Unknown (2011)

It works as designed.

Unknown actually has enough of a sense of humor to admit what it is: hybrid corn. But it's been crossbred from Hitchcockian stock.

A stylish and muscular thriller with some nifty twists and turns, a wicked sense of humor, several terrific performances and not one or even two but three of the best car chases in recent action-flick history.

Neeson has a way of getting upset - a frantic purposefulness - that fills viewers with both empathy and anticipation: He's so miserable that we care.

Sleek and, until a stupidly violent climax, very entertaining, Unknown is the opposite of "Memento."

The weakest link in Unknown - okay, other than the utter preposterousness of its entire premise - is Jones, who as a modern-day version of Hitch's ice queens can't hold her own with the likes of Kim Novak, Grace Kelly and Eva Marie Saint.

It's all very Hitchcockian, at least for a while. And clever and exciting, too, even if the convergences begin to strain credulity, and, when you think about it, defy logic, too.

Jones delivers her line readings so robotically that even her truths sound like lies. She's got the look of a Hitchcock blonde, and the movements of a deer in the headlights. Even her kisses look fake.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra provides a steady flow of suspense and a very Polanski-esque feeling of paranoia.

Unknown is finely tuned pulp filmmaking, a dumb movie with a smart veneer, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Absorbing mystery psychological drama with some interesting plot twists and sprinkled with tense action.

Liam Neeson rarely disappoints. I thought the movie points into another direction.

I don't know Liam Neeson doesn't get to punch anyone but the movie was pretty solid

Bourne Identity meets The Commuter in The Twilight Zone Über talented ensemble of actors and the trademark style of the director delivers on-the-edge-of-your-seat suspense, despite a preposterously convoluted story. Director Jaume Collet-Serra's ('The Commuter') surrounds the mature action star with an ensemble of actors who deliver superb performances. It all sets up to be a first-rate suspense film, except the story itself is like one of the more fantastical types Rod Serling might have used in his 'Twilight Zone' TV series that press the boundaries of believability. Unknown delivers on "entertainment", and I recommend seeing the film, but leave your storyline expectations with the cloakroom before viewing. Collet-Serra uses a similar style of suspense-film story telling seven years later in 2018's 'The Commuter', once again teaming with Neeson in the lead role - if you liked that movie, you will like this one as well, which is a notch or two better overall.

Liam is such a typecast in these type of roles. great storyline due to the fact identity theft is a very real and unfortunate thing to happen to someone. this movie took that to the extreme and twisted it to where liam is the one that might seem crazy. no sequel needed as it ends on an actual conclusion.

Personally, I liked this movie. It starts well, with an American academic who arrives in Berlin with his wife, and everything seems fine until an accident happens. When he wakes up in the hospital, he finds that no one knows who he is and he has no documents. Worse: someone is using his identity and living his life out there. The script has good premises and I felt that it fulfils what it promises. The film is full of suspense and good action scenes and will certainly satisfy those who came in search of an intense thriller with few dead moments. In between, there are several twists and turns that help to keep our interest and to maintain the film rolling. The most complicated will be to consider the story credible enough, but if the audience is willing to give the film a chance by forgetting this difficult point, the film can make up for it. The cast does a good job. Liam Neeson is good and does an excellent job, but the fact is that he is making a kind of character in which he feels comfortable, so he does not surprise us. Diane Kruger is the most striking female character with a particularly good performance. Bruno Ganz, in his first work that I saw after "Downfall", is very good at and adds a lot of quality to the film. On the other hand, Frank Langhella is good but has little screen time, January Jones does nothing special and Aidan Quinn is uninteresting. The interaction between actors is uneven and some dialogues sound theatrical. Technically, the film is quite solid. It has a good cinematography and was very well filmed, using the light and shadow to intensify the suspense and create atmosphere. Expertly directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, it has well-done action scenes, very decent special, visual and sound effects and a post-production work that was generally well done. Not being free of flaws or minor problems, I think its a film that delivers what it promises and can really entertain the audience.

This is a very generic, by-the-book thriller featuring all genre specific clichés and a Liam Neeson acting with very little actual emotion. The story is very straightforward, and most twists until the very end were easy to figure out beforehand. It has a high tempo though, and there are many good action scenes - as well as a couple of less well-made sequences, such as the first car chase. The script is filled with holes and things that don't make sense, but they don't ruin the experience for the most part. They've tried to make another Taken out of this movie, but it just doesn't look or feel the same.

Le grand gaillard Liam Neeson a perdu son identité... ça doit être les affres de l'âge, car il n'est plus tout jeune et ça ne l'étonne même pas d'être marié à une belle pépée, une mannequinne toute blonde... En tout cas, après un accident cocasse sur un pont et dans le fleuve au cours duquel il est sauvé de la noyade par une autre blonde chauffeuse de taxi, il a perdu la mémoire ! Soit dit en passant, c'est super balèze de la part de Diane Kruger de ramener les 100 kg du gaillard comme une fleur : c'est super-wonder-nana-woman cette meuf ! mais ça en dit déjà long sur le "sérieux" du film et ça ne va pas en s'arrangeant par la suite... car sa propre femme ne le reconnaît pas et en fait personne ne le reconnaît (lol !). Ensuite donc, tout est à l'avenant : bagarres (très mal filmées) avec des gens qui veulent l'enlever et le tuer, courses-poursuites en voiture (très mal filmées elles aussi) pour échapper à des tueurs qui veulent le tuer et rendez-vous avec un détective privé ex-agent de la Stasi (mais lol !) interprété par le brillant Bruno Ganz. A noter que Diane est une réfugiée bosniaque (mais putain de lol !) dans ce Berlin cosmopolite de l'immigration de masse. Je crois que j'étais presque à la fin mais je n'ai pas pu finir, surtout qu'un autre vieux débarque à l'improviste, le grand Frank Langella qui déballe tout-à-coup le gros complot international... à un Liam hébété. Hébétés, nous le sommes aussi devant autant de conneries réunies et compressées en un film qui raconte n'importe quoi et surtout de la merde de A à Z.

