Parents' Guide to Blacklight

There are hints that an earlier draft of the screenplay might once have had some cutting political commentary, but this action movie has been smoothed out so much that it's shopworn and generic. Directed by Mark Williams, who also made the more fleet-footed Honest Thief with Neeson, Blacklight begins with two promising sequences. In one, Travis must rescue an agent who's been stuck undercover in a community of racists; she has been found out, and an angry, gun-toting mob tries to storm her trailer. She tearfully tells Travis that the pressure just got to her, and she slipped up. It would have been interesting to learn more about this story, but we never hear from her again. Then we're treated to a speech by progressive politician Sofia Flores (Mel Jarnson) shaming the wealthy for hoarding and urging health care for all.

It's easy to guess that Flores is modeled after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and that she's considered a threat to the establishment. Unfortunately, she also disappears from the story quickly, and when she does, Blacklight simply becomes a series of tense dialogue exchanges (much of it expositional), shoot-outs, and chases, none of which feel very inspired or exciting. Mira is a reporter who doesn't seem interested in investigating or checking facts; she only wants to write her big story because "it's obvious." Even poor Neeson seems out of gas in this one. When he warns the villain, "you're gonna need more men," it doesn't pack half the punch of his best action-hero line deliveries. At the end, Travis is left to babysit his granddaughter -- which, frankly, might have made a more interesting movie than this one.