Memorable, crazy movie

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Though I haven't watched a lot of them yet (I've mainly devoted my time, of late, to catching up on 1920-1970s cinematic milestones), I have a profound respect for the new roles Liam Neeson has taken on in recent years. It makes me think of what would have been had my favourite actor ever, James Cagney, hadn't basically retired for the quiet life in the early 60's, when the perfect storm of 'great actors in B-movies' hit the fans.My lady is more a horror aficionado, and of recent vintage films, so it was nice to throw this on for a spin and show her its neo-noir tendencies, almost as if going through a 'make your own movie' template, checking them off one-by-one. I don't mind that sort of rote predictability if it's done right, and, though heavily flawed, for the most part it does. By the climax, I basically only cared for four things: that the kidnapped girl, Matthew Scudder and TJ were alive, and that the two kidnappers/murderers got their just desserts, whether it be lengthy incarceration or murder, anything so their crime spree would be ended. The film was well-made and a very enjoyable experience, so considering the relatively minor flaws (especially the one-dimensional aspect of the antagonists), I would definitely recommend at least a watch for most cinephiles out there, especially those interested in 'true crime' type of contemporary American cinema.

By the way, the film should have concentrated more heavily on the articulate teenage black man who acts as an assistant to Liam Neeson's detective role in this very eerie film.It is constantly raining in New York as depicted in the film. The bad weather is really a backdrop to this action packed film where Liam Neeson, a former police officer turned detective, is hired to find the killers of a woman who was married to a drug trafficker. Seems as though there have been plenty of other kidnappings and murders by a mad guys even when the ransom is paid to get the women back.The eerie atmosphere of the film ultimately does it in.

I thought this film was a surprise-a Liam Neeson film that had a whole bunch of bloopers in it that I missed completely the first time I saw it. A character gets killed in a shoot out in the park only to seemingly reappear minutes later (he looks almost identical to another actor) and a guy who has been obliterated by several shots fired at virtually point blank range is shown to have survived by wearing a bullet proof vest but a few minutes later is shown dying with the other guy who has just been killed very much alive standing beside Liam Neeson's character watching bullet proof vest guy die. Confusing. Then the bulletproof vest guy guy who has died in the park reappears minutes later injured in a van with his cohort. Whatever. I think the film has some good ideas which are obliterated by this lack of internal logic not at the very end but close to the very end-like they all of a sudden just up and gave up on the film. I think many films pass at first viewing but not at the second one where you are more apt to pick up on an errors in them and sometimes there are really big errors in the film that can really take away from the films appeal. The fact the film is about two off the charts bad guys doesn't change the fact it bombs because of flow errors. I think they made this film too fast.

Liam Neeson in a thriller about kidnapping (what, again? yes, again). It's well acted, but there are just too many problems with it, mainly plot-related. It goes from place to place in a weird way, seems to go one way but goes to another. But mainly it's just pointless. At least twice during the movie I thought it's the end, but it continued. When it actually ended, I thought: So what's the point?Side note: All the gun fights scenes were incredibly loud. I don't know if that's a problem of the film or the cinema itself - because all the other scenes were in decent volume - but those scenes (especially all the guns firing) were so incredibly loud that it actually hurt my ears (or perhaps I shouldn't go to the cinema with a headache/migraine).