Memory
                                                                                   
Director: Martin Ccampbell
Year: 2022
Rating: 6.0
Hired killers should probably have a retirement age like everyone else. Or at a minimum their union should insist on a cognitive memory test to continue to keep killing people. You know like being able to repeat "Person, woman, man, camera. TV. " In his case they might be "Kill, trigger, bomb, mutilate, strangle".  If they fail, put them in the Professional Killer Retirement Home. Of course, in the movies they are never allowed to retire. If you try, you become the target. And the last thing you want is a hitman slipping into dementia where long-ago secrets spill out. A fine cast makes this film better than it should be. Liam Neeson is up to his old tricks of assassinating people, Guy Pearce is a scraggly but dedicated cop and the lovely Monica Bellucci takes on a different sort of role as a trafficker of young girls.



Alex (Neeson) has been at this game for a long time. He is a killer with a good reputation. We witness that in the first scene. But he is also beginning to lose it mentally. His brother has severe dementia and he recognizes the same early characteristics with him. He tells his agent, no more - and gets the usual reply - you don't retire from this job. Two more hits in El Paso. The first one is fairly easy - ring the bell and when the idiot answers you kill him. He gets the next one. A 13-year-old girl who has information on the cartels. Well, we know Liam Neeson doesn't kill young girls. He saves them and kills everyone who gets in his way. He refuses the job and tells the middle man, no thanks and in fact if anything happens to her I am coming for you. If he can remember his address. He writes things down on his arm to remember - he must have seen Memento.



Well, they send another killer who has no scruples and the girl is dead. Then he tries to kill Alex. Now he is pissed off - don't piss off a hired killer. Rule No. 1 in life. The film goes back and forth between him trying to remember and the cops (Guy Pearce, Taj Atwal, Harold Torres) who are looking for him and the sex traffickers. I admit a weakness for these Neeson old man action films. None are as good as Taken but they serve their purpose. This one needed a much higher kill count - like another hundred cartel thugs, customers of the girls - but they keep it within realistic numbers. Directed by Martin Campbell who has made a few films better than this - Casino Royale, Golden Eye - and a few worse.