, we will soon see a short video in which Liam’s character calls, and on the other end of the line – “Hello, Liam? This is your career, we want to achieve: it’s time for you to choose the best scripts!

If you’re looking for something to watch on a Friday night, we recommend checking out the Spanish original, a good Korean version, or any other movie. Perhaps even a non-fiction movie about car seat manufacturing would be more entertaining.