It’s a sad day in Hollywood. After almost a decade of indiscriminately shooting at faceless bad guys and occasionally delivering snappy one-liners, Liam Neeson had decided it’s time for his tenure as an action star to come to an end. While it must have been a tough decision for him, I don’t think he ever could have anticipated how this news would impact the people who have been religiously consuming his oeuvre since he put down the phone and picked up a gun in Taken.
I say “people” because I like to believe there are others out there besides me who have willingly sat through the movie “Run All Night.”
According to Screenrant, Neeson made the announcement at the Toronto International Film Festival after a screening of his new film, Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House , a Serious Film in which Neeson plays the man better known as Deep Throat. He gave an explanation for his decision, saying:
“They’re still throwing serious money at me to do that stuff. I’m like: ‘Guy’s I’m sixty-fucking-five.’ Audiences are eventually going to go: ‘Come on.’”
Neeson’s career as an action star could technically be traced back to his role as Qui-Gon Jinn in that Star Wars movie we really don’t like to talk about, but that came during a time when he was primarily pursuing roles in more serious film (and Love Actually).
His career trajectory shifted noticeably starting with the aforementioned Taken in 2008, after which he began pursuing a series of roles in movies seemingly created to randomly air on TNT on a Saturday afternoon. Those movies included The A-Team, Non-Stop, and The Grey— which I prefer to refer to as Punches With Wolves.
His presence will be sorely missed by at least one person.
