I think I hate this movie primarily due to two reasons: my love for Liam Neeson and the stark disparity between the film&#39;s promised premise and its actual execution. It was going for less action and more a gripping, high-stakes thriller but sadly, even in that aspect, it falls short. While I wouldn&#39;t go as far as labeling it horrendous, it&#39;s not worth a trip to the cinema, despite having done so myself lol. It&#39;s reminiscent of the kind of film you might casually watch on daytime TV to pass time in a hotel room. It reminds me of Dstv in Africa, when we were traveling or on holiday and the hotel/motel tv only had like 10 channels all with poor signal... this is the kinda thing you&#39;d find playing on the movie channel.<br/><br/>Blink and you might miss it, but the opening credits show it&#39;s based on another film &quot;Retribution El Desconocido,&quot; which excited me even though I haven&#39;t watched the original, but because the comparison with &quot;The Departed&quot; and &quot;Infernal Affairs&quot; crossed my mind, assuming that if the original movie warranted a remake, it must have been great, suggesting the remake had potential, I thought. Unfortunately, this wasn&#39;t the case. I didn&#39;t really know anything about the movie other Liam Neeson is in it, plus it was a Regal mystery movie too.<br/><br/>The film is really just a deterrent of raising kids later in life. I always say that your kid&#39;s potentially having their rebellious teenage phase at while you&#39;re 60 would suck ass. While it&#39;s not universally true, Zach, the son in the movie, really resembles kids from my high school days who had similar behavior due to having older parents, which made disciplining hard. That&#39;s what stood out to me in the entire movie.<br/><br/>I didn&#39;t like that the the most unsubtle hints were being dropped with all the TVs on the news channels at the start. The hints couldn&#39;t have been less subtle, yet the characters somehow managed to ignore them completely.<br/><br/>The explosions were cool, probably the only thing I enjoyed about the movie. They reminded me action sequences from movies from the 2010s. However, the movie heavily relied on Liam Neeson, even though he didn&#39;t have much to work with, so not even he could save this. If you&#39;ve watched any of Neeson&#39;s other movies, this one might leave you feeling deceived, as it hints at possibly following the familiar pattern of his iconic &quot;I will find you, and I will kill you&quot; action flicks, but takes a different direction instead, despite him delivering similar threats.<br/><br/>Nothing about the movie was convincing. Even during the most tense moments, the emotions failed to translate properly, leaving me disengaged from the plot, it lacked that tense, suspenseful, edge of the seat vibe. The actors&#39; performances lacked conviction, and the unoriginal dialogue in the script only exaggerated the issue. The plot itself wasn&#39;t believable, heavily relying on characters making illogical choices. Particularly the police, they could&#39;ve asked questions, but they were way too easily and quickly convinced he was the villain not the villain. The car chases were whack as well, expecting us to believe that dozens police cars were incapable of stopping a single SUV. The entire execution appeared sloppily put together. The decision to involve his unsupervised wife as he was a suspect seemed questionable too. The police investigator seemed perpetually befuddled and uncertain, displaying some of the weakest negotiation skills and poker face I&#39;ve seen in a movie. The kid was frustrating, something I hate about a character is when, despite others risking their lives to save them, adamantly refuse the help they&#39;re being given. The only potentially convincing twist that could have saved the movie for me would have been if it was revealed that that the lead detective was actually complicit and working for the opposing side.<br/><br/>Anyway, as I said earlier it&#39;s not as horrendous as I&#39;m making it out to be but I still think it&#39;s less than mediocre and not worth a trip to the cinema.

Like a number of these recent Neeson action spectacles, &quot;Retribution&quot; is a remake of a Spanish and a German film.<br/><br/>None of the characters appearing are particularly interesting or likable (the kids, in particular, seem to be a bit annoying at times. And the director (named Nimród Antal) handles the strong action scenes and beats in a well exciting; the big twist in the final scenes is a bit predictable obvious that virtually every audience member will have figured it out long before it&#39;s deployed. So, a continuity with most of the movies starring Neeson of the last 10 years but overall interesting for the filming location in Berlin and due to Neeson&#39;s good (as usually) performance.

Retribution tells the story of a a bank executive named, Matt Turner(Liam Neeson). Matt, his daughter Emily Turner(Lilly Aspell) &amp; his son Zach Turner(Jack Champion) find out that there&#39;s a bomb under Matt&#39;s car seat. This deadly bomb will explode if they stop &amp; get out of the car.<br/><br/>Retribution is a mind-blowing film. It doesn&#39;t deserve all the negative reviews. Director Nimrod Antal has given us a movie that strays from the typical ingredients of the classic Liam Neeson action project, the likes of which we&#39;ve seen, since the iconic Taken(2008). Don&#39;t expect tons of hand-to-hand combat sequences. The majority of Retribution takes place in the car. The set pieces are fantastic. The suspense is maintained brilliantly, throughout the course of its runtime. Liam Neeson is spectacular as Matt Turner. Neeson portrays a wide range of emotions, with ease &amp; panache. Lilly Aspell is phenomenal as Emily Turner. Aspell keeps going from strength to strength as a young actress &amp; has a long &amp; bright future ahead of her, in Hollywood. Jack Champion is outstanding as Zach Turner. Noma Dumezweni is great as Angela Brickman. Embeth Davidtz is awesome as Heather Turner. Matthew Modine is excellent as Anders Muller. The supporting cast is perfect. Retribution is a must watch for Liam Neeson fans. Go in with an open mind about what to expect &amp; you will have a blast!