Neeson not a complete 'Unknown' in middling thriller

The Liam Neeson-goes-to-a-European-capital-and-kicks-butt genre is extended to yet another film with "Unknown," an identity-based thriller in which Neeson does battle with mysterious thugs in Berlin.

The movie takes the genre in some unique directions and has some genuinely thrilling moments, but "Unknown" is hurt by both a lack of originality and often poor direction. And there's none of the over-the-top action thrills that Neeson brought to "Taken."

The film starts as a Hitchcockian thriller with a mystery at the heart of it, but becomes more and more like "The Bourne Identity" the longer it goes on, what with the European setting, the amnesia and more.

Neeson is Dr. Martin Harris, an American scientist in Berlin for a conference with his wife (January Jones from "Mad Men").

Through a series of bizarre circumstances involving a missing briefcase and a car accident, Neeson ends up waking from a coma, suffering partial amnesia, but when he sees his wife, she claims to not know who he is, and she introduces another man as her husband.

Neeson, with the help of a cab driver (Diane Kruger) and an elderly Stasi man-turned-amateur-detective (Bruno Ganz), spends the rest of the movie trying to track down the truth while dodging mysterious assassins.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, best known for making the infamous horror film "Orphan," the movie contains a legitimately intriguing and unpredictable mystery. But the direction is often blurry and hard to follow, especially in the action sequences.

Speaking of which, another thing "Unknown" has in common with the "Bourne" pictures: totally incoherent hand-to-hand combat. The movie borrows the Bourne construction of the hero occasionally being jumped by someone, leading to a 30-second blur of a fight ending with the assailant dead.

"Unknown" takes it a step further with a couple of scenes in which two men of similar height, build and haircut, both wearing all black, fight, in the dark, with the camera flying everywhere. How exactly are we supposed to know which guy is which? A couple of chase scenes in cars aren't much easier to follow.

Neeson, who, a couple of decades into his career, became an unlikely action hero with "Taken" a couple of years ago, shows that he hasn't aged out of the role quite yet.

Jones, who has had very little success outside of "Mad Men," does fine here, but isn't given a whole lot to do besides smile blankly.

The movie's best scene by a mile is a tension-filled encounter between Ganz's ex-Stasi hand and a mysterious character played by Frank Langella. The tension reminded me of the great scene between Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper in "True Romance," in which we wonder all along which of them will outsmart the other.

For all its directorial flaws, "Unknown" is a perfectly passable thriller with more than its share of excitement. But if you're looking for a repeat of the "Taken" experience, rent that director's follow-up, last year's "From Paris With Love." Or wait for, yes, "Taken 2."

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Roll credits: "Unknown"

Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra

Starring: Liam Neeson, January Jones, Bruno Ganz, Diane Kruger, Frank Langella

Rated: PG-13

Length: 1 hour 49 minutes

The Silver Screen rating: 2.5 stars (out of 5)

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