Liam Neeson's "Unknown" is not at the level of action he's delivered recently

It's always interesting to watch actors reinvent themselves onscreen. Sometimes the attempt falls flat (Vin Diesel comes to mind) others, as is the case with Liam Neeson, the success is welcome by both audiences and studios. With starring roles in recent action films such as “The A-team”, “Clash of the Titans” and “Taken” Liam Neeson has placed a solid foothold in the action genre. Liam Neeson's latest effort, “Unknown”, unfortunately does not live up to his recent successes. Burdened with the tag line of “Take back your life”, the story centers around Dr. Martin Harris who after a car accident and coma awakens to the reality that his wife does not know him and another man (Aidan Quinn)is Dr, Martin Harris.

Watching the preview we are led to believe “Unknown” is more in line with Liam's “Taken” character. Unfortunately, “Unknown” comes nowhere near the action level of “Taken”. “Unknown” limps along at a speed too fast for an inept plot. Dr. Martin Harris is not a trained killing machine as we hoped. He ends up being much, much less. Except for a hilarious (in a bad way) action scene near the end, we are left yearning for a release, a climax of punches and guns firing that never arrives. The best scene in the movie comes about half way when two cold war spies, Bruno Ganz and Frank Langella, face off both knowing what the outcome must be. Unfortunately, even this scene feels out of place and context in a film lacking purpose.

Liam Neeson delivers a good performance. I don't think he is capable of acting badly. But he was not given much to work with. Action heroes must make us believe in them. We must believe they can overcome the perils they are put into. Unfortunately, Liam Neeson's character is never put in a situation where we believe he is a hero. He escapes danger by sheer luck not by his defying hand. The viewer must also empathize with the hero. I never felt empathy for Dr. Martin Harris. Even the easily foreseeable twist at the end does nothing to save the film.

“Unknown” does not bring anything new to the action genre and wastes Liam Neeson's talents. I'm sure “Unknown” will fare well at the box office. There is not much competition right now. I personally wished I had waited for the DVD release.

Piranha 3D lacks bite and falls short of its lowly predecessor

Growing up in the 80s, creature features were one of my favorite films. The films were entertaining with cool special effects monsters and didn't require a whole lot of thought to understand. Plus, I could always count on at least two pairs of breasts showing up somewhere in the film. 2010's “Piranha 3D” only delivers on the breasts and nothing else.

With a cast including Elisabeth Shue, Jerry O'Connell and Richard Dreyfuss the first assumption is “Piranha 3D” can't be that bad. You know what they say about assumptions. The “Piranha 3D” starts with Richard Dreyfuss mercifully meeting his demise after an underwater tremor releases hundreds of prehistoric man-eating piranhas onto Lake Victoria. Of course, this happens just time for Lake Victoria to explode from a sleepy population of 5,000 to 50,000 for spring break. From there “Piranha 3D” only attempts to find new and exciting ways for piranhas to eat the adolescent spring breakers. I'm not a viewer who expects movies like “Piranha 3D” to make sense or explain everything. That is the beauty of film, stories do not have to make sense. But I like films that have some sort of plot, of point. “Piranha 3D” makes no effort to do this. The film just jumps from naked bodies to dead ones with no discernible pattern or point.

The special effects were okay but with everything that can be done with computers, it seems that everybody just wants to go over the top with their creations. The piranhas are menacing and scary but look and act more like an alien than a fish. The death scenes are bloody and gory but rather bland and lacking ingenuity. The only positive I saw in “Piranha 3D” were the 3D effects. The effects looked good and fit with the film and scenes. I rate “Piranha 3D” a poor 1 out of 5 stars and would recommend its 1978 predecessor instead but it seems I am in the minority because “Piranha 3DD” is planned for release in September 2011.