Neesom's Scudder even refers to Ray and Albert as a "Bert and Ernie act." People are afraid of all the wrong things. But hes wondering if hell ever make it to nine, what with this crazy case hes on. In New York of 1999, a drug addict named Peter Kristo approaches a retired Scudder, asking him to help his brother Kenny, a drug trafficker. Block has talked openly about his decades-long attendance, and Scudder is always taking breaks from detective work to pop into meetings. As far as crime/thrillers go this is a by the book film, Typical and predictable plot but it was very well done and gripping, Liam Neeson puts in one of his best performances and carries the film most of the time, There's little action but it didn't need much, I had little interest in watching this film but I found it pretty good after having no expectations for it, It can be slow at times but if you're a fan of a well told noir style thrillers then this film is right up your street. Terms of Service apply. Block has all the freedom in the world on the page that Frank doesnt have on the screen, and so wed say the writer/director did the best he could with what were likely some stringent parameters and expectations he had to hit. A Walk Among The Tombstones is in theaters now. TJ voices a number of personal conspiratorial theories about how society is purposely pushing down black youths like himself, including the fact that people keep offering him sperm-killing soda. He regularly has a cigarette in his mouth. Demme's films are proof that the best movies--and real works of art--don't simplify life to heroes and villains. Chewing the fat with shop owners and others who might have seen more than they realize. He is asked by a drug dealer to find the men who kidnapped his wife. Starring Liam Neeson. So the changes made by Frank are understandable in that context, but they also make Scudder a less complex, more singularly driven man. (He also tithes a percentage of his fees to various churches.) They seized her files as well, which included information on his brother and his wife. Read critic reviews. This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. It was the combination that turned him into this. Starring Liam Neeson. I don't fault him at all; he strikes me as a talented actor. Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. And we see them use some of them. In this film Liam Neeson plays Matt Scudder, a former cop turned unlicensed private detective. When Matt first meets TJ at the public library, the boy thinks the grizzled guy wants to molest him. It contains a mix of suspense, thriller and neo-noir elements. 2023 Vox Media, LLC. I think Kenny did them wrong by paying 400k and not 1mil. This wasnt an isolated murder, he could sense it. Ray And Albert. Given the legal and cultural advances pertaining to gay rights and marriage equality, it was likely that some form of backlash would erupt. But then I thought, TJ, this aint no movie, an you too young to die. TJ. "A Walk Among the Tombstones" starts out as another Film Noir-ish Liam Neeson action thriller. But I could have lived with that. Anytime, as a captain, you step onto someone elses crew, its never an easy dance.. Scudder orders TJ to stay in the car. Theyre not working for Pete, though: We see him stoned with a bag of drugs in his hand. During the shootout in 1991, he was intoxicated. Yet Hollywood seems to focus on the latter, not deviating from the stoic man who can rip armies of murderers asunder and come out swinging. He tells TJ that carrying a gun on the street is the same as putting it to his own forehead and pulling the trigger. getting a commendation for his actions in stopping three criminals, drug dealers who won't go to the police for help. Steve McQueen has created a new genre: Hate Noir. When Kenny makes it clear he's going to take revenge, Scudder takes TJ and leaves. Because this is actually more of a gumshoe investigators tale, a gritty cop-turned-unlicensed-detective story (based on a rough-and-tumble Lawrence Block novel). The girl taken hostage is alive, but not entirely unharmed. Trang ch Tips #1 Tm kim link Fshare nhanh chng, chnh xc - game chay vuot chuong ngai vat For our money, wed say for the full Scudder experience youll want the book, but as an abridged version, the film does an adequate if not wholly satisfying job. , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes. Leave it to the real cops, he told the guy. but freaks out and panics after he is shot near the end of the movie. The film was released on September 19, 2014. Stay up-to-date on all the latest Rotten Tomatoes news! A Walk Among the Tombstones. A drug kingpin hires troubled ex-cop Matt Scudder to find his wife's killers, a hunt that leads to shocking revelations in New York's underworld. Scudder goes back inside the house and finds Albert gone. Albert suddenly tries to strangle him from behind with a metal wire. He did it as an unhinged dad in "Taken," as a surly air marshal in "Non-Stop" and now as a haunted ex-cop in "Tombstones.". He finds him in a hospital one day after a street gang beat down and learns that TJ has sickle cell anemia. One of his stray bullets "took a bad hop" and hit a 7-year-old girl in the eye, instantly killing her. When Scudder reluctantly agrees to help a heroin trafficker (Dan Stevens) hunt down the men who kidnapped and then brutally murdered his wife, the PI learns that this . Mick would be a pretty good bet on the basis for her role. In 2002, Harrison Ford was attached to star and D. J. Caruso to direct. 2014 movie based on the book of the same name by Lawrence Block. I enjoyed it, but the ending felt a little flat. Once upon a time you could. Liam Neeson had a bizarre rebirth as an action star thanks to 2008's Taken, where he played a retired special forces operative who cuts a bloody path through Paris to rescue his kidnapped daughter. Tombstones really feels like a New York City story, and with some beautiful work from cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr., that palpably evokes the neighbourhoods that Scudder haunts in the novel as well. Its a decision that nicely underscores one of the films key lines of dialogue from one of the villains: People are afraid of the wrong thing. Frank wants to make viewers squirm about the unknown evil around us every day, and he succeeds in establishing that vibe. The bartender serves Matt two shots and a cup of coffee. 