It’s been almost 15 years since Liam Neeson reinvented himself as an aging action star with Taken (2008) and proved to audiences that he could kick ass up and down Europe with his “certain set of skills.” Since then, however, that premise has been beaten to death with two abysmal Taken sequels, three films shot in Canada, four collaborations with director Jean Collet-Sera, and a partridge and a pear tree. The Grey and A Walk Among the Tombstones are two grittier highlights of this neverending old-man-action run, but Blacklight might be the worst of the bunch — and that is truly saying something.
Blacklight’s opening scene shows a young congresswoman (clearly based on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) giving a speech full of liberal ideas that riles up the empassioned crowd, save for one man who we suspect has other motivations. Shortly after the rally, she is brutally murdered in a hit-and-run accident, which we know is not an accident after her own driver and the driver of the SUV that mowed her down, glance at each other as if to say: assassination complete.
Liam Neeson plays war veteran Travis Block (the use of Travis as a main character’s name should be banned from movies after Taxi Driver), a fixer who gets paid under the table by FBI director Gabriel Robinson (Aidan Quinn) to get undercover operatives out of jams. Early on, we see this in action as he races to rescue an agent who blew her cover to a bunch of white supremacist rednecks and Travis quickly saves her by blowing up a house to distract them. (This is the first time the digital effects look cheap, but certainly not the last.) Robinson and Block have been working together for years, but Travis wants to finally retire. Robinson is not so easily willing to let go of his “greatest weapon.” Neeson does play exasperation fairly well in all of these movies and so in these type of situations, there is still a reliable expectation of him to get snappy over the phone and threaten the bad guys; at this point it’s just starting to wear thin and it doesn’t help that he’s supported by an even thinner plot.
Block is done with this double life and wants to make up for not being there for his daughter Amanda (Claire Van Der Boom) by spending more time with her and his granddaughter Natalie (Gabriella Sengos). I can only assume a plotline where his family gets kidnapped is a non-negotiable requirement whenever Neeson signs on to one of these movies, so I’m sure you can guess what happens to them next. It’s probably a good thing too, because Travis has OCD and paranoia which causes him to do things repeatedly and count every exit, which is starting to rub off on Natalie. But other than to give Travis something to do early on, it doesn’t feel essential to his character or the story. Similarly, there is a shaky visual effect that happens every once in a while that feels like what some movies use to show someone being “shell shocked,” but it doesn’t seem to have any negative effect on Block. Maybe they thought auidences would be too bored with the movie so they needed to literally shake things up to keep them awake. This is Mark Williams’ second collaboration with Neeson after The Honest Thief and this is even somehow more by the numbers than that film; like a collection of cop movie cliches posing as a political thriller.
Neeson is getting older which means the action in these movies is noticeably reduced each time around, so many of the action scenes involve the whistleblower Dusty Crane (Taylor John Smith) instead. (What is with the names in this movie?) Dusty tries to set up a meeting with journalist Mira Jones (Emmy Raver-Lampman) with some damning information about the assassination (try email next time, bro); Block is hired to bring Dusty in by Gabriel; a car chase and gunfights ensue. But none of it ultimately amounts to much. Travis isn’t likable, the family is inconsequential, and the political scandal has been done dozens of times with scripts that don’t treat their viewers like idiots: At one point, after Mira uncovers a “smoking gun” about innocent civilians being killed (it’s never explained why), she simply replies: “that is messed up.” I laughed. And that is just one of many times that the attempt at conspiracy and political intrigue ends up being a joke. But the joke’s on us: Neeson is probably shooting five more of these at the moment.
Final Rating:
