Briarcliff Entertainment
There was a time when Liam Neeson played a variety of roles, starring as a philanthropic industrialist in Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List,” for which he received an Oscar nomination, and as Michael Collins in Neil Jordan’s biopic of the Irish revolutionary. But somewhere along the way, the Irishman decided that he was going to focus exclusively on playing grizzlies in a series of films that, frankly, all rolled into the same movie in this writer’s head.
It started with “Taken,” Neeson’s 2008 action film, in which he portrayed a former CIA officer forced to go on a violence-filled mission to retrieve his kidnapped daughter. The film spawned two sequels, a television series, and, as Whitney Sebold pointed out in the /Film classification of “Taken” films, an entire subgenre: “Liam Neeson’s post-Taken subgenre is a violent man.” 2022’s “Blacklight” is one example of this very specific genre, and it’s simply not very good. Blacklight is certainly not a takeover film, despite its attempt to use the same preternaturally competent archetype that Neeson created in that original film.
Let’s be clear, Blacklight isn’t a adaptation, but it still kind of is. Directed and co-written by Mark Williams, of “Ozark,” the film stars Neeson as Travis Block, an FBI coordinator for whom murder is, in his character’s words, “just off the bucket list.” However, murder soon becomes Blok’s favorite dish after he discovers a government conspiracy involving his own agency preying on people in the name of national security. In a twist on the retired agent being forced to return to work, Block attempts to retire from the FBI but his boss prevents him from doing so. This culminates in the kidnapping of the Tinker’s family: with Liam Neeson punching and shooting people. It’s a “Taken” movie, it’s a “Taken” movie.
Williams also directed Neeson in 2020’s “Honest Thief,” which currently holds a 41% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Although this may seem like a poor showing from the duo, it is a much better result than the “Blacklight” score.
Blacklight is the lowest-rated film directed by Liam Neeson on Rotten Tomatoes Briarcliff Entertainment
Any movie fan will know that Rotten Tomatoes should not be considered an arbiter of cinema. This site asserts that there are only two perfect horror films ever made. But that doesn’t mean the aggregator can’t provide a vague guide to films and their overall quality. For example, if we used it to sum up Liam Neeson’s career, we’d immediately see that “Blacklight” is worth avoiding altogether.
At the time of writing, “Blacklight” has a dismal rating on Rotten Tomatoes of just 11%. This is based on a total of 105 reviews as well, so you can be fairly certain that this movie is as much of a failure as this score suggests. If we dig a little deeper, the film’s average score — which is the sum of the actual star ratings, score, and numbers assigned to the film by critics — is a slightly more respectable 4.10 out of 10. However, there’s no escaping the fact that “Blacklight” is simply one of many… Of Neeson’s “Taken” style films that fail to transcend his overly derivative and clichéd style of filmmaking.
On Rotten Tomatoes’ ranking of Neeson’s films, Blacklight is currently the lowest-rated of all his works. The closest thing to this is 2014’s Taken 3, the sad conclusion to the trilogy that launched Neeson’s unlikely transformation into action star. These three currently have a score of 13% based on 123 reviews, so if you’ve watched “Taken 3” this should give you a good idea of what to expect from “Blacklight.” But in case you’re curious, it might be worth noting what critics have said about director Mark Williams’ ill-fated action thriller.
What did critics say about Black Light? Briarcliff Entertainment
The critical consensus for Mark Williams and Liam Neeson’s first collaboration, “Honest Thief”, describes a film as “guilty of extravagance of the highest order” that “returns Liam Neeson to late-period action thriller mode but neglects to deliver much of a story.” This was not an auspicious start for the director/star team at the time – which raises the question why the pair would reunite for another film that was essentially the same as their last. In fact, the critical consensus on their second effort, “Blacklight,” is one of the most terse examples on Rotten Tomatoes, reading simply “Turn it off.”
What exactly did “Blacklight” do wrong? You probably have a good idea based on the movie’s membership in the “Taken” heist club. But to be fully informed, Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal summarized the film as “not a movie at all”, but merely “a rusty recycling bin of inappropriate themes, concepts, attitudes, conventions and influences”. Tropes, figurines and idle snippets of dialogue from other films.” Writing for RogerEbert.com, Glenn Kenny speculated that the “Blacklight” script was “a side of gross opportunism, dreadfully shabby,” giving one star for Neeson’s 2022 blunder. The reviews continue as such, with critics calling the film a “by-the-numbers thriller”, “unintentionally funny”, and “something of a disappointment”.
Needless to say, unless you’re a fan of watching the same Liam Neeson movie over and over again, “Blacklight” is probably one of those examples where Rotten Tomatoes actually got things right.
