Film: Retribution
Cast: Liam Neeson, Embeth Davidtz, Matthew Modine, Noma Dumezweni, Arian Moayed, Lilly Aspell, Jack Champion.
Director: Nimród Antal
Rating: 2.5/5
Runtime: 90 mins

Liam Neeson takes a sort of sabbatical from his umpteenth action sequel to star in this rather lethargic (for him) thriller where he is forced to stay put in a car with his two not-so-obedient, mouthy kids (Jack Champion and Lilly Aspell) in the back seat, all through the 90 odd min runtime. There’s a bomb under the seat and any attempt to get out could trigger an explosion. The plotting emulates ‘Speed’ but minus all the excitement and thrills that added up to a great thriller movie experience.

Though Neeson gets to play an inadvertent victim and show off his acting chops - presenting a worried, fearful, frantic, thinking side as opposed to his rote tough-guy ‘Taken’ side, there’s really not much to get a high from here. The rather generic and ditzy nature of the writing puts paid to any great experience of either thrills or tension.