This movie is action packed. Everyone says it’s what happens to Jack Bauer of 24 in 10 years or so and that is dead on. Liam Neeson plays a former CIA operative who gave up the life to try to create, or re-create, a relationship with his daughter.
Maggie Grace plays Neeson’s daughter who is kidnapped by gangsters as part of human trafficking ring. Neeson goes to get her back. Liam Neeson simply lays waste to everyone in his way. This movie isn’t particularly innovative, but it is action packed. In fact it’s pretty cliched, but it’s good in the way 24 was good early on.
This is a great role for Neeson. In fact, I think it’s the kind of role that I think Jason Statham will/should play in a few years. I realize this isn’t much of a review (neither was my last one), but this isn’t much of a movie other than a taut action thriller. If you’re into action movies, watch this flick.
This movie had no point. As far as I can tell it had no plot. I felt the performances were shallow because the characters were shallow. I almost feel bad putting affiliate links up in case people actually buy this movie. On IMDB someone compared it to “Closer” and I understand the sentiment, but no, this movie was terrible. It has four great actors in the lead roles, but they are absolutely wasted.
Okay, so let me start by saying I don’t have a system for reviewing movies. I mean to say I don’t have a rating system. I guess I could just use the 5-star Netflix. Or a 10 scale system. Or thumbs up/thumbs down. But no, I think I’ll just write what I thought about the movie. So here we go… (I should note, I don’t do “after the jump” on this blog and I’m not posting huge bolded “spoiler warnings” prior to parts of the review that “spoil” things.) I made an Amazon affiliate account, so clicky click and help me out.
I really enjoyed “The Visitor.” The plot is pretty straightforward. A lonely widower going through the motions of life happens across of illegal immigrants squatting in his New York apartment. He makes a connection with one of them (Tarek) via music, and his life is changed.
Richard Jenkins is a veteran character actor seen in many movies. He played the lead role of Walter Vale. I thought his work here was excellent, save one point. Vale’s transformation from the uptight, lonely guy to more than competent drummer seemed a little too seamless. You could argue that he was a natural drummer, had drumming in his heart, and all of that, but that doesn’t just fly for me. The growing friendship between Vale and Tarek is played out through small scenes of their time together. And by the time Tarek is deported, you can see Vale’s anger and confusion.
Haaz Sleiman as Tarek was excellent as well. His sunny disposition and joy about his music was refreshing. Tarek’s change while in the detention center was something to behold. You could see on Sleiman’s face how much being locked up was wearing on Tarek, how it was changing him. It was sad to see.
The performances by the female leads, Danai Jekesai Gurira (as Tarek’s girlfriend Zainab) and Hiam Abbass (as Tarek’s mother Mouna Khalil), were very strong as well. I thought Gurira did as much as she could with a fairly small role. I think any guy (and girl) could relate to the relationship between Zainab and Tarek. In what was given very small amounts of screen time, you saw a lot of their relationship and it was something I’m sure everyone can relate to.
Abbass as Mouna was excellent as well. She had the quiet strength of a woman who had a hard life. I didn’t quite buy the burgeoning relationship between Mouna and Vale, but it wasn’t outside the realm of possibilities.
The performances made this movie. I think it made the most of its run time. I can’t figure out if this movie needed another 10 minutes or so. Looking back on it, the movie was more of a photo album. You saw the progression of the relationships through specific moments in time, without the bits in between. I don’t know, for this movie at least, showing those in between bits would add to the movie. Usually I think it’s better to show the progression of relationships rather than flashpoints that show the end results. Here I think it worked fairly well.
Recently released an album (Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo – non-affiliate Amazon link) of essentially demos and songs that didn’t quite make the Weezer cut. Some good stuff, some not so good stuff, some experimental stuff, some weird stuff. Thoroughly Cuomo through and through. There’s a lot on this album I like a lot. But this is what I share:
Here’s Rivers’s review of the whole album. Here’s what he had to say about “This is the Way”:
For Weezer’s sixth album, I was feeling extremely adventurous again. I wrote an epic, six-minute, symphonic type of art song called “Daydreamer.” After I wrote the song, though, I reversed myself again, deciding to write a straight-ahead, nothing-fancy, middle-of-the-road, urban pop type of song. I took the chords from a Mario hit, fired up the drum machine and the synth pads, and wrote “This is the Way.”
Sometime between writing these two songs, I realized that one of them wouldn’t work. Which one, I’m still not sure: I think I might ask Rick [Rubin]. He’s the most extraordinary producer. He has these big beardy jowls because of all the producing he does. At the same time, though, he’s a huge Danzig fan and has a caustic wit.
Everyone around us was saying “‘This is the Way’ is the bomb—you should really do that song.” Scott [Shriner], in particular was like, “I want to sing that song. I can own it.” Even with all the professional respect I have for Scott (he’s been the best, really) I just sort of felt that an urban type pop song wasn’t where I wanted to be. I mean, I’m a married man now. Last year I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard. In any case, Weezer has already conquered that territory—multiple times, and with other bassists—in the guise of “Hash Pipe,” “El Scorcho” and “We Are All On Drugs.” It was time to move on. I’ve resolved to do this pretty regularly from now on.
But who knows. Maybe “This is the Way” will end up on Weezer album number seven. We’ll see.
So incredibly weird. Not bad weird. Just weird when not knowing much about the songs on the album, just listening, I thought my iPod skipped to some other album. But straight up Rivers rocking some R&B. I kind of hope some up and coming R&B artist covers this song.
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