Blacklight (2022) User Reviews

Blacklights Matter

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 5/10 · 6 March 2022]

..said no one ever, especially after watching this Blacklight mess. If Neeson wasn't in this film, it'd be another failed B-film, but instead, it's another failed B-film with Neeson in it.

It's cheaply produced, amatuerly directed and lazily written - even if it had 3 writers assigned to coming up with a cohesive story, but instead gave us a plot-hole riddled cliche of every other movie in this genre, taped together. It's labeled as an Action and Thriller. Lame and hardly any action, and certainly not thrilling.

The 104 min runtime felt like 3+ hours with the boring and cliched plot, as well as all the filler and very little substance. This felt more like a Dodge promo video with the ridiculously long and pointless car chases. Clearly director Mark Williams was so bored, Neeson had to keep adjusting his rear view mirror. Williams also failed miserably in directing his cast, because they either looked bored, or had horrible acting skills. Even his slow-mo's and 1980's camera work got annoying fast. Don't even get me started on the terrible editing. Couldn't they cut out the parts where Neeson is out of breath and looks like he needs a hip replacement? I'm thinking Neeson has to stop working with Williams, before he becomes another Bruce Willis has-been, or is it too late? 5/10.

I waited for a twist but alas. This ain't no another Non-Stop thriller.

[Fella_shibby · 4/10 · 7 March 2022]

The way the Director of the World's most powerful organization 'goes down' or the way he confesses to his so called Operation, is a big wtf.

I still cannot fathom why they inserted the obsessive compulsive disorder thing n can someone tell me why is the movie named Blacklight?

Generous with a 4 cos of Neeson.

I hope n pray that Liam Neeson doesn't become another Bruce Willis.

An action thriller much akin to many others...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 12 March 2022]

When I sat down to watch this 2022 action thriller titled "Blacklight", I must admit that I hadn't heard a single thing about it prior to sitting down to watch it. But I figured that it having Liam Neeson in the leading role was sufficient enough to make it worth my time.

Well, essentially "Blacklight" from writers Nick May, Mark Williams and Brandon Reavis ultimately turned out to be a run-of-the-mill action thriller. Sure, it was watchable, but it was a rather generic and predictable action thriller. But hey, if you enjoy these types of movies then "Blacklight" should be right up your alley.

It is always enjoyable to watch Liam Neeson in movies, and so it was also in "Blacklight". But it would be a shame to say that "Blacklight" is among his top movies, because it just simply isn't. Aside from Liam Neeson, then the movie also had a good performance from Aidan Quinn.

There are far better action thrillers out there, but I will say that "Blacklight" is worth a single viewing, just to tick it off of the to-watch-list, if for nothing else.

Take "Blacklight" for what it is, and you won't be overly disappointed. It was simply a switch off your brain, lean back and munch on the snacks type of movie.

My rating of director Mark Williams's 2022 action thriller lands on a five out of ten stars.

Since several years, Liam suffers from the Bruce Willis' syndrom...

[searchanddestroy-1 · 2/10 · 23 February 2022]

As Nick Cage, Mel Gibson, Bob De Niro and so many lost in translation former great actors. Maybe they have to pay mortgages, electricity or gamble bills, alimony or any kind of fine.... That's the only explanation for me, especially for an actor nearly in his seventies involved in an action flick. I have not the strength nor guts to say harm about this sh.... I could be asked to stand trial. Only, I mean ONLY, for die hardest Liam fans who still have the courage, the madness or the unconsciousness to believe or even like him. I definitely don't.

Terrible script and mediocre acting

[drjgardner · 3/10 · 28 February 2022]

It's hard to believe that someone made this story with such a dumb and improbable script. To make things worse, most of the acting is mediocre, except for the two women who played the reporters. And maybe Liam is getting a little old for these types of roles.

This is a farce...

[imseeg · 3/10 · 6 March 2022]

Not any good? NO.

The bad: this is NOT an action movie. There are a mere 4 or 5 action sequences and they are all incredibly dull and boring to watch.

More bad: this is not a drama or a heartwarming family movie either, despite all the attention for family life. But it all looks plastic. Fake acting by below average actors.

Even more bad: Liam Neeson cant even run anymore when he wants to catch a bad guy. He gets out of breath after 10 meters of "sprint". It's laughable.

This is one of the worst Liam Neeson movies ever. Lots of woke and sentimental storylines that make no sense whatsoever!

So Badly Written...

[sidfargas · 10 April 2022]

Honestly, you can actually see the writer's room in every single scene of this movie. The sad fact is that what you see is a room full of young millennials that have no clue about how life works or how to actually write a movie. What they fill this movie with is a set of rambling leftists views that border on the insane. Maybe this script was crafted by the incompetents working the CNN newsroom in their spare time?

