Liam Neeson needs to move on. Ever since he played Bryan Mills in the TAKEN trilogy (2008, 2012, 2014), he’s taken reoccurring roles with “a very particular set of skills acquired over a very long career in the shadows.” Now after a stellar cinematic career, Neeson’s actioners are boxed into the same reluctant agent caricatures struggling to rescue innocent family members from the baddies. It's the old ‘hardened assassin seeking redemption’ trope. Our hero struggles to get out of a murderous vocation, as if suddenly struck by regrets, but then is sucked in because some ‘innocent’ family member needs rescuing. It’s become Neeson's time-honored movie cliché.

Nevertheless, within the action genre, clichés are not a problem. It’s a genre built upon clichés and fans don’t care. They don’t want to be overly distracted by complicated plots. Nor do they need to see acting range from the heroes. Stars like Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, or Jackie Chan don’t need to act; they just need to bring the excitement (Jackie does have impressive acting chops and singing skills, but fans are disappointed with his films if there’s no decent fight scenes). Now at 69, disregarding his acting accolades, can Neeson still deliver as an action lead?

In BLACKLIGHT, Neeson plays Travis Block, a black ops FBI fixer who rescues deep undercover agents when their cover is blown. His lifestyle has made him OCD about situational awareness, but he just wants to hang it all up to be a good grandpa. However, secret agents are like crime families – you can’t just walk away. It’s such a hackneyed old story in spy movies that it’s incredulous that such operatives even bother to try to retire. How will the FBI keep Block in the fold? Just like Bryan Mills was called back to action when his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) was ‘taken,’ Block’s daughter Amanda (Claire van der Boom) and granddaughter Natalie (Gabriella Sengos) disappear. Complicating the plot, their disappearance is connected to an undercover agent that Block is trying to bring in, Dusty Crane (Taylor John Smith). But Dusty is a whistleblower, struggling to expose a conspiracy to an intrepid upstart reporter, Mira Jones (Emmy Raver-Lampman).

If this all sounds like something you’ve seen before, it’s because BLACKLIGHT is a pastiche of familiar old stories. It feels like throwback to spy thrillers from a decade ago. But again, in the action genre, this is not a problem if the action is good.

BLACKLIGHT is one of those actioners that has a ridiculous amount of collateral damage. The car chases result in dozens of wrecks and buildings are left ridden with bullet holes. And let’s not forget the explosions. Like the skeletons in Block’s closet, it’s something not to dwell upon lest it stall the momentum. It’s dumb but such can be so much of the action genre if you overthink it.

There’s some modicum of cleverness as Block sets up traps to even the odds as a squad of assassins come after him. But there’s some dumbness too. A critical electrocuting scene is flawed – when the power is flicked on from the switchbox, the fixture used to trigger the shock was off. Maybe that’s where the title BLACKLIGHT came from.

BLACKLIGHT is one of those movies that you just can’t think too hard about. Why would a paranoid grandpa be okay with a school that leaves his granddaughter unattended after no one picks her up? And after years of confidential spy work, why would he confess his darkest secret so someone he barely knows – a reporter no less? Don’t ask these questions if you want to enjoy the car chase ride and shoot outs.

In these divisive times, BLACKLIGHT tiptoes across a delicate minefield with an ambiguous political undertone. Set in Washington DC (although filmed in Australia) there are gratuitous number of shots of American flags. A political figure, Sofia Flores (Mel Jarnson) might be interpreted as a metaphor for Kamala Harris or A.O.C. There’s a side story about a white supremacist trailer encampment where rabid racists fly confederate flags. However, these are just to color the scenery, not to make any statements. It’s a gun show with plenty of full auto firefights, which is ironic given Neeson’s personal criticisms of unrestricted access to guns for U.S. citizens (Neeson allegedly holds a triple citizenship: U.S.A., Ireland, and U.K.)

Fast Forward to the Fight Scenes

At 6’ 4” Neeson remains an imposing figure on screen. He has always exuded a presence of walking tall and towers over the rest of the cast. His confident ‘big man’ stride has been a major factor in securing his place as a leading man in action films. He retains an undeniable gravitas as an action hero, despite a retreaded plotline.

The lion’s share of the action in BLACKLIGHT is comprised of firefights and car chases. Those are staged well enough, but there’s nothing fresh. Holding guns sideways was stylish back in early 90s John Woo balletic gunplay films, but today, most assassins know how to properly use a gun sight. And is swerving to make a chasing car flip over really that simple?

Serving as Fight Coordinator is veteran martial artist Richard Norton. Norton got his start in Chuck Norris’ ninja classic (and inspiration for the UFC ring) THE OCTAGON (1980) and successively worked in Hollywood and Hong Kong Kung Fu films. Norton’s action filmography is impressive and his talent as a screen fighter is undeniable. Additionally, at 72 and 6’ 2”, he's the perfect person to choreograph fights for Neeson right now.

However, the bulk of hand-to-hand fights in BLACKLIGHT fall to Taylor John Smith, who performs serviceably enough. Norton’s smart choreography, camerawork, and stunt team make Smith look good.  Block goes mano-a-mano with Crane in Neeson’s main unarmed fight scene, and it’s mediocre at best – tightly shot, one cut per movement, an unimpressive display of fisticuffs for connoisseurs of fight choreography.

Neeson turns 70 in June, but he doesn’t appear to be slowing down as an action star. Nor is he breaking out of his reluctant agent/paternal savior role. He has two films in post-production now. MEMORY is a remake of THE MEMORY OF A KILLER (2003) where Neesom plays a reluctant assassin who fails to close a contract kill, making himself the target. RETRIBUTION is a remake of EL DESCONOCIDO (2015) where he plays a bank executive who learns that his car that he is driving his kids to school in is armed with a bomb. Regretting being a gun-for-hire and protecting his children – it’s just what Liam Neeson action films do. Bottom line - we’re a long way from SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993).

Neeson is currently filming MARLOWE, based on the private detective novels by Raymond Chandler. Phillip Marlowe is an iconic detective that has been portrayed over two dozen times in movies, TV and radio series. Chandler penned over two dozen Marlowe short stories and eight books (a ninth was completed posthumously) and around thirty authorized books by other authors followed.

KungFuMagazine readers will remember the previous film titled MARLOWE (1969) which starred James Garner in the titular role, along with the up-and-coming Bruce Lee as Winslow Wong. However, that was based on Chandler’s original novel The Little Sister and Neesom’s new version is reportedly based on one of the authorized continuations of the character, the novel The Black-Eyed Blonde written by John Banville (writing under the pen name Benjamin Black). Even though it shares the same title as the early Bruce Lee film, it’s a different story and Winslow Wong is not a character, so martial arts fans should not get their hopes up. We won’t see Neeson watching his office get torn apart by a martial arts wrecking ball and it’s doubtful he could best Garner’s classic take on it. What’s more, Neeson is past the days when he could face off on a rooftop against a martial arts master (the finale fight between Lee and Garner is often deleted from contemporary versions of the original MARLOWE film out of respect for Lee).

Clearly, Neeson’s career as an action star will continue into his septuagenarian years. That party is not over, so don’t turn out the BLACKLIGHT just yet.