Kenny drinks hard liquor as well. It's offensive that the filmmakers' idea of villainy is so generic that the killers can easily be viewed as homophobic targets. [22] Manohla Dargis in The New York Times called it "one of those rare cinematic offerings: intelligent pulp" but also noted that the film "can be tough to watch, particularly its fleeting images of tortured women". Stevens evokes every shade of the self-made drug kingpins thoughts: His hands are tied, but he visibly hungers to wrap them around the killers necks. Matt Scudder (Liam Neeson), formerly part of the NYPD, now works as an unlicensed private detective. Albert and Ray escape in their van, with TJ hiding in the back. We also see a killer wrap the wire around a womans breast. Starring Liam Neeson. The plot is realistic and the viewer follows Scudder investigation. This 10-digit number is your confirmation number. Scudder leaves to send TJ away while Kenny plans a gruesome fate, only for Albert to kill him and Scudder - who's returned - to face him in a final battle. Please click the link below to receive your verification email. It contains a mix of suspense, thriller and neo-noir elements. If there are further cinematic stories to come from Scudder (though the box office suggests there might not be) we hope more of his personal life enters the picture, as it makes him a more interesting character, with more to lose too. "A Walk Among the Tombstones" starts out as another Film Noir-ish Liam Neeson action thriller. Hes got the eight-year-sober chip in his pocket to prove it. Before they can strike again and destroy other lives, Scudder races through the back streets of New York to catch the killers, blurring the lines between lawful and criminal as he goes. The little girl who was accidentally killed in Scudder's shootout with the robbers at the bar. Synopsis: Based on Lawrence Block's bestselling series of mystery novels, A Walk among the Tombstones stars Liam Neeson as Matt Scudder, an ex-NYPD cop who now works as an unlicensed private investigator operating just outside the law. In 2014 he played ex-cop Matt Scudder in A Walk Among The Tombstones, and thischaracter comes from a series of neo-noir books from author Lawrence Block. Matt Follows Loogan. He gave up his brother to a DEA investigator who was later targeted by the killers. [15], A Walk Among the Tombstones grossed $26 million in the United States and Canada, and $36.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total gross of $62.1 million, against its $28 million budget. what do you guys think the quiet bad guy was about to say before he was interrupted by Liam Neeson at the end of the movie? Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Jurassic Park Movies Ranked By Tomatometer, 10 Black Women Filmmakers Who Have Shaped the Cinema Landscape of the 21st Century, 10 LGBTQIA+ Women Who Became Trailblazers in Entertainment. Jenna Ortega Will Dance, Dance, Dance With the Weeknd. And all this without any action sequences other than mutilations. Terms of Service apply. But its also easy to see why those scenes were removed, as for most of Tombstones, Mick is out of the country in (where else?) Hal Ashbys 8 Million Ways to Die missed the essentials (it was set in L.A.! Stream songs including "Main Title", "We Got Your Wife." and more. It stars Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, David Harbour, and Boyd Holbrook. The moral ambiguities of the novel are transmitted to the big screen version and thats nice to see, but the concessions to the demands of a studio movie ultimately undercut what is a more potent procedural about moral decay, and what it means to take a life. Lastly, New York City is also very present texture in Blocks book, and Frank replicates that in the film. Unavailable on an ad-supported plan due to licensing restrictions. And why did they feel the need to save the one girl and kill others related to drugs? Portraits of Kennys wife show her naked in several poses, some of them revealing full-frontal nudity. Password must be at least 8 characters and contain: As part of your account, youll receive occasional updates and offers from New York, which you can opt out of anytime. Both in the book and film, TJ is urban in the most gauche way possible, complete with street speak, though arguably in Franks film, its a bit more scaled back. Its clear from the sunless palette and the measured, one-thing-after-another pacing that Frank loves Blocks work, and that goes a long way. Yet Hollywood seems to focus on the latter, not deviating from the stoic man who can rip armies of murderers asunder and come out swinging. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. A movie version of A Walk Among The Tombstones had been in development for years before the Scott Frank directed version, with Harrison Ford once in line to play the role. However, they see his 14-year-old daughter, Lucia, and Ray decides to kidnap her. People are afraid of all the wrong things. Private investigator Matthew Scudder is hired by a drug kingpin to find out who kidnapped and murdered his wife. Scudder's attendance at AA meetings was a bigger part of the novel, while the movie shows the first meeting between the ex-cop and his young friend/assistant TJ, but in the novels, he was introduced in an earlier book. Matt Scudder: I do favors for people, and in return, they give me gifts. In 'The Grey', a movie completely steered away from the idea of crime, he was still a pretty knowledgeable badass who could kill if he needed. However, in Blocks book, Petes pain comes simply from his heroin and alcohol addiction, one that finds him routinely on and off the wagon. The film was released on September 19, 2014. Maybe hes genetically driven to do what good cops, sober cops, just naturally do: help people. Im glad they left T.J. out of the trailers, though. Slim, blond types (one bland, the other goateed), they recall the gay Nazi-like killers in Michael Haneke's American remake of his sadistic art-movie Funny Games. Franks biggest challenge was introducing a Block regular a wayward black teen named TJ (Brian Astro Bradley) who talks himself into Scudders life without making the relationship seem too sentimental. In 1991 New York, Matt Scudder is an alcoholic police detective. Based on Lawrence Block's bestselling series of mystery novels, A Walk among the Tombstones stars Liam Neeson as Matt Scudder, an ex-NYPD cop who now works a. All rights reserved. Retracing steps. Running over 400 pages long, Blocks book obvoiusly has a lot more plot, and for the most part, Frank does a pretty good job of streamlining the story. (Hes equally effective in the coming The Equalizer.) In this film Liam Neeson plays Matt Scudder, a former cop turned unlicensed private detective. He puts his life on the line repeatedly (often without any weapon in his hand) to try to save innocents. Scudder then enters a bar and gets coffee with shots. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. When Matt first meets TJ at the public library, the boy thinks the grizzled guy wants to molest him. He goes up into the rooftop and finds a shed, where Loogan is living. This grotesque plot contrivance goes so far from what makes private detective fiction interesting (the classical investigation into despoiled human nature) that it seems to be working out something peculiar: in fact, some dubious obsession with queerness. He meets TJ, a homeless streetwise youth. The Grey Ending Explained: Who Wins Liam Neeson's Wolf Fight. Matthew Scudder A Walk Among The Tombstones made the movie version of Scudder more of a loner, whereas in the book he has a relationship with a prostitute named Elaine and friendships with other characters who were trimmed out. Matt Follows Loogan. A Walk Among the Tombstones - Rotten Tomatoes Trending on RT Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania Cocaine Bear The Last of Us Knock at the Cabin Most popular View All A Walk Among the Tombstones R. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Once Scudder questions him and he tells Scudder what happened, he's worried they'll find out and do the same to him as they did to their victims. 1:28. This Article is related to: Features and tagged A Walk Among The Tombstones, Feature, Features. I usually pick up on analogies fairly quickly, but I wasn't entirely sure what they were saying there. The goal of /r/Movies is to provide an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases. A Walk Among the Tombstones isn't a kill-'em-all Taken-style actioner. Parents, get practical information from a biblical worldview to help guide media decisions for your kids! While the film is more of a thriller than an action movie, a few setpieces were added like the graveyard shootout and the final fight to beef up the action quota. Scudder gives him a phone so that TJ can reach him if he needs anything. Its brutal stuff. Blurring the lines between right and wrong, Scudder races to track the deviants through the backstreets of New York City before they kill again. Throughout the whole movie, I just wanted Ray and his companion to die. His latest client is a drug trafficker (Dan Stevens) whose wife was kidnapped and brutally murdered, and as Scudder delves deeper, he finds that the crime's sequence is the modus operandi of the perpetrators. TJ helps with the research. The films opening flashback sequence (borrowed from Blocks first book in the Scudder series, 1976s The Sins Of The Fathers) with Liam Neesons alcoholic cop Matt Scudder taking down some very bad dudes, complete with slow motion sequences, very much feels like an audience concession (though it provides backstory as well). The killers buy a guy drinks to better pump him for information. See production, box office & company info, A Walk Among the Mystery, but lacking in some thrills, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Liam Neeson/Terry Gilliam/Tim McGraw. Scudder refuses. He tells Scudder their address. 15 Warm-Weather Movies to Stream While Youre Snowed In. Albert actually hears the ringtone, but dismisses it. This weekend, yet another story is told about our leading action actor, entitled A Walk Among The Tombstones. Hes a trudger. Blood covers a kitchen floor and walls, and somebody bleeds out on a stairway. Even with Liam Neeson in the lead, its not the most likely project to get a greenlight (and indeed Frank said that without Neeson, this movie would never have happened). Next: The Grey Ending Explained: Who Wins Liam Neeson's Wolf Fight. Neeson turns in a solid performance, backed by a good supporting cast that features Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) as a sympathetic drug trafficker and a couple of really vicious bad guys. TJ voices a number of personal conspiratorial theories about how society is purposely pushing down black youths like himself, including the fact that people keep offering him sperm-killing soda. 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He is about to give up when they grab another girl and Scudder tries make sure she's returned alive. In 2002, Harrison Ford was attached to star and D. J. Caruso to direct. TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. They won't be able to see your review if you only submit your rating. Though its never specifically cited, the Serenity Prayer God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference is a controlling force. And in both the book and movie, their crimes are stomach churning, possibly even moreso in Blocks novel which describes in detail some things you dont see on the screen, particularly when it comes to their previous victims. Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. Still, he thinks about what might have happened if hed not been drinking just before. For our money, wed say for the full Scudder experience youll want the book, but as an abridged version, the film does an adequate if not wholly satisfying job. As for the killers turning on each other, that shift doesnt need the excuse of the gunshot wound. A Walk Among the Tombstones doesn't entirely transcend its genre clichs, but it does offer Liam Neeson one of his more compelling roles in recent memory, and that's often enough. Even though he received a commendation, he quit his job as a cop and he gave up alcohol. Matt buys TJ some essentials and protects him. In fact, after at first leaving a killers fate to vigilante justice, Matt realizes he has to turn back and bring the man to the legal authorities instead. "I just wanted" Maybe "I just wanted to make Ray happy?". (He also tithes a percentage of his fees to various churches.) I really liked how disconnected the killers were from emotion. Scudder goes back inside the house and finds Albert gone. 0:57. 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