'Blacklight' Review: Liam Neeson's Very Particular Set Of Skills Is No Match For The Mediocre Script

Arlington TX

12 February, 2022

5:48 PM

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By Joe Friar, Fort Worth Report February 12, 2022 When Liam Neeson entered the action phase of his career with 2008 's "Taken" he became this generation's Charles Bronson. The Bryan Mills trilogy is commensurate with the "Death Wish" series (Bronson did five of those). Outside of the actors' signature franchises, came a slew of films with unmemorable titles that followed the same formula. Can you name the last 3 Neeson films? "Blacklight" is the latest formulaic action thriller in which Neeson once again plays a hardened everyman with a shady past who's trying to repair his estranged relationship with his family. A "fixer" who can't fix the most important aspect of his life. Neeson plays Travis Block. A behind-the-scenes operative for the FBI who is routinely called upon to clean up the bureau's messes. His boss, Gabriel Robinson (Aidan Quinn), the intelligence agency's director, served with Block in Vietnam. An incident during the war explains why Robinson has a hold over Block who believes he is paying his debt by rescuing agents in the field caught in hairy situations. The film opens with a scene that incorporates hillbilly white supremacists, a trailer park, and a confederate flag. Neeson zooms in behind the wheel of a Dodge Charger to rescue an undercover female agent trapped in a mobile home. No one is killed and later we learn that Block's code of ethics prohibits him from rubbing out the opposition. Don't confuse Neeson's look with boredom, obviously, he has achieved a Zen state of mind. Later at a Washington protest rally, an activist named Sofia Flores (Mel Jamson), who is fashioned after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is killed by a hit-and-run driver. The tension in the country is escalating and it looks the government may be involved (not surprising). A rogue agent named Dusty Crane (Taylor John Smith) is on a mission to expose the bureau's corruption before J. Edgar Hoover wannabe Robinson can have him assassinated. He implores the help of a local journalist named Mira Jones (Emmy Raver-Lampman) who teams up with Block once he catches wind of what's going on. "Blacklight" marks the second collaboration between Neeson and writer-director Mark Williams after 2020's "Honest Thief" and the fourth collaboration between Neeson and Quinn who first worked together in the 1986 film "The Mission." To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.