Entertaining thriller that took some turns I did not expect. It seems very standard for the Liam-Neeson-action-movie genre, so it's a lot of fun if that's what you want to see!

Liam Neeson has a very particular set of skills and instead of using them to save his family, this time he's using them to save himself. Dr. Martin Harris (Neeson) has gone to Berlin, with his wife, for a medical conference, when an accident has left him in a coma. Upon awaking, no one knows who he is, not even his wife, but worse than that, there is another person walking around claiming to be Martin Harris. I don't know about you, but after three Taken movies and a handful of similar film, all starring Liam Neeson, playing the same type of character in the same type of situations, I've gotten pretty tired of him and his particular set of skills. At least the Taken movies moved at a reasonable pace and had more than a narrow focus, the same can't be said for Unknown. Parts of this film are as slow as can be, featuring Neeson and company sitting around talking about what could be going on and what to do before they show them doing it. They story is also so narrowly focused, that it leaves little flexibility for anything else. This film is as serious as it gets, it is a hundred percent focused on the story at all times, and Liam Neeson is as dry as the banks of the Colorado River. The chase scenes were cool, the conspiracy around everything was well written, but all in all this film feels very long and moves way too slowly for an action thriller, not to mention, I think I speak for everyone when I say we've had more than enough of Liam Neeson in these type of films.

"Unknown" was a slightly exciting movie because this killer plot , cast , more or less , for action and suspense is what is left , but entertainment is missing.

Well… Liam Neeson did not gave his best performance but it was still decent.This is not the biggest action movie you will find but it's still **** movie is pretty good even though the overused of CGI for the car crash was absolutely horrible.Overall a good decent movie that will entertain you but nothing really impressive.

"Unknown" is a stylish galvanize thriller that shocks you by it's twists and turns, while Liam Neeson uses strength as this vigilante, wounded-giant character under the direction by Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan). Doctor Martin Harris (played by Neeson) an American Bio-technologist, arrives in Berlin, with his blonde wife Elizabeth (January Jones) to attend a biotechnology presentation. On reaching the hotel he finds out his luggage is missing, he takes a cab and goes straight back to the airport to get it, before he can inform his wife the cab meets for accident and falls into a bridge. The female cab driver (Diane Kruger) saves him. Then, Dr. Harris is taken to a hospital spent four days suffering a coma and finally regains consensus. He also recovers amnesia remembers his wife also why he is there. He leaves the hospital and tries to unite with his wife, but when he is there at the hotel he tries to the security to arrange for a meeting with his wife. He believes his identity was stolen and token by someone else, even his own wife refuses to recognizes him. Now his only hope is his taxi driver named Gina, who is the only witness of the car accident can help him. Him and Gina set out to prove who he really is. When the big finale was finally revealed it was silly and it was confusing, as it finally revealed I said to myself "really? I spent two hours waiting for this?". The film did lose points for a reckless finale but the screenplay was thought provoking and the performances were great. Grade B

Unknown is the first of three unrelated collaborations between Liam Neeson and Jaume Collet-Serra. I have to say that this is the weakest of the three. Unknown draws you in during the first half and really makes you think but its easy for a few points to go by unnoticed that become more important as the movie goes on. I like that Liam Neeson is basically a normal person to start out the film so he's easier to get behind and you don't feel like he is invincible. My big problem with Unknown is that there is just too much going on and its easy to get lost.

Liam Neeson is Dr. Martin Harris, a man who has a very particular set of memories he has acquired over a very long career in biochemistry. Or is he? After arriving in Berlin with his wife – played by Betty from Mad Men – for a biotechnology conference, he’s involved in a car crash and gets a bonk on the head. After staggering back to the hotel he left his wife in, he finds her at a drinks reception for the conference with some sciencey types and a man who is not played by Liam Neeson, but yet claims to be Dr. Martin Harris. Two Martin Harrises, buuuhhhh? It’s a solid enough premise for what should be a perfectly daft, mediocre thriller. It never quite reaches those heights, although it comes close....Some of the decent supporting cast is underused, notably Betty/January Jones who spends an awful lot of her screen time doing little more than delivering ambiguous looks towards Neeson and others are miscast – stand up Oliver Schneider as a skulking assassin who gives off as much menace as a nettled business studies teacher hunting for a bloody board marker that works in this place. Full review at ponderflix on wordpress.

Liam Nesson e Diane Kruger arrasam no seus papeís, um bom roteiro,com boas cenas de ação. Jaume Collet Serra entra perfeitamente no gênero suspense de ação.

Unknown takes some ludicrous turns on its way to the final act, but because Neeson's so totally convincing as this amnesiac desperately searching for the truth, you can overlook a lot of the illogical leaps taken along the way. Add in director Jaume Collet-Serra's staging of the action scenes (including one of the most impressive car chases of the past few years), some particularly brutal fight sequences, and the atmosphere provided by actually filming in and around Berlin, and Unknown's a fairly intriguing and well-paced thriller.

The trailer seemed good. The movie was Ok. I didn't really like the ending. It was predictable and it didn't really make any sense. That's sad as the plot is not that bad( expect the ending)

Unknown is a cleaver thrill ride that makes you think and keeps you entertained from start to finish. The key to these kinds of movies is the explanation, can't be to extreme and can't be stupid. I say Unknown sits right in the middle.

A great thriller that will have you intrigued until the end.