The Dullness from ‘Blacklight’ keeps The Light On

This action movie took place in a better movie

Alexander Razin
3 min readFeb 15, 2022
Image by Open Road Films and Briarcliff.

There’s one rule for action movies: ignore logic. The movie is there to entertain you; it’s better to dismiss the plot. Forget about insane car stunts. Nothing else matters but the cool action scene.

There’s another rule: be entertaining. Failing to do so leaves the movie lifeless and stale, leaving the plot to linger with no support from the action. Mark Williams’ Blacklight leaves you with more questions than thrills. Mark Williams’ recent project, 2021s, Copshop was a delightful cop and criminal standoff, but Blacklight falls off the rails by ignoring film structure and doing whatever the hell it pleases.

Blacklight stars Travis Block, played by Liam Neeson: an FBI informant (fixer) who deals with the FBI’s dirty work. Come to think of it, Liam Neeson has been a warned-out hitman, assassin, or special agent in all his movies. Block gets involved in conspiracies of the government project Unity by Mira Jones, played by Emmy Raver-Lampman. She’s a star-studded reporter who wants to uncover the truth behind Unity, no matter the cost.

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Alexander Razin

Aficionado and connoisseur of obscure and experimental music, movies, and TV. Fictional and nonfictional pieces have their place here, too