Director: Mark Williams

Writers: Nick May and Mark Williams

Starring: Liam Neeson, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Taylor John Smith, and Aidan Quinn

Rating: ★★½

The latest action thriller starring Liam Neeson, BlackLight, features a government conspiracy, rogue agents and one man trying to be a better grandpa. It’s very low on tension, but still manages to provide some mindless entertainment, even if you’ve seen most, if not all, of this somewhere before, some of it even with Neeson in the starring role.  

Travis Brock (Liam Neeson) is a fixer for the FBI, who goes in and cleans up other agents mistakes and gets them out of dangerous situations. When agent Dusty Crane (Taylor John Smith) is arrested for fighting police in the streets, Travis takes it upon himself to try and get Dusty back on the right track, but by doing so he starts to uncover a conspiracy that goes right to the top.

Liam Neeson has found a second career with action films, and for the most part he’s good in them. In Blacklight it feels very much like he’s re-treading old ground. He’s torn between his family life and the secret agent job. To mix things up a bit he has OCD, but only slightly and it doesn’t really play into the plot or his character at all beyond a few minor moments.

The action is lacklustre, the plot is incredibly simple and trying too hard to be more, and some of the dialogue feels the furthest thing from natural. Despite that it still manages to be entertaining. It’s a tried and tested formula, and it works. It’s nothing spectacular by any stretches, but it’s far from the worst braindead thriller you can watch. The first half with the set up is done well, especially the shocking car crash in the opening sequence, it’s the later half when it becomes a predictable thriller.

Blacklight is pretty much everything you think it’s going to be, based purely on the fact that Liam Neeson is starring in it. There’s nothing that new or great about it, but it’s still entertaining to watch.

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