Unknown: Critic Reviews

The movie whips up a big old puree of ingredients borrowed from other cinematic recipes. Then it dishes out the mildly spiced results as post-Oscar-quality snack food...

Despite its A-movie aspirations, as the chases continue and the plot holes widen, Unknown quickly settles into the familiar B-movie comfort zone.

Enjoy it and then forget it...

A nifty final twist, but it is so joyless and heavy-handed I found it impossible to like.

When the dots are connected (sort of), Unknown still doesn't make much sense.

As long as filmgoers come to "Unknown" unencumbered by a need for plausibility, this handsome, well-paced production possesses its share of twisty, visceral pleasures.

I saw "Unknown'' with an entourage whose average age was about 70. They loved it, although one of them kept calling it "The Bond Ultimatum.'' Which sounds about right.

As with its protagonist, Unknown boasts tantalizing issues buried deep beneath its frantic exterior, but little idea how to unlock or address them.

Neeson, often chided for cashing easy action-flick paychecks at the expense of his serious-actor cred, knows who he is - an action star of a certain age who brings gravitas to pulpy stuff. And if that's who he is, he could do worse than "Unknown."

It mixes and mismatches jagged fragments of Jason Bourne, Alfred Hitchcock, "Total Recall" and Mel Gibson's underappreciated "Conspiracy Theory," although underappreciation isn't a risk for a movie that amounts to "The Stillbourne Identity."

Turn off your 'I hope this plot twist is awesome' part of your brain and just enjoy big, gruff, increasingly Frankenstein-monster-looking Neeson kicking the crap out of everyone who gets in his way...

For about an hour or so, "Unknown" is intriguing.

I felt involved in "Unknown" until it pulled one too many rabbits out of its hat. At some point, a thriller has to play fair.

More subtly than Harrison Ford, Neeson excels at the slow fuse snaking its way to explosive revenge.

The snow and haze that Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra keeps pumping into the street scenes seem to have drifted into the script as well.

With his soulful gaze and crooked nose, his seeming reluctance to throw a karate chop but his deft ability to do so, Neeson has an air of melancholy and menace - you feel sorry for the guy, and wary of him at the same time.

Neeson has a fine way with expressions of anguish. This is brow-knitting of a very high order.

Unknown" obviously knows its limitations, and it doesn't bother to rise above them. It just keeps throwing the punches the audience wants and expects. It won't cure world hunger, but chances are it will sell a lot of popcorn.

There are a couple of intriguing ideas floating around here and there, but that's all they do -- float around, unmoored by any sense of reality and, thus, suspense.

Unknown makes no sense at all, so you not only worry about Liam Neeson's judgment in movies, but you begin to wonder if he's forgotten how to read.

Beyond the occasional plot frissons and juicy supporting turns, it's an emotionally and psychologically threadbare exercise.

Plot holes you can drive a truck through are ultimately less important for your enjoyment than how they set up the film's big set pieces.

A paranoid thriller has to be more paranoid than this, with far more urgency to it, to work.

The film plays more like a "whydunit" than a whodunit.

Neeson is always magnetic, though, even when he's just repeating his Taken performance and delivering cheesy one-liners, as he is eventually required to do here.