For an entire generation of movie fans, Liam Neeson isn’t best known as the respected character actor who landed an Academy Award nomination for Schindler’s List and scored widespread acclaim for roles in dramas like Michael Collins, Nell, Rob Roy and Gangs of New York, or even as a supporting player in major blockbuster hits such as Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Batman Begins and The Chronicles of Narnia franchise.
Instead, when you think of the 68 year-old these days, chances are the first thing that comes to mind will be the slew of action thrillers he’s starred in over the last dozen years since Taken turned him into the grizzled face of the genre. The Liam Neeson Movie has proven to be an incredibly successful subgenre, and he can’t seem to stop making them despite claiming a couple of years back that he was getting a little too long in the tooth for all the running and gunning.
Jaume Collet-Serra has been responsible for a quartet of these efforts, all of which did decent business at the box office and appealed directly to audiences who wanted to see Neeson power his way through an undemanding narrative while beating up some bad guys along the way. Non-Stop, Run All Night and The Commuter were all cut from the same cloth, but the duo’s first collaboration in Unknown added an extra layer of mystery onto the proceedings.
Neeson’s doctor awakes after a car accident to find out his wife has no idea who he his, and another man has claimed his identity, before people try to kill him as he seeks to uncover the truth. Unknown was added to the Netflix library on Friday, and has already risen up the ranks to become the most-watched movie on the platform in the United States, with tons of viewers checking out this forgotten but wholly enjoyable flick.