"Blacklight" can barely distinguish itself from other Neesonings

Blacklight (2022)

Looking forward to the next “Liam Neeson Will Kill You” action vehicle used to be a bright spot for a new calendar year. At this point, it could be considered a national holiday by federal law. But this time, there’s not much to celebrate. Following 2020’s passably entertaining “Honest Thief” and then last year’s generic “The Marksman,” “Blacklight” continues the trend with even more diminishing returns. A few fun action sequences do not a movie make, especially when everything else is practically indistinguishable from what’s come before. It's not unwatchable, but you know you can do better. 

Liam Neeson does always commit to the material he’s been given (it's called acting), despite being able to play this grizzled, steely, slippery “too old for this shit” type in his sleep. In the script co-written by director Mark Williams (who previously worked with Neeson in “Honest Thief”) and writer Nick May, the 69-year-old action star plays Travis Block, an off-the-books fixer with, you guessed it, a very particular set of skills to protect FBI agents in the field. Block does feel like a composite of Neeson’s last ten characters or so, now with paranoia and OCD. In his introductory scene, Block singlehandedly rescues an undercover agent (Yael Stone, sorely underused) in a trailer park of angry, Confederate flag-waving white supremacists. If he can do that, Block can handle anything.

“Blacklight” begins with a jolting cold open: after leaving an anti-government rally in D.C., an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-type figure is assassinated in a hit-and-run. The plot proper begins when FBI director Gabriel Robinson (Aidan Quinn) calls in Block, a fellow Vietnam officer. An undercover agent (Taylor John Smith) has gone rogue, ready to spill everything he knows on a shady government program that's targeting and murdering innocent civilians, and Block must find him. At the same time, Block just wants a normal life and a second chance to improve his relationship with his adult daughter (Claire van der Boom) and his precious granddaughter (Gabriella Enos). He can’t look the other way anymore, though, and becomes a source for truth-telling reporter Mira (Emmy Raver-Lampman). Will Block right his wrongs and take down the corrupt power? Will Block’s family be taken? Well, what the hell do you think?

Initially, it seems like “Blacklight” might make some interesting parallels to the real-world political climate. But once that promise disappears into a black hole, the movie becomes a somewhat convoluted but actually very obvious thriller of corruption and a family in peril (but maybe not?). Even on an undemanding action-movie level, the fistfights, shootouts, and explosions are routinely staged and pretty forgettable. Director Mark Williams tries upping the excitement with frenetic editing flourishes, but they're more distractingly jerky (and sometimes unintentionally funny) than effective. 

There is all but one outlandish set-piece that’s worth noting, mostly because it’s so brazenly over-the-top and seems to come right out of a later “Fast and the Furious” sequel. When on the run to free one’s conscience, it’s probably best not to hijack a trash truck and recklessly drive it through busy downtown streets, nearly killing everyone on the sidewalks and causing so much wanton destruction. Ridiculous, yes, but let’s watch that movie instead. A lights-out showdown, where the one-man army “Home Alone”s some lackeys, is also diverting, but there’s not much else to recommend here. Far into the lackluster “Blacklight,” Block even admits, “I suspect I made a poor career choice.” It’s doubtful this is intentionally self-referential on Neeson’s part, but if it is, the actor shouldn’t be too hard on himself. It’s not him, it’s the movie.

Grade: C

Open Road Films and Briarcliff Entertainment are releasing “Blacklight” (105 min.) in theaters on February 11, 2022.