Drive to survive: Liam Neeson plays a man held captive as he circles the streets of Berlin. Photo / Supplied
Drive to survive: Liam Neeson plays a man held captive as he circles the streets of Berlin. Photo / Supplied
Retribution is the latest adaptation of 2015 Spanish film El desconocido (The Stranger), which has also spawned German and Korean versions.
Whoever greenlit this American take clearly thought they had a winner with Liam Neeson, who has starred in many low-concept, moderately entertaining action flicks requiring just a one-wordtitle – Taken (parts 1-3), Unknown, Memory and, er, Non-Stop.
Unfortunately, Neeson left his special set of skills at home for this one and his latest cash cow is a shoo-in for Worst Film of the Year. Dull, drawn out and atrociously acted, it elicits laughs where it shouldn’t, and won’t satisfy fans just there for the gun fights and car chases.
In an attempt at Speed meets Die Hard 3, Neeson plays Matt, a work-obsessed dad driving his kids to school when he gets an anonymous phone call.
The voice tells Matt there’s a bomb in his car, and if he stops or attempts to get help, they’ll be blown up.
“Keep driving!” the voice repeats throughout 90 yawn-inducing minutes, as his BMW circles the bland grey streets of Berlin. “Why?” entreats Matt, to which the reply is, “There is no why.” Quite.
Just as 71-year-old Neeson’s one-man superhero movies are running out of new ideas, it’s worrying that Neeson either didn’t notice or doesn’t care.
