It was my best friend’s birthday a few weeks ago and I
decided to treat her to lunch and a movie. I told her she could pick any movie
and she chose Liam Neeson’s latest film, A walk among the tombstones. The film
is about an ex cop Michael Scudder (Liam Neeson) turned unlicensed private
detective who is offered a job from a drug trafficker, Kenny Kristo (Dan
Stevens). The job is to find the person who killed Kenny’s wife. She was
kidnapped and held for ransom only to be murdered. Later on, he discovers that he
is dealing with serial killers.
This movie is not like Taken where everything is fast paced
with slick fight scenes. Scudder is an old school detective who investigates by
looking at newspaper headlines in the library, going to locations and interviewing
witnesses. At the library, he meets a homeless boy named TJ (Brian “Astro”
Bradley) who tries to help him in his investigation even though he does not
want help. I actually think TJ was a useless character who didn’t really add to
the plot.
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While the investigation is under way, Scudder finds the time
to regularly attend AA meetings as he is a former alcoholic. It was revealed
that a tragic accident lead him to quit the police force and become sober. It’s
always some death that causes the protagonist to leave the police force in these
types of movies. It was a nice change that he became sober instead of a drunk. I
was expecting this movie to be a typical action movie, where a guy has a wife
and family who get murdered and he’s out for revenge. It was a nice change that
Scudder wasn’t out for revenge and he had no family. I think he may have mentioned
an ex-wife in the film but only in conversation.
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| Scudder with TJ |
I thought there would be some plot twists in the movie but
it’s a straight forward story. The bad guys were menacing enough and I was
squeamish over how they killed people. I think people who watch action movies
or horror films will find the gore pretty tame though. This movie is not
something I would normally watch but I did find it entertaining. I found the
plot to be predictable but I was still in suspense whenever Scudder checked out
a location or spoke to some witnesses. I was always expecting some bad guy to
ambush him.
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| Kenny Kristo played by Dan Stevens |
What I liked about this film was that it showed good old
fashioned police work can solve crimes too. There doesn’t have to be a team of
experts and fancy technology. I think people who come into the movie thinking it
will be like Taken will be a bit disappointed by the slow pace and lack of action.
There are no car chases in this movie or big fight sequences. The movie is more
of a thriller or a drama.
Thanks for the review Carlyn. I have not seen Taken or A Walk Among the Tombstones, but I thought that the films would be essentially the same thing when I saw both advertised. It's good to know they are different. It seems like Liam Neeson is becoming somewhat comfortably type-cast into these kinds of man on a mission searching for or hunting down a killer type films.
ReplyDeleteDo you know if the movie was based off a book? If it was then perhaps the homeless boy had a more useful role in the story. >.< (?) Or maybe not. I sometimes find that certain movie adaptations struggle to incorporate the ancillary characters with the deftness that an author might.
The movie is based on a book so TJ might be more integral to the story.
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