Critics Not So Taken With Taken

Liam Neeson stars in survival thriller

(NEWSER) - The Grey, a survival-in-the-wilderness thriller starring Liam Neeson, is earning a wealth of literary comparisons. The film tells the story of a group of men stranded in the snow after a plane crash, and critics are mostly impressed.

• In the New York Times , AO Scott applauds the "fine, tough little movie, technically assured and brutally efficient, with a simple story that ventures into some profound existential territory without making a big fuss about it." The film is "as blunt and effective—and also, at times, as lyrical—as a tale by Jack London or Ernest Hemingway."

Action flick less than the sum of its all-star parts

(NEWSER) - Sylvester Stallone directed and co-stars, alongside a Magnificent Seven-style roster of action-film legends—Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, and Jason Statham—but critics have some issues with The Expendables.

• James Verniere (and a friend), Boston Herald : "Hulk like Expendables. It SMASH. Guns go BANG-BANG. Things go BOOM. Fire EVERYWHERE. Cars crash and make even MORE FIRE. HA-HA-HA. Hulk no like Rourke, though. Rourke NUTS."

Even naked Christina Ricci can't save ambiguous horror flick

(NEWSER) - Critics are absolutely burying After.Life, a dull horror flick about a woman who may be dead. And no, the stupid dot in the title is never explained. Here’s what they’re saying:

• What seems like it ought to be a vaguely silly movie “takes itself so seriously it’s practically embalmed,” writes Stephen Whitty of the Star-Ledger . Liam Neeson in particular “seems to have convinced himself that he’s in some rare, rediscovered Beckett play—Krapp’s Last Autopsy.”

(NEWSER) - Most critics—who didn't have access to advance screenings, normally a huge red flag—agree that G.I. Joe: the Rise of Cobra isn’t anything but a popcorn flick. For some, that’s enough. For others, not so much.

• "It’s all put together with such verve and invention that resistance becomes futile," Tom Huddleston writes for Time Out London. "GI Joe is big, dumb, loud and utterly relentless: basically, everything you could ever want from a summer blockbuster."

Thriller bumps Mall Cop from top spot

(NEWSER) - The CIA thriller Taken nabbed the box office title from Paul Blart: Mall Cop, simultaneously pushing Hollywood to its first billion-dollar January, reports AP. Taken, starring Liam Neeson as a former CIA operative pursuing kidnappers, pulled in $24.6 million on Super Bowl weekend—in which thrillers typically underperform because of a drop-off in male moviegoers, reports Variety. Mall Cop banked $14 million this weekend, bumping its total to $83.4 million. Horror flick The Uninvited debuted at No. 3 with $10.5 million. More»