Saturday, April 16, 2011

Unknown (movie review)

I enjoyed seeing Liam Neeson again, having taken a liking to the guy in Kinsey.

When he and that taxi driver were laughing in the bedroom about the noise through the wall, I was thinking their private joke was he'd worked on that movie.

Anyway, twas good to escape through The Bagdad by immersing myself in someone else's problems for a change, and to vicariously tour Berlin again, a former Cold War capital.

As I was imbibing beer, I had to find a strategic moment to empty out. The car chase was a good time for that, as action thrillers almost always have them.

Interesting to see who is the target in this movie: someone wanting to benefit mankind in a believable way, by making something valuable be free and open source.

Gifts of "intellectual property" are accepted as subversive by the worldly audience for whom this film was intended. That tells you something right there: the myth of Prometheus is still alive and well.

The plot seems tight within the conventions of Hollywood screenwriting, though people keep leaving the scene of a crime (after smashing up a whole city, or maybe just one bridge, one doesn't usually just walk away and get lost).

The ringleader complains about the brief case at the airport being a loose end, but I'd say there were loose ends all over the place (pretty sloppy). For people trying to stay "under cover", they sure seem to make a dramatic spectacle of themselves.