The movie hits its peek at the three minute mark as an AOC clone is run down by an SUV. From there it's a collection of shallow stupidity made by children apparently for children. It's either a sign of writers with a warped understanding of reality or very poor imaginations.

Don't bother with this mess. I don't blame Liam Neeson or the cast. They did the best they could with the crap they were presented. Even the little girl actress was very good surprisingly but they should have let her do some rewrites.

Poor script

[ilovefoodcoma · 6/10 · 21 February 2022]

I always like Liam Neeson's movies... but this one? The storyline is not exciting at all. How the bad guy got caught was way too easy. Liam is getting old... not many action scenes too. Very disappointed in this film.

Liam Neeson's name used to mean something

[darkreignn · 3/10 · 12 February 2022]

Ever since 2019, it seems like Liam Neeson has made starring in mediocre action thrillers somewhat of a habit. "Cold Pursuit" wasn't the best thriller ever, but with its black comedy and serviceable performances, it was unique enough that it warranted a viewing. "Honest Thief" and "The Marksman" were two films that I have begun to dislike more with each passing day - "Honest Thief" took an interesting concept and destroyed it with wooden acting, incomprehensible editing, and piss-poor, infrequent action sequences; "The Marksman" was just boring (and let's not even mention "The Ice Road," which is one of the most embarrassing things I've ever seen, second to my own reflection). With all of that said, "Blacklight" is kind of a remarkable film - remarkable that it was released in theatres instead of straight to DVD.

I knew this movie was going to be bad based on one specific thing - its director. Directed by Mark Williams, who also directed "Honest Thief," I should've taken Mr. Williams' name as a stark warning for me to avoid seeing this in theatres and instead do literally anything else with my time. "Blacklight" is less an action film and more of a political thriller, and when I say political thriller, I mean it is a movie where people have long, arduous, drawn out conversations about politics, politicians, and political espionage and conspiracy. I. E., this is a boring movie.

I found myself struggling, and failing, to stay awake while watching this. "Blacklight" is not an action movie - it is a movie where two people at a time (always two people at a time, the movie barely has any sequences where more than two people are talking to each other at the same time - must've been too expensive to film) talk to each other about dull and uninteresting topics. Director Mark Williams seems to not realize what makes dialogue engaging to watch; scene after scene, "Blacklight" depicts people conversing - now some of my favorite movies are full of interesting, tight dialogue. This movie is not.

But you don't care about the conversations! You're going to see this movie for its purported hard-edged, brutal action! You want to see Liam Neeson get down and dirty and do what he does best! In that case, you should go to your local Best Buy, buy "Taken," and watch that instead. "Blacklight" does not have much action in it, and when there is action, it's the most mediocre, generic, pedestrian action I've seen since the kung-fu film I made in middle school (shouts out to Albert). One compliment I can give is that the action is edited slightly better than it was in "Honest Thief." When fists are thrown you can see the hits connect, and the climactic gunfight is mildly exciting, and then inexplicably ruined by a drastic, random change in editing that turns the sequence into a borderline seizure inducing mess - seriously, if you have epilepsy, you're better off leaving the theatre at the start of the third act gunfight, and never returning.

Nowadays, going to watch a Liam Neeson movie is like returning home to an abusive spouse - they might end up surprising you with moments of genuine love and tenderness, but more often than not they'll beat you into submission. "Blacklight" beat me into submission. And in fact, I'm considering placing a restraining order on director Mark Williams. Liam's name used to mean something in the wild world of action films. "The Commuter," "Run All Night," and "Non-Stop" are three semi-recent Neeson films that are genuinely good, and of high quality. Now, Mr. Neeson is starring in direct to DVD embarrassments that legitimately make sitting at home and staring at the ceiling a more thrilling activity. In conclusion: It's God's own mystery why I spent $11 on this.

I Was Entertained spoilers

[Mehki_Girl · 7/10 · 11 February 2022]

This was an action popcorn movie. There may have been some scenes that were cut because it took a while to figure out was going on with the Liam character.

People kept talking about his mental health or quirks, which I thought had to do with his job. Nope, it's related to the fact he has OCD and has to do some things 3 times. It's implied this helps him with his undercover work. Okay that's the hook At least they didn't do the hook off wife died and now I'm a hopeless drunk living ina pig sty (as a matter of fact everyone's home is gorgeous). Although they gave him a daughter, granddaughter, and a wife who left me hook.

Anyway I still don't know what Operation Unity did, except they killed innocent civilians, but why? I still don't know.

Liam's job, in case you missed it is to recover agents with blown covers and/or have started to believe the character they are playing.

Doesn't matter, it's just a setup for fight scenes, blowing up stuff, and chase scenes. Hubby and I both liked the movie.

