Female Film Critics 24/375
Kiam Neeson teams up again with writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh. Grief-stricken, big rig driver Mike McCann embarks on a sad journey to honor his recently deceased younger brother. Since they’d often talked about climbing Mount Everest together, Mike decides that’s where he’s going to scatter his brother’s ashes. Problem is: a group of nasty kidnappers jump aboard.
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Comedy’s back – with lovers, liars and clowns…on the big screen with Liam Neeson as dimwitted detective Frank Drebin Jr. (son of Leslie Nielsen’s bumbling Frank Drebin), and Ed Hocken Jr. (Paul Walter Hauser) – son of Ed Hocken (George Kennedy). What’s most memorable is how Oscar-nominated Liam Neeson, who has spent the past 18 years playing tough action heroes (Taken franchise), brilliantly transitions his stoic physicality, deadpan intensity and raspy voice into slapstick comedy.
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It’s been 31 years since we last helped solve a crime with actor Leslie Nielsen as Detective Frank Drebin in the Naked Gun franchise. His Police Squad has changed personnel since then, but their bungling antics and slapstick humor still hit the bullseye. Liam Neeson was really the only choice to take the role of Lt. Frank Drebin, Jr in this reboot. He plays the son of the legendary lead (naked) gun and has been mistaken for Nielsen a multitude of times. Both actors also came from dramatic backgrounds finding a resurgence in their careers with comedy. The Naked Gun is not just a direct sequel, but an homage to the original with photos of the former squad and their new counterparts.
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What makes a comedy, moreover a reboot of television and film, work as hilarious entertainment? A partial answer to that question comes in The Naked Gun, with director Akiva Schaffer’s decision to throw in everything but the kitchen sink. For 85 minutes, the film rushes forward, piling on one joke after another, even through the final seconds of the closing credits. Never stopping to catch its breath, never minding if one gag or witticism doesn’t land, another rushes in immediately, so no matter. Deliriously fun, this film delivers an inspired, worthy addition for those who thoroughly enjoy this kind of unbridled goofiness.
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The Naked Gun is right on target, a laugh-out-loud funny crime spoof I didn’t know I needed. Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson and company deliver a screwball LA noir full of sight gags and sunshine, loopy puns, rapid patter, and enough raunch to fit within a PG-13 rating. Thankfully, director Akiva Schaffer has a good handle on how to make this Naked Gun fresh within its familiar universe. That includes nods at the earlier films that aren’t obtrusive while emulating its fast-and-thick schtick.
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Presenting a writer’s life in a captivating, engrossing way has eluded many directors. All the more credit, then, to Ethan Hawke who takes on prolific Southern Gothic author Flannery O’Connor in Wildcat, starring his daughter Maya. Not only does Ethan present Flannery’s physically and emotionally difficult life, he also integrates throughout the film dramatized vignettes from her semi-autobiographical short stories. The film is a dynamic interplay between the real and the imagined. Maya Hawke is Flannery and Laura Linney her mother Regina, but both play six roles (the actual and invented) inviting rich insights into both Flannery’s creativity and her troubled existence.
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Ethan Hawke has taken it upon himself to explore Flannery O’Connor cinematically. I understand the allure. O’Connor’s turn of phrase and rich Southern Gothic style begs to be on screen. Along with her stories, Flannery O’Connor was an iconic woman and a character in and of herself. Many novelists (Ethan Hawke being one himself) see pieces of ourselves in her life. And history definitely has pieces of her era in our era. The racial conflict and civil rights upheaval of the 50’s has a certain spark that we mirror in this very moment of time.
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This is 70-year-old Liam Neeson’s 100th film! I just wish it were better. Based on The Black-Eyed Blonde by Irish novelist John Banville, writing under the pseudonym Benjamin Black, it’s not even one of Raymond Chandler’s original Philip Marlowe tales. Leisurely scripted by William Monahan (The Departed) as a vintage film noir, it’s self-consciously directed by Neil Jordan.
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It’s not February without Liam Neeson hunting someone down and killing them. This time he tries Noir on for size as he follows the fingerprints of a long list of famous actors like Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum and James Garner by playing the 1930’s sleuth, Philip Marlowe. Neeson is no stranger to the cop turned detective role in this, his 100th film. While he can still beat up multiple men half his age all in one punch, Liam utters once again, “I’m getting too old for this.” making him a rather worse for wear gumshoe. Give Neeson credit for continuing to try to please his fans and tackling a slightly different style, but Marlowe is just mediocre
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It has been two and a half months since we last saw Liam Neeson kill someone. Well, in the Hollywood timeframe context, that’s just too long. The filmmakers who produce Liam Neeson movies must have a short memory because all Liam Neeson’s films are the same: I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you. In Memory, Neeson plays the bad guy with a heart — an assassin who won’t kill children.
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