Unknown

 Well it is Thursday night and off to the flicks I went!! I saw Unknown at the 8.45 p.m screening here in Napier. At first there was only three people in the theatre but about five minutes before it started there was a sudden influx of patrons. So by starting time the theatre was a third full.
 I had seen the shorts to this many times at previous movies. I had reservations about it as it smacked of Neeson and his recent film Taken. Unfortunately my reservations were somewhat confirmed by the end. It isn't a bad action/thriller but because of the similarity to Taken I feel the role should have gone to someone else.
 Neeson is not bad just mis-cast. Even though the story is different to Taken, you can't escape the feeling through out the whole film that he is playing the same character. 
 Diane Kruger has a funny role. She is German by birth, the film is based in Berlin, and she is a Bosnian character with a slavic accent!! It does not detract from her role but it is at the back of your mind all the same.
 January Jones is somewhat mis-cast too. The age gap between her and Neeson's character is too great to make the viewer feel they are a real couple. Right from the start it sort of gave the game away that something was not right between them. A woman of a closer age to Neeson would have been more realistic. Jones has an eye-candy role and plays the dumb blond too well. When her true role is revealed she does not have the strength of her character to pull off the role of an assassin .
 But despite the critisims of the castings this film is not a bad action/thriller. It has a reasonable plot that does have some good twists and turns that leave you guessing. The action is good with some spectacular crashes and smashes. The fight scenes are not over done with too much blood and guts. It is overall a well paced movie with a very good cast of sub characters.
 I did like this film except for the Nesson/Taken comparisons which are unavoidable. It is a glaring mis-cast. But if you over look that then this is a better than average action/thriller with Berlin providing a spectacular backdrop.
 Worth a look, as believe me, there are far, far worse films you can ever see!!
Click here for a synopsis and other facts:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1401152/
And here for more:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/unknown_white_male/
And here for the official site:
http://www.unknownmovie.warnerbros.com/