Memory (2022)

Directed by Martin Campbell. Starring Guy Pearce, Liam Neeson, Taj Atwal, Harold Torres, Monica Bellucci, Ray Stevenson, Daniel de Bourg, Lee Boardman, Stella Stocker, Ray Fearon, Josh Taylor, Natalie Anderson, Atanas Srebrev. [R]

Neeson’s aging-man-of-action cliché is really feeling those years now—here, he’s a hitman suffering from Alzheimer’s, so he keeps forgetting crucial information, where he is, what he’s supposed to be doing, and so on. What with the by-the-numbers moral conundrums and double-crosses and revenge schemes coming his way, this cloudy brain activity could prove to be a major obstacle. Ironically-titled thriller is immediately forgettable; splitting time with Pearce’s conscientious G-man, Neeson isn’t even the star of his own show, demonstrating how overplotted the hackneyed narrative is, stuffed with too many indistinct and generic supporting characters to keep track of, mumbling vague declarations with even less urgency than clarity. The memory-loss aspect is a cheap gimmick that isn’t even exploited to a fraction of its low-grade potential, and the principled killer simply becomes pathetic over the long haul, with a final act which peters out with a whimper instead of a bang. Also sad is seeing the director behind two of the best James Bond thrillers to date and the best Zorro movie ever made being reduced once again to such flavorless drivel.

34/100