Friday Flicks: Is Liam Neeson Hollywood’s Most Bankable Action Hero?

Grab some popcorn! NewsFeed's Glen Levy brings you the movies you should check out (or avoid) this weekend.

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The Grey

[youtube=http://youtu.be/Hfb0-U0ydj8]

Tagline: Live Or Die On This Day.

It seems Liam Neeson is fast becoming the most reliable action hero for studios and audiences to turn to in these uncertain times. Seemingly out of nowhere – and certainly out of character – he’s lately cropped up in the likes of Taken and Unknown, bashing heads together and getting fans to flock to movie theaters. No wonder then that director Joe Carnahan (last seen being responsible for sending Neeson and tanks out of helicopters in The A-Team reboot) turned to Neeson once again to front The Grey. Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?

Neeson plays Ottway, who leads an unruly group of oil-rig roughnecks after their plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness. They battle the elements, including unforgiving weather, their own injuries and, of course, a pack of rogue wolves.

Reviewers seem to be on board with Neeson’s new direction. “Sharp, surly and mean as hell, he’s as close as we’ll get to a modern John Wayne,” raves Time Out London. “Moment to moment, the film is gripping and beautiful to behold,” notes their counterparts at Time Out‘s offices in New York. And it’s “thoroughly persuasive in its depiction of desperate men battling unforgiving elements,” sums up Variety.

MORE: TIME’s full review of The Grey

One for the Money

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Tagline: She’s looking for a few not-so-good men.

When will Hollywood learn? As recently as 2010, we were treated to The Bounty Hunter, in which Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler redefined the parameters for lack of onscreen chemistry between leads. (If you don’t believe us, we’d suggest you find out for yourselves, but that would just be cruel.) And speaking of cruel, here we go again.

In One for the Money, Katherine Heigl plays Stephanie Plum, an unemployed lingerie buyer who somehow manages to convince her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie (Patrick Fischler), to let her try out as a bounty hunter. What’s her first assignment? Only to track down a former cop, Joe Morelli (Jason O’Mara), who’s on the run for murder and – say it ain’t so! – is the very same man who once broke her heart.

As with the new Underworld movie last week, it doesn’t appear as if Heigl’s magnum opus has been screened for the critics. Will it end up being as “funny” as The Bounty Hunter or could it be the second coming of Annie Hall? To find out for sure, it’s one for your money.

LIST: TIME’s 10 Worst Movies of 2011

Man on a Ledge

[youtube=http://youtu.be/YWSdm4K-9_0]

Tagline: You Can Only Push An Innocent Man So Far.

Welcome back to the semi-regular game of literal movie titles. Hankering after simpler times where you knew exactly what you were letting yourself in for? Snakes on a Plane? Cowboys & Aliens? Well, joining the club this week is Man on a Ledge. And that’s all you need to know.

Said man is Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington), who must deal with Elizabeth Banks’ disgraced NYPD negotiator, Lydia Mercer, trying her best to talk him down. But guess what? The longer they’re on that there ledge, the more she figures out he may well have an ulterior motive. “You and I have a lot in common,” he says to her at one point, and the audience instantly knows they’ve seen this kind of movie before.

And if the critics are anything to go by, Man on a Ledge is destined to fall flat. “This cloddishly contrived suspenser is too busy to bore, but too farfetched to thrill,” slams Variety. “Unfortunately, this film doesn’t realize it’s a comedy,” notes the Village Voice, while Time Out New York reflects that “director Asger Leth crosscuts nimbly between Worthington’s high-altitude plight and the Mission: Impossible–style high jinks” before “the movie succumbs to its numerous contrivances.” Seems like the similar sounding titled — but utterly wondrous Oscar-winning documentary — Man on Wire is far more worthy of your time instead.

MORE: TIME’s full review of Man on a Ledge

NewsFeed’s Flicks Pick: There’s simply no contest: Liam Neeson’s career revival gathers pace and will rule the battle of the new releases. Besides, you really wouldn’t want to argue with him.

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