I was entertained so 7 stars from me.

lifeless conspiracy thriller

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 18 April 2022]

Political and social activist Sofia Flores gets killed in a suspicious hit and run. Travis Block (Liam Neeson) is an off-book fixer working for FBI Director Gabriel Robinson (Aidan Quinn). He's trying to be a good father to his daughter who is a single mom to her own daughter. Former agent Dusty Crane is struggling with the Bureau crossing moral lines and talking to journalist Mira Jones who has been writing about the Flores death. Travis tries to return the wayward agent back into the fold.

There is a blandness to the writing. All the elements are pulled from every standard movie tropes. Of course, Liam Neeson has a family and he's struggling to connect with them. There is a conspiracy but it's so obvious as to be transparent. There are no twists and turns. There is a lot of action without any excitement. These characters are cardboard cut-outs and these actors are just working for the paychecks. This is lifeless.

Good movie!

[danray-77420 · 8/10 · 13 July 2022]

Very enjoyable...definitely a good movie...Liam was spot on! I was pleasantly surprised after reading the negative reviews. Definitely worth watching!

Okay enough.

[disruptor-17286 · 7/10 · 21 February 2022]

Liam is getting old. It's clear in this film just by watching by him run. This movie isn't what you'd call a masterpiece. But the last hour is enough to enjoy some good old fun action. Comparing this to Taken or calling it Taken 4 makes no sense. His daughter and Granddaughter get Taken in the last 30 minutes or so. And this movie has an entire different plot.

Twelve Dollar Budget and Horrible Writing

[arfdawg-1 · 2/10 · 7 April 2022]

This is one of those movies where they hire aging actors to are trying to get as much cash in the till before they are unhireable. They pay them like a hundred grand or two for 3 days work and they wind up making 30 of these horrible formulaic movies a year. Eric Roberts is a master at churning out this kind of junk and lately Liam is comng in a close second.

The movie is very poorly written. The extras are not actors. They are so bad, I suspect then were pulled off the street -- literally.

And the directing is pure formular.

It's really bad and largely boring.

It's worse than expected.

[thatsgottahurt-1 · 5/10 · 4 March 2022]

You've seen all this before, except more well done. It's as unoriginal as you could ever see and it piles trope upon tripe. Liam Neeson is a much better actor than this. He needs to be more discerning in choosing his roles. More is certainly not better, and in this case, much worse.

Low quality all around

[FeastMode · 2/10 · 12 March 2022]

I was mildly enjoying this movie early on. But it kept getting worse. Especially when the first "fight" scene happens. I put quotation marks around the word fight because Liam Neeson can no longer fight.

It might seem mean to hate on someone for what comes down to getting old. But it's not my fault he keeps taking on action roles that he's clearly incapable of performing. And if these types of trashy movies are the only ones where he can be the lead, then he should look for supporting roles in better movies. Or else he might have to go on the do-not-watch actors list.

Other than that, the movie is bad all around. It's super basic and extremely anticlimactic with an ending you'd expect from a movie for children. The level of quality is Direct-to-Video, but it was a wide theatrical release. (1 viewing, 3/11/2022)

SPOILERS

There were a few character reactions that befuddled me. Like a news reporter smartly choosing not to give Block any info, then he intimidates her into burying the story, then he chases her lead who is killed, so she decides to tell him everything she knows and then become friends with him.

Or Block's daughter who spends the whole movie complaining about him, but when she and her daughter are completely uprooted to go into witness protection because of him, she's like "nahhh no biggie."

But worst of all, let me paraphrase the conversation between Block and the head of the FBI in the "climax" (if you can even call it that):

Head of FBI: I'll never confess about project unity and go to jail for it.

Block: You better!

Head of FBI: Ok, no problem.

Problem solved. Movie over. Laugh.

Distinctly average

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 31 March 2022]

The trailer for this looked really nice so I was looking forward to seeing it. What a letdown! Admittedly there are a few good action scenes here, but they're all shown in the trailer and everything between is a drag. Neeson is on autopilot and seems like a supporting player in his own movie, and the younger characters who get way too much screen time simply aren't of interest. Not the worst Neeson film you'll see, but there's little to get excited about here.

Classic Liam

[Eiriksterminator · 7/10 · 6 March 2022]

Not sure what the negative reviews are about, makes me wonder if it's politically motivated, and they just don't like the FBI being portrayed as corrupt and evil. This one is the standard type of Liam Neeson action/crime thriller movie you've seen so many times before, but that doesn't make it bad, as Liam is great at such movies, the acting is good, and the production quality is good. No B-movie feel to it. I enjoyed it.

Horrible Liam Neeson action film.

