#AWalkAmongTheTombstones,Hollywood English Film movie Review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * * *

#AWalkAmongTheTombstones,Hollywood English Film movie Review, Johnson Thomas,
Rating: *  *  *

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#AWalkAmongTheTombstones(English) Rating: ***

Brooding, melancholic, dark thriller takes a little too long to unwind. And just a little too enigmatic. Not enough consistency in tension to keep you glued, though. Sharp-shooting action and bloodied thrills do make up for some of the slack. The atmospheric advantage is lost in narrative indulgence but the bloodied action does provide fitful recompense #LiamNeeson #ScottFrank #DanStevens #BoydHolbrook #DavidHarbour #TOPEntertainment 

English Film review

Johnson Thomas

Brutally yours!

Film: A Walk Among the Tombstones

Cast: Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, Ruth Wilson, Boyd Holbrook,David Harbour

Director: Scott Frank

Rating: * * *

Running Time: 114 min.

 

Synopsis:A heroin trafficker whose wife was abducted and murdered  hires a haunted private investigator to track down the men who killed her in this brooding crime drama starring Liam Neeson. Matt Scudder (Neeson) was an NYPD cop having a quiet drink in a Washington Heights bar when a pair of armed robbers came in guns blazing. Giving chase, Scudder guns down the robbers in the street, though a stray bullet turns a heroic moment tragic. Devastated, Scudder subsequently goes to work as an unlicensed private detective, working just outside of the law and surviving on generous gifts offered in exchange for his services. Now, tasked with rooting out the sadistic thugs who brutally butchered the wife of a wealthy drug dealer (Dan Stevens), Scudder scours the bars and back alleys of New York City in search of his elusive targets - and the closer he gets, the more apparent it becomes that they are something much more sinister than your typical kidnappers.

 

Review:

The lines between right and wrong are severely blurred in this actioner peopled with so many gray and darker characters that it’s hard to pick one with whom you can empathise. The script of course makes the choice for you , dovetailing a defanged NYPD cop turned unlicensed private investigator, Matt Scudder(Neeson) who is trying to come to terms with his own fallibility – in inadvertently killing a passerby while involved in a shoot-out with armed robbers who never hesitate to kill for their loot.

In opposition to his brooding, disturbed character are the drug dealers who fall prey to extortion demands from possibly rogue DEA agents. Allowing them both their pound of flesh would have been the easy way out but Scudder has to get involved in the investigation of a kidnapping and murder of the wife of one of the city’s leading drug peddlers and in ‘Taken’ mode ferrets out the kingpins and ends up decimating them. Of course one can well expect a sequel from this as the PI continues to be alive and standing , if a little worse for wear and his demons are still there to haunt him- making him a hero cinematically worth pursuing for the long term.

Director & scriptwriter Scott Frank (who wrote ‘Get Shorty’ & ‘Minority Report’ ) adapts Lawrence Block’s 1992 novel featuring his continuing character Mathew Scudder in an atmospheric projection of good versus evil where the men are tough and hardened while the women are merely pieces of flesh- take that literally!

The atmosphere in which Scudder exists is grim with foreboding and  Scudder is the one imposing  Colossus who could be the light (wavering constantly) in the enveloping darkness filled with dysfunctional criminal minded misfits. For some interim relief there’s  TJ (Brian Bradley/ Astro), a teenager with a taste for detective fiction whom Scudder befriends while researching Kristo’s case. He is Scudder’s link to humanity here and though incidental, makes the film more involving. Overall, there’s a certain brutality to the narration that would most probably take a toll on the faint-hearted. The line of reasoning here is sadistic and depraved and that will in fact  provide enough thrills for those thriller junkies!

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