A Walk Among The Tombstones (Cinema Screening)

(Spoilers)

For me Liam Neeson is the man! I have loved nearly all of his recent films over the last few years – The Grey, Taken 1 & 2, Unknown, The Lego Movie and Non-Stop! All of these films have just been so great and Neeson’s involvement has had a lot to do with that. Naturally as soon as I saw posters for this film I was sold, I was hoping for maybe a slightly more sophisticated thriller opposed to the generally action drenched genre Neeson has found his niche in.

To a certain degree this is what A Walk Among The Tombstones was. We definitely see Neeson take a step into the world of thrillers rather than just action. This film deals with very sinister themes and for the most part it portrays them in the appropriate way. For thrillers to work the viewers need to be horrified and on edge from the word go. This was the case on many occasions, I have to say how impressed I was with the opening credits. This sequence was done so well as you aren’t quite sure what you are watching straight away but when you realise what it is that is when the horror hits you. Moments like these continue to arise during the rest of the film, making sure that you are never entirely comfortable as you watch the events unfold. Unfortunately there are a few issues with the tone in this film and it isn’t consistent enough for me. There are a few moments of humour littered through the film but I thought these were slightly misplaced and played a part in holding this film back from being the fully fledged thriller that it could have been.

Something that impressed me that I wasn’t expecting to though was the performance given by Brian “Astro” Bradley (TJ). As child actors go he is one of the better ones I have seen this year as he was also pretty good in Earth To Echo, I wasn’t sure that he would be able to adjust to this genre of film but he does it well. However saying that I wasn’t very fussed on his character or his recurring storyline. In the main body of the plot I thought overall motive was lacking, I wanted to know why the villains were doing what they were doing and if there wasn’t any motive I would have liked that to have been focused on and used to exploit just how sinister their actions were.  As neither of these things were done it was a shame as it left the film seeming a little deflated. This and the other minor flaws I have mentioned really do combine to hold back A Walk Among The Tombstones from its full potential.

Despite these flaws though, due to the awesome lead in the shape of Neeson the film is far from a failure. A Walk Among The Tombstones really does have it’s moments, you will gasp and wince! It is unfortunate though that the potential of this film isn’t fully exploited so instead of being great A Walk Among The Tombstones just turns out being good. Definitely worth a watch though and it is one to add to my ever expanding collection of Liam Neeson films.

BIGGEST FLAWS – Issues with the tone

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT – The opening credits

Rating – 8/10