Liam Neeson’s latest actioner is born in cliches — a pre-credit flashback explains how a career cop becomes an unlicensed P.I. (and sober) after a shootout results in the accidental death of a child — and fatigued by even harder-to-swallow secondary characters. Credibility crumples the moment our hero begins to play nursemaid to TJ (Astro), a cheeky homeless lad he meets at the public library, thus explaining the name-dropping urban ragamuffin’s affinity for Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. (Best scene: Neeson goes full-Joe Friday after finding a gun hidden in the boy’s backpack.) Female characters exist solely to be toe-tagged at the hands of two cleverly sadistic — yet fearfully dull once you get to know them — serial killers. Screenwriter Scott Frank (Little Man Tate, Minority Report), who received high marks for his directorial debut, The Lookout, kneecaps logic and character motivation to the point where Sherlock Neeson has the kid tag along on the climactic showdown. (2014) — Scott Marks
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