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How ‘Unknown’ Took A Different Approach To the Liam Neeson Action Film

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How ‘Unknown’ Took A Different Approach To the Liam Neeson Action Film

The trajectory of Liam Neeson’s career in the post-Taken era has been a fascinating one to witness. Neeson first made his way onto the audience’s radar in the ‘90s thanks to his highly acclaimed role as Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s beloved masterpiece, Schindler’s List, and Neeson followed up his remarkable breakout turn with many standout roles in arthouse projects from notable auteurs. However, by the mid-21st Century, this rapid rise seemed to be falling short. Neeson is now known as an action star and has appeared in many films of the genre that may seem like they all blend into one. However, the 2011 action-thriller, Unkown, walks a different path.

RELATED: ‘Memory’: Liam Neeson-Martin Campbell Thriller Sets Release Date

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Neeson’s leading roles began to shrink as he grew older, and although he took part in major projects like Gangs of New York and Kingdom of Heaven, it was always in minor parts. Some of Neeson’s best work in films like Kinsey and Breakfast on Pluto was unfortunately underseen. Then came Taken in 2008. There were few expectations for the revenge action-thriller, but the surprise hit caught on and announced the former award-friendly actor as the action hero of an entire generation. Compared to the other action stars of the time, Neeson’s gruff and grizzled perspective was a breath of fresh air that seemed to fill the void of what John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Harrison Ford did in their later years. Neeson generally appears in at least one action film of this type every year, and he’s frequently associated with director Jaume Collet-Serra. Collet-Serra’s work tends to embrace elements of straight-faced camp with low-scale action, and he directed Neeson in Non-Stop, Run All Night, and The Commuter.


However, Neeson and Collet-Serra began their successful series of collaborations with a film that now feels like a novelty. Unknown lacked the big ending set piece of Non-Stop, eccentric villains of Run All Night, or the “wink at the camera” type humor of The Commuter. It was just as ridiculous as any other Neeson vehicle, but Unknown seemed more Hitchcockian with its ambiguous morality and frequent twists and turns.

Neeson stars as Dr. Martin Harris, a biotechnology research professor who attends a summit in Berlin with his wife, Liz (January Jones). Harris is involved in a near-fatal car accident that puts him in a four-day coma, but when he awakens he doesn’t find his loving bride at his side. Liz claims that her husband is another man entirely (Aidan Quinn); she’s never seen Harris before and doesn’t recognize him.


The “case of mistaken identity” storyline feels very Hitchcockian, and Neeson is the type of sensitive actor that can make the scenes of family strife compelling in their own right, and not just a precursor to a series of shoot ‘em ups. What’s notable isn’t the premise itself, but what the film doesn’t reveal. Harris isn’t a secret agent with a Bourne-style past, nor does he reveal himself to be a former military serviceman who is unexpectedly adept at kicking ass. He’s simply a normal man victimized by a conspiracy and someone who must use practical problem-solving techniques to uncover the truth.

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Neeson’s later work grew less original because, for the most part, you know what you’re going to get from Neeson’s character arc pretty early on. Unknown is different in that it actually embraces the dramatic consequences of the premise. Here is a character that was once successful and relatively happy, and an unexpected event makes him a stranger in his own body. Harris can’t trust anyone, especially not himself, but he’s still heartbroken by the images of happy family vacations that now seem alien to him.


It’s here where Neeson’s dramatic experience really benefits the film because what would be “filler” in a Jason Statham or Mark Wahlberg thriller is actually the core text of Unknown. Harris needs time to adjust to his own reality, and though the eventual twists ultimately move the film in a pulpier direction, they help form an actual character arc. Harris realizes he shouldn’t have been content with the man he once was, as he was involved in an illicit assassination plot. He now seeks redemption for a task he has no memory of.

