Getting Past the Premise . . .

Rating: 6/10 (26 February 2014)

is one of Hollywood's greatest difficulties. The idea, the pitch, the hook, whatever you want to call it is not enough to carry a movie. I got wrapped up in Liam Neeson's character's story very quickly, and I stayed there for a a little while, but I knew the movie was in trouble when I saw January Jones, a woman so cold and calculating, so damaged in Mad Men, that it mars her beauty. If Mrs. Neeson was a baddie, then the mystery would be tainted.
I saw at least two other movies retold in Unknown, something with Sean Connery as an Arab peacemaker and Mirage, with Gregory Peck. The Connery flick was junk, but Mirage was great.
Unknown will never be confused with greatness. It's just too pat, too slick. I never accepted Liam (I'm going to growl a lot like Nick Nolte) Neeson as a botanist with a trophy wife. The co-inky-dinks were just too much. By the time the back story of Neeson is told, I had intellectually closed my locker. By the third reel, I was thinking/thanking this was free (TNT).
I've got Taken on deck. I think I'm maxed out on Liam--I've liked him in so many things that seeing him morph into an action hero is just too much.
But, when we get Netflix back someday soon, I'll be ready for more Mad Men, an opportunity to see January Jones again, the luminescent beauty with the Gorgon on the inside.