Retribution Featured, Reviews Film Threat
Now showing in cinemas! Liam Neeson firmly established himself in the world of mid-budget indie action with the Nimrod Antal-directed thriller Retribution. Neeson will play Matt Turner, a businessman whose latest offer is making investors uneasy. This morning, Matt has to stop his biggest investor from withdrawing money. Additionally, family Matt neglects his children Zack (Jack Champion) and Emily (Lily Aspel). His wife Heather (Embeth Davidtz) insists Matt drive the kids to school. In the car Matt carries out several tricks to appease the client. On the way to school, Matt receives a mysterious call from a mobile phone hidden in his car. Electronically altered audio tells him that he is sitting on a bomb and that he will explode if he tries to get out of the car. The voice also tells him that he has a remote control that can detonate bombs. A voice instructs Matt to drive to two of his co-workers. One of them is his partner and best friend, Anders (Matthew Modine). Unfortunately, Matt arrived just in time to see them explode. Since Matt was at both crime scenes, the police named him as the prime suspect as per the villain’s plan.
For me, I struggled over whether to recommend Retribution or not, and sadly, I can’t recommend it barely. There’s an unavoidable reality that when you have big stars, such as Liam Neeson and Bruce Willis, as of late, you expect bigger movies. Retribution was just too small for its lead. If this was an indie action film with an unknown indie crew, or if millions more were pumped into its budget, I would have probably told you to see it. Retribution is action-packed, with cool explosions and average car chases (a few more millions would be nice here). But we’ve seen victims led by a mysterious voice before, and retaliation doesn’t help strengthen this narrative. Thrills and suspense are good, but not forgettable. In a year of FastX and Mission Impossible, this is what indie action films are up against, and sometimes big-name actors can’t live up to the comparison, whereas unknown actors can. Let’s also be real. There’s a bomb under the seat, which is that unseen threat we have to be reminded of through dialogue.