It’s also remarkable how many other Neeson film hallmarks are absent from Unknown. He works alongside a much younger female accomplice, Gina (Diane Kruger), but she doesn’t end up becoming his love interest. Harris faces off with the perpetrators of the conspiracy at the end climax, and he gets his ass handed to him. Ultimately, while he’s learned details of how the covert criminal conspiracy has been secretly impacting world politics, it’s not that he who single-handedly takes them down. His survival is his victory; now he must embark on the even more challenging task of returning to a normal life while burdened with this knowledge.


Neeson continues to hallmark the “one last mission” aging veteran premise (this year alone he’ll star in Blacklight and Memory) and Collet-Serra continues to rise as a blockbuster filmmaker with Jungle Cruise and this summer’s Black Adam. A film like Unknown, a mid-budget mystery for adult audiences, is the type of film that seems to be disappearing or dropped on a streaming service with little notice. Neeson and Collet-Serra, thankfully, have the clout to get a film like Unknown to an audience and, in retrospect, a hidden gem within both of their filmographies.

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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

Hitting the three-quarter-century mark usually means a retirement home, a nursing facility, or if you’re lucky to be blessed with relatively good health and savings to match, living in a gated community in Arizona or Florida.

For Sylvester Stallone, however, it means something else entirely: starring in the first superhero-centered film of his decades-long career in the much-delayed Samaritan. Unfortunately for Stallone and the audience on the other side of the screen, the derivative, turgid, forgettable results won’t get mentioned in a career retrospective, let alone among the ever-expanding list of must-see entries in a genre already well past its peak.

For Stallone, however, it’s better late than never when it involves the superhero genre. Maybe in getting a taste of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with his walk-on role in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel several years ago, Stallone thought anything Marvel can do, I can do even better (or just as good in the nebulous definition of the word).

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The property Stallone and his team found for him, Samaritan, a little-known graphic novel released by a small, almost negligible, publisher, certainly takes advantage of Stallone’s brute-force physicality and his often underrated talent for near-monosyllabic brooding (e.g., the Rambo series), but too often gives him to little do or say as the lone super-powered survivor, the so-called “Samaritan” of the title, of a lifelong rivalry with his brother, “Nemesis.” Two brothers entered a fire-ravaged building and while both were presumed dead, one brother did survive (Stallone’s Joe Smith, a garbageman by day, an appliance repairman by night).

In the Granite City of screenwriter Bragi F. Schut (Escape Room, Season of the Witch), the United States, and presumably the rest of the world, teeters on economic and political collapse, with a recession spiraling into a depression, steady gigs difficult, if not impossible, to obtain, and the city’s neighborhoods rocked by crime and violence. No one’s safe, not even 13-year-old Sam (Javon Walker), Joe’s neighbor.

When he’s not dodging bullies connected to a gang, he’s falling under the undue influence of Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk), a low-rent gang leader with an outsized ego and the conviction that he and only he can take on Nemesis’s mantle and along with that mantle, a hammer “forged in hate,” to orchestrate a Bane-like plan to plunge the city into chaos and become a wealthy power-broker in the process.

Schut’s woefully underwritten script takes a clumsy, haphazard approach to world-building, relying on a two-minute animated sequence to open Samaritan while a naive, worshipful Sam narrates Samaritan and Nemesis’s supposedly tragic, Cain and Abel-inspired backstory. Schut and director Julius Avery (Overlord) clumsily attempt to contrast Sam’s childish belief in messiah-like, superheroic saviors stepping in to save humanity from itself and its own worst excesses, but following that path leads to authoritarianism and fascism (ideas better, more thoroughly explored in Watchmen and The Boys).

While Sam continues to think otherwise, Stallone’s superhero, 25 years past his last, fatal encounter with his presumably deceased brother, obviously believes superheroes are the problem and not the solution (a somewhat reasonable position), but as Samaritan tracks Joe and Sam’s friendship, Sam giving Joe the son he never had, Joe giving Sam the father he lost to street violence well before the film’s opening scene, it gets closer and closer to embracing, if not outright endorsing Sam’s power fantasies, right through a literally and figuratively explosive ending. Might, as always, wins regardless of how righteous or justified the underlying action.

