A Walk Among The Tombstones

My Grade:  B

Liam Neeson is in his 60s and is one of the biggest action stars right now. That’s weird. But, while his Taken franchise lived on well past its prime and is thankfully over, Neeson made other action movies in which he basically played Bryan Mills (his character from Taken) but in different settings. That has gotten tiresome for me so I’m glad A Walk Among The Tombstones isn’t just another run-of-the-mill action flick. In fact, it’s not really an action flick at all. 

A Walk Among the Tombstones follows Matthew Scudder, an unlicensed private investigator with some inner demons who tries to find the people that kidnapped and murdered a drug kingpin’s wife. And these people that committed this heinous crime are some of the more twisted and evil baddies I have seen in recent thrillers. This is just a nasty, gritty, ruthless thriller which Neeson is able to elevate above its many cliches and plot problems. Without Neeson’s surprisingly strong performance as Scudder, this film would almost be a total mess.

The plot isn’t anything to write home about as it is full of genre cliches but it does offer a few solid twists and turns - not as many as it should for this type of film, but a few. The bigger issue, though, is that the supporting characters are horrendously underdeveloped. The only reason I care that these bad guys are brought to justice is because of how evil they are... not because I care about this drug kingpin’s wife (or the other victims for that matter). This film is chock full of bad people that get victimized by even worse people. That doesn’t make me care too much for their tough predicaments. 

The one supporting character we do care for is the young, homeless, wanna-be detective that Scudder reluctantly takes under his wing:  TJ (a very strong turn from newcomer Brian “Astro” Bradley). He is the most well-developed and interesting supporting character but he doesn’t really add much to the overall story which is honestly a shame. The chemistry between Scudder and TJ creates some of the best scenes in the film and TJ gives a glimmer of brightness in this overwhelmingly dark film. 

Overall, A Walk Among The Tombstones is a decent enough thriller which allows Neeson to do some real acting (which is a nice change of pace for him). We still get to see him threaten bad guys over the phone which is always fun, but he gets to do more than just beat the daylights out of people. This isn’t a film you’ll remember for years to come but it’s solid - albeit dark and grimy - entertainment and is worth a watch if you’re in the mood for a thriller with an old-school feel.