Memory
review by Bobby Blakey
Director Martin Campbell knows action delivering films like Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro, Casino Royale, The Foreigner and most recently The Protégé to name a few. Now he is teaming up with Liam Neeson for their latest action thriller Memory co-starring Guy Pearce, Monica Bellucci, Taj Atwal, Ray Fearon, and Harold Torres. Could this latest action flick bring more of what fans love from his films or will it just be a memory?
Memory follows Alex Lewis, an expert assassin with a reputation for discreet precision. Caught in a moral quagmire, Alex refuses to complete a job that violates his code and must quickly hunt down and kill the people who hired him before they and FBI agent Vincent Serra find him first. Alex is built for revenge but, with a memory that is beginning to falter, he is forced to question his every action, blurring the line between right and wrong.
While a lot of Neeson’s recent efforts haven’t always hit the mark, I admit that I still enjoy them just to see Neeson do anything. I had higher hopes for this one with Campbell and the great cast. While there are some great moments here and a decent story it never quite digs itself out of average. What makes this stand out more so than Neeson’s previous outings is the tone and struggles of the character. This brings a new dynamic to the story similar to that of films like Momento that also starred Guy Pearce.
As the story progresses it brings a bigger variety of issues to deal with and shine a light on like trafficking, conspiracies and of course the memory struggles. This helps to keep it more intriguing than it might have been as yet another of the same formulaic action pieces Neeson has been doing since his breakout with Taken. Neeson is great as usual getting to bring more depth to this character than he has in some time outside of maybe The Marksman. The rest of the cast are good as well with Pearce getting a lot of good stuff to run with and brings a
more rugged look and feel than we are used to from him.
In the end there are some interesting twists, decent action and a good story that is all wrapped together in a good film, but not one that will likely stay in your own memory for very long. It’s not bad by any means, but never really takes that step to stand out to make it something special. If you are a fan of Neeson or just decent action thrillers then give Memory a shot and make up your own mind.
Check out Memory in theaters now from Open Road and Briarcliffe Entertainment.