It’s what superhero audiences want, apparently, and what Samaritan uncritically delivers via a woefully under-rendered finale involving not just unconvincing CGI fire effects, but a videogame cut-scene quality Stallone in a late-film flashback sequence that’s meant to be subversively revelatory, but will instead lead to unintentional laughter for anyone who’s managed to sit the entirety of Samaritan’s one-hour and 40-minute running time.

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Samaritan is now streaming worldwide on Prime Video.

Samaritan

Cast
  • Sylvester Stallone
  • Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton
  • Pilou Asbæk

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Matt Shakman Is In Talks To Direct ‘Fantastic Four’

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According to a new report, Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct the upcoming MCU project, Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios has been very hush-hush regarding Fantastic Four to the point where no official announcements have been made other than the film’s release date. No casting news or literally anything other than rumors has been released regarding the project. We know that Fantastic Four is slated for release on November 8th, 2024, and will be a part of Marvel’s Phase 6. There are also rumors that the cast of the new Fantastic Four will be announced at the D23 Expo on September 9th.

Fantastic Four is still over two years from release, and we assume we will hear more news about the project in the coming months. However, the idea of the Fantastic Four has already been introduced into the MCU. John Krasinski played Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The cameo was a huge deal for fans who have been waiting a long time for the Fantastic Four to enter the MCU. When Disney acquired Twenty Century Fox in 2019 we assumed that the Fox Marvel characters would eventually make their way into the MCU. It’s been 3 years and we already have had an X-Men and Fantastic Four cameo – even if they were from another universe.

Deadline is reporting that Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct Fantastic Four. Shakman served as the director for Wandavision and has had an extensive career. He directed two episodes of Game of Thrones and an episode of The Boys, and he had a long stint on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There is nothing official yet, but Deadline’s sources say that Shakman is currently in talks for the job and things are headed in the right direction.

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To be honest, I was a bit more excited when Jon Watts was set to direct. I’m sure Shakman is a good director, but Watts proved he could handle a tentpole superhero film with Spider-Man: Homecoming. Wandavision was good, but Watts’ style would have been perfect for Fantastic Four. The film is probably one of the most anticipated films in Marvel’s upcoming slate films and they need to find the best person they can to direct. Is that Matt Shakman? It could be, but whoever takes the job must realize that Marvel has a lot riding on this movie. The other Fantastic Four films were awful and fans deserve better. Hopefully, Marvel knocks it out of the park as they usually do. You can see for yourself when Fantastic Four hits theaters on November 8th, 2024.

Film Synopsis: One of Marvel’s most iconic families makes it to the big screen: the Fantastic Four.

Source: Deadline

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Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase Star in ‘Zombie Town’ Mystery Teen Romancer (Exclusive)

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Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase have entered Zombie Town, a mystery teen romancer based on author R.L. Stine’s book of the same name.

The indie, now shooting in Ontario, also stars Henry Czerny and co-teen leads Marlon Kazadi and Madi Monroe. The ensemble cast includes Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch of the Canadian comedy show Kids in the Hall.

Canadian animator Peter Lepeniotis will direct Zombie Town. Stine’s kid’s book sees a quiet town upended when 12-year-old Mike and his friend, Karen, see a horror movie called Zombie Town and unexpectedly see the title characters leap off the screen and chase them through the theater.

Zombie Town will premiere in U.S. theaters before streaming on Hulu and then ABC Australia in 2023.

“We are delighted to bring the pages of R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town to the screen and equally thrilled to be working with such an exceptional cast and crew on this production. A three-time Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award winner with book sales of over $500 million, R.L. Stine has a phenomenal track record of crafting stories that engage and entertain audiences,” John Gillespie, Trimuse Entertainment founder and executive producer, said in a statement.

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Executive producers are Trimuse Entertainment, Toonz Media Group, Lookout Entertainment, Viva Pictures and Sons of Anarchy actor Kim Coates.  

Paco Alvarez and Mark Holdom of Trimuse negotiated the deal to acquire the rights to Stine’s Zombie Town book.

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