Liam Neeson initially garnered fame for his roles in films like Kinsey and Schindler’s List. However, 2008’s Taken changed the entire course of his career as the film turned him into a highly marketable action star. Other than Taken and its two sequels, Neeson appeared in a slew of crime and action films that required him to shoot down bad guys and deliver memorable one-liners. Some of his recent action movies even went beyond Liam Neeson’s usual action movies. So, if he fights with wild wolves in ” The Grey”, he also thwarts terrorist plans on board the plane in “Non-stop”. In general, Neeson is one of the few action stars who tried themselves in this genre at a rather older age.
BEST: House Shootout (Taken)
Determined to save his abducted daughter, ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) enters the illegal operation’s hideout to encounter some of the criminals with whom he had talked on a call from before. Mills goes undercover as a policeman, pretending to renegotiate a police protection rate. Once he identifies his targets, Mills willingly blows his cover and then kills everyone in the vicinity with brutal swiftness. Neat editing and perfectly-timed choreography make it a notable scene, symbolizing the remorseless rage of Neeson’s character.
WORST: Police Chase (Taken 3)
By the time Taken entered its third installment, Bryan Mills’ character had become oversaturated. And even the action in some scenes was not as vibrant as in its predecessors. When Mills is wrongly accused of murdering his wife, he subdues several police officers and attempts to escape the house. He also manages to escape from police cars, but the overall chase is very chaotic. With multiple jumps every split second, this scene becomes very tiring for the audience to watch.
BEST: Final Lightsaber Fight (Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace)
While The Phantom Menace doesn’t have many redeeming elements, fans still praised the final battle of the film’s third act. Neeson’s Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn engages in a one-on-one lightsaber duel with the Sith apprentice Darth Maul (Ray Park). It’s easily one of the most intense lightsaber fights in the Star Wars franchise that’s further strengthened by Ray Park’s impeccable stunt work. Eventually, Maul mortally wounds the Jedi Master prompting the latter’s protege Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) to continue the fight. Obi-Wan succeeds as he cuts Maul in half with his lightsaber.
WORST: Cemetery Shootout (A Walk Among The Tombstones)
A Walk Among the Tombstones is one of Neeson’s introspective action films. Throughout the film, Matthew Scudder tries to find redemption from the life he led. The cemetery shootout near the end should be a somewhat dramatic conclusion in this regard, as this time he resorts to violence to save a 14-year-old girl from her kidnappers. He confronts the kidnappers directly and a shootout ensues. However, due to the visual darkness and rapid camera changes, the scene appears disorganized and pales in comparison to the film’s first shootout.
BEST: The Restroom Fight Scene (Non-Stop)
Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) and Jack Hammond (Anson Mount), two Federal Air Marshalls traveling aboard an ill-fated plane that breeds a mysterious terrorist conspiracy. When Marks notices his colleague is behaving rather strangely, he confronts him in the restroom. It turns out that Hammond was being blackmailed by the terrorist to set up the bomb. As Marks serves as an obstruction to this plan, Hammonds grows violent only for Marks to secure him in a chokehold. In another attempt to defend himself, he unwillingly kills Hammonds when the latter lifted his gun. It’s a quickly done scene with the right amount of shock value to set the tone for the remainder of the film.RELATED:
Non-Stop (2014) Biography, Plot, Box office, Trailer.
WORST: Darkman’s Revenge (Darkman)
In Darkman, Dr. Peyton Westlake and Strack (Colin Friels) find themselves at odds several times in the movie. Ironically, their final battle is atop the beams of a skyscraper that’s still under construction. As they struggle to keep their balance, Strack gets his hands on an artificial-looking nail gun. For a minute, Westlake seems to be on the losing side. However, when Strack insults him, the camera zooms in on the hero’s mouth and random flames pop out of nowhere to signify his anger. This particular scene plays out rather hilariously in an otherwise grim-looking film.
BEST: Training Bruce Wayne (Batman Begins)
As Batman Begins sets up its characters, Henri Ducard aka Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson) trains a young and angry Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) in strategy and combat. As they spar with each other around a glacier, Ra’s al Ghul delivers a sermon on his beliefs on absolute justice. He purposely brings up the murder of Wayne’s parents to test him. In a fit of rage, Wayne doesn’t strategize his moves and overpowers al Ghul, pinning him to the ground. As he is ready to proclaim his victory, Neeson’s antihero points to the fact that he’s standing on a fragile layer of the icy surface. Wayne instantly falls in the frigid waters below.
WORST: Alleyway Sequence (Taken 2)
As in the aforementioned scene in “Taken 3”, jumps spoil several battle scenes in “Taken 2”. When Mills’s wife is taken hostage in Istanbul, he tracks down several attackers in a narrow alley. While Liam Neeson turns into a “one-man army”, destroying the shooters with his hand-to-hand combat skills, the random editing of the scene simply makes it difficult to find out who is hitting whom. Further, taking into account that most of his opponents are shorter than Neeson, the fight turns out to be a rather comfortable victory for him (until his wife is under the barrel of a pistol).
BEST: The First Wolf Attack (The Grey)
The Grey finds Liam Neeson combating the titular grey wolves in the Alaskan wilderness for an ultimate quest for survival. The violence comes out of the compulsion to survive rather than just taking place for the sake of it. This is what adds the film’s direction and Neeson’s take on the lead character John Ottway a sense of grittiness. When Ottway and his co-passengers survive a plane crash, they camp in the snow, only to attack the wolves. The first wolf attack takes them by surprise and Ottway struggles to fight off a wolf with his bare hands. Shaky camerawork and unsettling atmosphere make the scene look very believable and Neeson’s expression of fear looks simply raw and real.