Memory

"Justice comes down to him." From The Marksman

Vigilante revenge is riddled through American thriller films, and nobody does it better than Liam Neeson. In an interview, he believes audiences love seeing the big old guy kicking butt for the rest of us stuck home from covid, retirement, or whatever.

In Martin Campbell's Memory (the 78-year-old Casino Royale director like Neeson still has his mojo), he plays Alex Lewis, a contract killer telling his sponsors he's done, but they refuse to accept his offer. Because his current contract involves murdering a 13-year-old girl, Beatriz (Mia Sanchez), he's not going to do it, period! Per usual, Neeson's hardcore vigilante has his limits: Involving children is a non-no, and it's an immediate softener for the audience. Plus, such a code allows the essential Neeson to emerge-a good guy underneath his "special skills."

This refinement of past assignments, this surfacing of a standard that brooks no trafficking in young people, is a moral advance for an immoral assassin. The audience immediately sides with the hit man and shows no sympathy for the rich people doing the reprehensible trafficking. Memory's loaded with sympathy for Alex, especially when he connects with FBI agent Vincent, played by Guy Pearce (a nice touch as we remember him in that classic thriller, Memento). Both are tough men on the opposite sides of the law, who have a sympathetic side that ingratiates without sapping the tough guy the audience has always savored.

The strongest leitmotif is that of memory, or the lack thereof, so that the early-onset Alzheimer's plays a technical part of the plot and a thematic reminder that combating trafficking is going to involve memory, not just of the computer kind. One memory Alex never loses is the murder of young Beatriz, for whose violent end Alex was not responsible.

Along the way, this layered thriller comments on the limits of justice and the questionable answer of vigilantism. While the film leans toward the latter, so too does the stock Neeson character, whose sympathy we have when we see how free the bad boys and girls go.

They still need to be wary of old men with dementia-it's those hidden skills, Baby. "HIS MIND IS FADING. HIS CONSCIENCE IS CLEAR," says the memory poster.

Well, I have to say that Liam Neeson keeps pumping out good movies these past many recent years. So I have to say that when I sat down to watch "Memory" from writer Dario Scardapane and director Martin Campbell, I was harboring some expectations.

And "Memory" delivers. Yes, this is another coin in the piggybank movie from Liam Neeson. The storyline was nicely written, and it was more than just your average action thriller, because "Memory" gives you something to think about with its storyline, and also gives you some great characters.

The cast ensemble in "Memory" was good. Liam Neeson was just brilliant in this movie and this particular role, and I will say that it was refreshing to see him in a role such as this. The movie also have Guy Pearce, Taj Atwal, Harold Torres, Monica Bellucci and Ray Stevenson on the cast list among others. The entire cast pulled together and performed quite well all throughout the entire movie.

"Memory" is a very engaging action thriller, especially because writer Dario Scardapane immediately sweeps you up and takes you on a thrill-ride with lots of ups and down, and throws enough curveballs at you to keep you in the dark.

If you enjoy action thrillers and Liam Neeson, then "Memory" is a must-watch movie. I was genuinely entertained by this one. And I dare actually say that it is without a doubt one of the better movies with Liam Neeson, and that says a lot, because he has been putting out a lot of good movies over the past couple of years.

I can and will warmly recommend you sit down to watch "Memory".

My rating of "Memory" lands on a seven out of ten stars.

Wasn't as bad as the unreliable rating suggests, the movie was actually quite interesting and original with some nice twists like liam's typical movies that has a rather different ending. The actions werent actually intense but was still intriguing enough to keep viewing, the acting were decent and the story was rather convincing but with some minor flaws. Again ignore the critics and imdbs phony ratings, a 6 to 6.5 is a more accurate rate for the film.

Nothing revolutionary with this film, in fact, it's pretty much formulaic, predictable, and cliched of every action film Neeson has already done - hence the name Memory?, but poorly produced and lazily written, that it ends up as a B-film. Even the ending was cringeworthy and something I'd expect from a high school drama class. The few action scenes were decent, but lacked proper choreography and camera shots to give them any 'wow' factor. I don't even know why this film was made, we certainly have seen it all before, and much better. The 114 min runtime felt much longer - even with the decent pacing, due to much filler and little substance. Casting and performances were decent. It's a generous 7/10 from me.

5.5/10

This was one of those movies that could've gone straight to home release and been more enjoyable. However, it goes to theatres and becomes a bit of a disappointment. The acting was mediocre, the story has a moment of strength then collapses, and it's just the same old plot with a slightly different twist.

The acting by Liam Neeson and Guy Pearce was good. I found that Neeson was stronger this time around compared to some of his other latest roles, and Pearce fit the role of FBI agent quite well. However, some of the major supporting just didn't seem to care at times. They lacked passion in the role or felt a little awkward.

The concept of the film was interesting. Guy is an assassin and taking on one last job until it interferes with his personal code. Then he turns around and begins killing those who've wronged him on the mission, but not without the difficulty of memory loss.

On paper it seems like a cool movie with cool characters and a relatively strong story that would be enjoyable. Until you watch it and the parts that tell the story are rushed and the parts that are fillers drag on and take more of the runtime. And honestly, the runtime already feels long at and hour and fifty-four minutes.

Overall, I was once again disappointed with a Liam Neeson film. The story lacks good visual representation and strong characters. I'd recommend waiting for this film to come out on a streaming service.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review. I hope it helps in your decision-making process of the film. Until next time.... Enjoy the show!