33% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 55 reviews)
Runtime: 108 minutes
Directed by: Robert Lorenz
Starring: Liam Neeson, Jacob Perez, Juan Pablo Raba, Katheryn Winnick, Teresa Ruiz
From: Open Road/Voltage
Yes, the dog dies. That has to be mentioned as I know that some in the general public consider that to be a deal-breaker in entertainment so if you and/or your significant other also share those feelings... you have been warned. The main reason for seeing this yesterday was that I had free time to visit a cineplex in an Orlando suburb and as I am still paying for AMC A-List, might as well use it, right?
Like with Honest Thief when I saw it a few months ago, my opinion is that the movie is rather formulaic. In fact, both are basically similar: a military man is unwittingly roped into running for his life from villains, he has to kill a few of them, an innocent party he knows is dragged into the mess, and law enforcement can't always be trusted. In this case, he is a rancher named Jim Hanson (not Henson) who is down on his luck and he transport a young boy who is an illegal immigrant to Chicago because “The Cartel” is after him due to something bad that his uncle did.
At least for me this was predictable and one moment was so cliché and goofy, a few people in the crowd scoffed & laughed at it. All that said, to me it was still a competent motion picture which was acceptable to me; at least it's not unwatchable crap like the Taken sequels. What action there is, it's not shaky-cam or edited to hell. In general the filmmaking was fine-cinematography, the score, the acting, etc. Naturally, Neeson's presence really does help. Something different here was that it was from Robert Lorenz, Eastwood's second unit director for many years now. As others have noted, if Eastwood was a few decades younger, no doubt he would have played the lead.
In a few hours I'll return w/ a review of something entirely different.
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