[cruise01 · 3/10 · 14 February 2022]

1.5 out of 5 stars.

Blacklight is a action film that shows nothing new with its action conspiracy plot. The action sequences are are forgettable. Liam Neesons performance is tedious. Along with the rest of the cast.

Plot is about a conspiracy which is forgettable. Been done too many times. The action is boring. Even the car chase is dull. The script and direction is filled with tedious characters. The cast ensemble is flat with there performances. Liam Neeson may be running on fumes with his action role. This film offers nothing new. And one of the worst films this year.

Not as riveting as the "Taken" trilogy. But, still way more action-packed than the first half of Super Bowl 56!

[Carycomic · 6/10 · 14 February 2022]

That might sound like a back-handed compliment. But, let's face it; a lot of the action scenes in this movie are pretty derivative. For instance; the very first scene--featuring Neeson as Travis Block--could very well have been done for "Eraser" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

While the dysfunctional family scenes, involving Block's daughter and granddaughter, could just as well be from a fourth "Taken" set ten years in the future!

The only saving graces are the cinematography and the actor who played Dusty Crane. The latter looked enough like the late, great Paul Walker (from the "Fast & Furious" franchise) that he was totally believable as the undercover FBI agent having a sudden attack of conscience. While the former was edited just brilliantly enough that I honestly couldn't tell that this had been filmed entirely in Australia rather than the East Coast of the U. S.

In short? It was a pleasant enough little time-killer on its own merits. Yet, still nothing that Mr. Neeson hasn't already done...and done better.

One man tanked this film ... Mark Williams

[danielgraves · 2/10 · 15 December 2022]

Classic example of why the Writer and Director should be separate people. This script had serious flaws, and the Director did nothing to fix it, BECAUSE IT WAS HIS SCRIPT!! Cinematography, stunts, locations etc. Were all good, but this movie was Dead-On-Arrival because of one man. Didn't he have any friends to tell him what crap he was creating?

Multiple scenes of "story boarding". Characters making illogical uin-motivated decisions. Undeveloped/poorly developed characters. Dialog taking huge jumps as if several sentences were edited out. LOTS of over-used cliché lines. How did this large budget film end up in the toilet?... Writer/Director Mark Williams seems to be the culprit.

Action packed, nail biting

[jogutier · 8/10 · 5 March 2022]

Regardless of the other feedback, this movie did give us a great experience. It delivered on everything a high profile movie gives. It's also keeps you guessing on who and what is really happening.

What Walt's Watching

[waltermwilliams · 7/10 · 16 February 2022]

Despite turning 70 in 2022, Liam Neeson is still one of the best action stars in Hollywood.

He's turning it on again in "Blacklight" exclusively in Cinemas.

And he's bringing sexy back along with some talented people he's worked with in the past including his co-star Aidan Quinn ("Unknown")who first landed on my movie radar back in 1985 as "Dez" alongside Madonna in "Desperately Seeking Susan".

Also returning to the fold is Director Mark Williams.

Together Neeson & Williams joined forces on "Honest Thief" & "The Marksman".

In "Blacklight" Liam is a government trained weapon having a conscious crisis with his dark past.

You're not going to believe it, but at one point he thinks his family has been "Taken" and he almost utters the same line to his nemesis with a few words changed to avoid a law suit with the writers of that franchise.

To put Neeson's busy career in perspective he played a retired agent in that series of movies 14 years ago and he's showing no signs of slowing down or retirement himself in real life any time soon.

In the interests of full disclosure I'd probably watch anything this lanky Irishman makes 'cos he's got the Golden Years of Hollywood X-Factor...something rare in this decade or century.

The Garbage Truck chase scene through the streets of Canberra, Australia is worth the price of admission alone.

Fun Fact: This movie was filmed on location in Oz during World War C.

Even though the budget was only $43 million it looks way more expensive.

To stop this force of nature they're gonna need more men.

as exciting as water soup

[WizardOfWhoopee · 5/10 · 26 February 2022]

Pretty weak. 5 of 10, I can think of 5 taken jokes.

This movie is a milli-Taken.

I found myself Taken a nap.

The only thing remotely Taken was my 9 bucks.

I wish I'd have Taken a 5-hr energy.

All the scenes only needed 1 Take.

At least Cold Pursuit was funny.

On the plus side - the theater was warmer than my car outside.

Liam Neeson should stop

[lareval · 1/10 · 12 February 2022]

Okay, the thrill is gone and the parody is not even funny. This is less than a generic action thriller and more of a low budget rubbish that skips the real action with a leading actor who seems to have absolute zero care for what he's doing. The 'Taken' times were good and some other movies ('Run All Night', 'The Grey') were fine or even really good. But from two-three years on, Neeson should retire from this. An awfully abysmal movie.