MEMORY (2022)

MEMORY (2022)

Tagline: His mind is fading. His conscience is clear.

(Action, Crime, What Everyone Is Thinking) [PG-13]

I can do things both of you can't... as a concerned citizen

This story revolves around Beatriz a young girl being pimped out in Mexico for sex. After an FBI raid, her father is killed and she is placed in a foster facility in America. Alex Lewis is hired to kill her to protect a child trafficking organization much bigger than imagined. Alex refuses to do the job and instead decides to turn his deadly skills on everyone involved with hiring him only Alex’s memory is fading even as his morality has finally kicked in. Meanwhile, the FBI is after him and they are also compromised. Actually, that part is not shocking at all. 

This is the second recent Liam Neeson movie that has to do with border issues and relations. To be honest, unless you live in Arizona or Texas, you have no idea how bad things started to get in 2020. There are massive amounts of drugs pouring across the border and sex trafficking is rampant. There is no possible way even the most alarming numbers on this stuff can make you “feel” how devastatingly grief-inducing the system is. This film gives a glance at the surface of the types of things that are going on. This isn’t a guess by the way. I live in Arizona and have been to the border. 

If you are not ready for these types of stories, this movie is not going to be for you. Liam’s performance in this surpasses his performance in both BLACKLIGHT and THE MARKSMAN. He’s absolutely incredible, but even with that preface I just gave, this movie is a bit of a hard watch. There are a lot of satisfaction moments in this, but we also pay the price with the pain and frustration moments. The characters are likable even through their struggles. We can even empathize with Alex who is literally a contract killer. Taj Atwal is solid in this as Linda Amisted. She is probably most famous for her role as Seema in the PROTÉGÉ. She is another one of these young actresses, that you hire if you are making a movie because she’s awesome. Harold Torres is great as Hugo and is probably one of my favorite characters in the film. I love that he plays it by the book until it’s time not to. Guy Pearce is astonishing as Vincent Serra. His most notable role was probably as Aldrich in IRON MAN 3, and his role in this is unrecognizable from his role in that. Mia Sanchez was good as Beatriz in the short amount of screen time she got, but it’s hard to tell just yet if she will have a huge acting career ahead. I would say it’s far more likely than not. 

We didn’t have some clown directing this either. Behind the chair was Martin Campbell who was responsible for GOLDEN EYE and CASINO ROYALE and more. This is a well-done film utilizing its budget to the best extent possible. The pacing is very good from start to finish and there is really only one scene at the hotel that came across as being out of place in comparison to the rest of the film. Emotionally this was a bit of a roller coaster for me given the nature of the content. 

Cinematically this is on par with most action flicks that aren’t on an “elite” level, but it’s well done so that isn’t a knock on this flick. The score is fine and the soundtrack works. It is hard to believe that Liam Neeson recently turned 70 and the dude still can pull off action flicks without a hitch. I imagine Tom Cruise will still be doing action flicks at 70, but it’s very unlikely Cruise will ever do as many films as Liam has. Liam is approaching 145. Tom Cruise has only just gotten to 50 acting credits. 

This one is worth your time if you can handle a bit of truth and revenge with your entertainment. Overall this is a 4 out of 7, just due to the fact that I am not likely to watch this over and over. 

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