6. (Evoking hospital orderlies as well as morgue attendants, their clinical use of Cronenbergian surgical instruments carries AIDS panic.) I enjoyed that song as well. Its that earnest effort to save, to beat time, to help the desperate and to make amends for past wrongs that turns a few steps in this long walk in the right direction. And why did they feel the need to save the one girl and kill others related to drugs? Firstly, there is no shootout in the graveyard, a sequence which seems invented purely for the sake of putting action on the screen. Own it Now on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital HD In a new film the pop star co-wrote with director Trey Edward Shults. Its stated that the men rape their victims; we hear a tape recording of a cruelly chuckling man and a crying woman. Scudder leaves to send TJ away while Kenny plans a gruesome fate, only for Albert to kill him and Scudder - who's returned - to face him in a final battle. [4], The film earned $428,000 from Thursday night from 1,918 theaters, and $4.7 million from 2,712 theaters on its opening day. Could be wrong though. In 2014 he played ex-cop Matt Scudder in A Walk Among The Tombstones, and thischaracter comes from a series of neo-noir books from author Lawrence Block. Hes fascinated by people who dont have control. Which is ironic if you know what Im talking about. Maybe it even starts to feel good for Matt to stretch those police muscles again. It made me HATE the villains though, so they did a great job of that. Wanted to know if others saw it/thought about it. Even in genres where he isn't some kind of cop, he still seems to maintain the badass persona where he knows everything and anything. I think he does what he can with what he's got, but this is yet another two hours of Liam Neeson psyching out the baddies over the phone and then ultimately solving problems with his gun. A kidnapped woman got murdered. The long-delayed second part of the canceled HBO series came and went so quietly you were bound to miss it. Nothing more, nothing less. Read on to uncover the details. His latest client is a drug trafficker (Dan Stevens) whose wife was kidnapped and brutally murdered, and as Scudder delves deeper, he finds that the crime's sequence is the modus operandi of the perpetrators. In 1991 New York, Matt Scudder is an alcoholic police detective. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. These perverse goblins represent the return of the socially repressed. And there were other little strings, tiny bits and pieces of the story that pleaded to be pulled at and worried over. [20] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. You're almost there! I had such high hopes for this movie.When I 1st saw the trailer I couldn't wait to see it.Now after watching A Walk Among The Tombstones I'm so disappointed.It was an OK movie (I guess) but it's not something I'd watch again anytime soon.I might watch it again in a couple years if there's nothing else on or I'm in a mood but that's it.Even then I'd probably try & find something better to watch.I think my main problem with the movie wasn't that it was slow at times but that it was too gruesome.Some scenes just had me cringing & seemed too real.1 thing I'm truly happy about is that I got to see this movie for free & didn't have to pay a thing to watch it.I can only imagine how disappointed I'd be if I had to pay to see it.The best thing about A Walk Among The Tombstones was definitely the trailer. Scudder then enters a bar and gets coffee with shots. They be putting the money in the trunk an sittin up front, so they aint even gone look in the back. I just think that he is being pigeonholed, and I don't like it. Albert simply kills him instead. And in watching the film this past weekend, you can clearly see Franks moves to make Tombstones an action movie, while keeping the thematic texture and pulp grit of Blocks source material. Scudder leaves Kenny alone with Albert while he puts TJ in a taxi to his apartment. He has the wisdom to know what cant be changed and what can. 0:57. Probably drugs. Kenny wants to kill him but Scudder talks him down, seeing how TJ is in the room and is watching everything. After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. Ray And Albert. Which, of course, finally leads us right up to those tombstones. Neither is it some kind of man-against-the-monsters supernatural thriller like the title might suggest. Scudder returns home to find TJ sleeping on the couch and spots a drawing that TJ made of himself as a superhero, with a sickle on his costume representing his sickle cell anemia. And all this without any action sequences other than mutilations. i really liked it overal, it gave a bit of a gran torino vibe in the best possible way, the song during the credit's black hole sun really suited the atmosphere. 1:28. Interviews with leading film and TV creators about their process and craft. [23] In Variety, Andrew Barker found it a well-made thriller "with a good deal of panache and style".[24]. The movie itself fell a little flat for me, with the notable exception of T.J., who was, to me, the most dynamic, interesting and complex character in the movie. The trailers did kind of spoil a bit. IndieWire is a part of Penske Media Corporation. By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie. Heres what went down. Now I know what it is. Cheers! Scudder isnt a reckless vigilante eaten up with rage. His actions, by movies end, indicate that he might even be taking on more of a parental role with the teen. Lastly, New York City is also very present texture in Blocks book, and Frank replicates that in the film. After he delivered the ransom as instructed, the kidnappers directed him to a car containing her dismembered body. I was so uncertain of what his arc would be that I even wondered briefly if he was going to end up shooting Liam Neeson in the end of the movie, right when you think the action is over. Liam Neeson's late-career resurgence, began, I suppose, with the reprehensible Taken series and has sprung from there into the kind of auto-branding most stars get to enjoy in the prime of their . Matt Scudder (Liam Neeson), formerly part of the NYPD, now works as an unlicensed private detective. When a drug dealer's 14-year-old daughter is also kidnapped, Scudder heads a group to rescue her. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 65%, based on 144 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10.The site's consensus reads, "A Walk Among the Tombstones doesn't entirely transcend its genre clichs, but it does offer Liam Neeson one of his more compelling roles in recent memory, and that's often enough." Brother and his wife the story that pleaded to be pulled at and worried.... Beat down and learns that TJ has sickle cell anemia 's going to take revenge, Scudder heads a to... 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