A Chamada

Some films are so bad they're good. Tommy Wiseau's 'The Room', or Claudio Fragasso's 'Troll 2,' are hilarious because of their ineptness, and are therefore really entertaining. Others are less enjoyable, but have redeeming qualities, such as the striking visuals in Alex Proyas' overblown 'Gods of Egypt,' for instance. Then, there are films that are just awful, with nothing to offer the viewing audience beyond boredom and disappointment.

Nimród Antal's 'Retribution' is one of the latter. An unoriginal slog, the film follows Matt Turner, a financier and family man. One day, while driving his children to school, he notices a strange phone ringing beside him, and answers it. The caller turns out to be an anonymous fiend, who tells Turner he has placed a bomb under his seat that is triggered by pressure plates and a radio frequency. The caller demands that Turner follow his instructions to the letter, otherwise the bomb will be detonated; sending Turner and his children on an explosive ride through the streets of Berlin.

It is, essentially, 'Phone Booth' meets 'Speed,' with a dash of Steven Knight's 'Locke,' but is no way as fun as that combination sounds. A dull remake of a much better film, Dani de la Torre's 'El desconocido,' Antal and screenwriter Chris Salmanpour fail to make the venture exciting, thrilling or in any way engaging. Salmanpour's dialogue is so stilted and full of exposition it makes that heard in Robert Lorenz's 'The Marksman' sound like Shakespeare. The narrative is predictable, featuring a twist so obvious it may make your eyes actually roll.

Furthermore, the characters involved are all stereotypes with little to no personality. Turner is a wet-blanket, who is difficult to root for, while his children are breathing cliches. Secondary characters are no better, and everyone involved acts without logic or common sense. How the film was greenlit for production, considering it is so boring as to be qualifiable as a sedative, is astounding. It plays like a cheap TV movie from the 90's or early 00's: forgettable, monotonous and hardly worth the time one has to invest in watching it.

It is an unexceptional, tiresome picture in every regard, featuring passionless cinematography from Flavio Martínez Labiano, which does nothing to aid proceedings. He makes Berlin- a notoriously interesting location- look flat and dreary, while his utilisation of shots and angles is conventional and uninspired. Similarly, composer Harry Gregson-Williams seems to be just going through the motions: his bland score reflects a lack of interest in the subject matter.

Moreover, Steve Mirkovich's editing is mediocre, if not downright poor. Mirkovich has cut some films brilliantly in the past: his work on 'Con Air' created tension and momentum, as it did on 'Big Trouble in Little China' and other projects. Here, though, he fails to generate the fast pace required for a thriller to work. The film plods along at a pace that would irritate a snail, going glumly from scene to scene with little to no energy or drive.

In fact, the only half-decent aspect of the film is star Liam Neeson's performance. Neeson does solid work, but Turner is a role that requires nothing from him, and he appears as bored as his audience at times. In the last few years, he has been making dodgy career choices, seemingly lured by big paycheques and nothing more. Although one can't fault him for wanting to make a bundle for relatively easy work; this might mark the nadir of his career thus far, and might actually hurt his bankability.

He should have avoided it like the plague, as should prospective viewers. Alongside Neeson, Jack Champion and Lilly Aspell, starring as his children, do forgettable work, while Noma Dumezweni does the bare minimum as a Europol agent on Turner's tail. Also, slumming it in a thankfully small role, is Matthew Modine, who is over the top when he isn't wooden, and seems embarrassed to be associated with the project at all.

At the end of the day, Nimród Antal's 'Retribution' is a boring waste of time. Based on an exciting film from Dani de la Torre, something was lost in translation when screenwriter Chris Salmanpour penned his adaptation, as there are no thrills, tension or entertainment value whatsoever in the finished product. Although Liam Neeson does solid work, this may be one of the most mundane, unexciting films he's appeared in- and in the last few years, he's been in a lot. Featuring nonstop nonsense and nothing more; this film is so forgettable, you might actually forget it as you're watching it.

Shallow is the best word I can come up with. This is the worse character script writing I've seen for any Liam film but it is still a passable film (barely). Lots of stereotyping about the kids, wife, cops and much of the supporting cast. A few holes in the storyline, too. However, if you're a Liam fan, you'll get through it. The editing was actually pretty good but there are lots of gaps that have you wondering "what's taking so long?". I think this could have been 2-3 stars better with some decent writing and less predictability with many of the characters. It was just very shallow and Liam deserves a lot better.

When I walked out of the theater I almost felt... empty... but I don't wanna say that the movie is bad, but... then again, I don't wanna say the movie is good either. It's your standard Liam Neeson thriller (with a little less action), but has the ability to keep you on the edge of your seat throughout. Luckily, the movie is only an hour and a half long, so it's not excruciatingly long. The main twist of the movie was sort of surprising, but at the same time made sense in the grand scheme of things, so I guess it could be considered 'predictable' depending on who you ask. I guess at this point I'll just throw it smack dab in the middle. As a I wrote before, not good, not bad. 5/10.

It's not a great movie by any means. I did not know walking into this movie it was a remake, but I sure hope the original was better. But what this movie lacked in dialogue, acting ability, characters, it made up for in story.

The overall plot of the movie is good. I love a good low budget thriller, and that's exactly what this was. Liam Neeson had to be this movies biggest expense, because everything was shot in a Mercedes Benz (btw this movie did not make me want to buy that car). The story was not completely predictable and it had some good moments that were fun to watch in a theatre.

But that's it. Other than that, the acting is terrible. The dialogue for the first 15min of the movie felt like it was written by AI and I almost left. And every character is as bland as an off brand cereal from Walmart.

Listen, if you like Liam Neeson thrillers, go see this, but don't expect anything spectacular. It will entertain but it does not go beyond its surface level plot line.

Retribution is barely for those of us who fell in love with Neeson when he did the ultimate man meal Taken. Ever snice That trilogy I've been running to the theatres to watch Neeson flicks and this is the Frist time I actually said to myself why (which i now found surprising).

Not to say this was a bad movie, but it really seemed unnecessary. Wild thing, it feels like a similar plot to a better Neeson movie the Commuter. The movies may seem polarizingly deferent but if you seen The Commuter you'll notice the same plot devices creating the same loop holes in both, but the Commuter is worth seeing while i could have skipped Retribution altogether.