Unknown [DVD]

If you have not seen this film do try it, I was on the end of my seat till the very end.

While watching this movie I found it very different to anything I have seen before, The storyline is great and with an all out cast of marvelous actors I can't see where it can go wrong, Action and suspense is really chilling with not knowing who you are and not knowing anything about yourself, what a horror as a near fatal car crash causes memory loss and your identity taken from you by a stranger, what more could happen, just a couple of things but you will have to watch the show to find out more as no more clues for this brilliant and unforgettable show. I rated this an A grade plus for first class entertainment keeping the issues twisted all the way to the very end. Challenging your mind to work out the puzzle and than something else comes along to change your idea. It's wonderful and delightful to watch something so cleverly done. so pick up your popcorn sit and relax put your feet up and take a rollercoaster ride with this marvelous movie.

Fresh from his exploits in Taken it was obviously a good idea to exploit Neeson's newly minted tough guy persona while still fresh in the mind of the film-going public: hence Unknown, a shamelessly derivative product if ever there was one! Perhaps I'm being a little too harsh, but I think not. Naturally, it's impossible to escape our cultural influences and we cannot look at anything without looking through the filters of our experience and here we have a perfect example. Whether consciously put there or otherwise the visual echoes of previous productions flicker and sometimes beam from the screen almost blindingly throughout. But this isn't meant to be a criticism: for the movie buff it's all part of the entertainment! We have bio-scientist, Dr Martin Harris (Neeson), arriving in a snowy, wintery Berlin accompanied by his wife (January Jones). Almost three decades before, in Hitchcock's Torn Curtain, we had physicist, Dr Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman), arriving in Copenhagen accompanied by his fiancée (Julie Andrews). Both esteemed American scientists are visiting European capitals to give presentations at an important scientific conference. On arriving at their hotel Harris realizes that his briefcase, containing important items like a passport and his presentation papers, has been left at the airport and, bizarrely, without telling his wife he hops back into the taxi and returns to the airport hoping to retrieve the lost briefcase. However, calamity strikes and the taxi is involved in an incident that causes it to swerve and hurtle through a barrier into the icy river. Harris is knocked unconscious but the female driver, who we later come to know as Gina (Diane Kruger) is able to escape and make the surface. She realizes Harris is still in the car and manages to dive down and save him! He wakes up in hospital and is told he's been `out' for four days. Immediately discharging himself he manages to make his way back to his hotel to find his wife who steadfastly refuses to recognize him having in the meantime mysteriously acquired another husband, Dr Martin Harris (Aidan Quinn), who has all the necessary documentation to prove that he is the real Harris and Neeson the imposter! So which one is the real Harris? Since Neeson is the star, it must be him, surely! But just like Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) before him in North by North West, he has a tough job persuading just about anybody! However, he's given the name of a private detective, a former Stasi operative named Ernst Jurgen (Bruno Ganz) who acts as the `wiser older mentor' type figure a la, Dr Brulov (Michael Chekov) in Hitchcock's Spellbound. Jurgen advises `Harris' to find the taxi driver, Gina, as he thinks she may be the key! And, indeed, this turns out to be a valid assertion. Gina, just like Michelle (Emanuelle Seigner) in Polanski's Frantic, who aids Harrison Ford's Dr Richard Walker (a `mere' medical practitioner) in an `unknown' Paris, proves to be just the kind of streetwise, knowledgeable young sidekick `Harris' needs. So, we've seen many of the elements before but the principal source seems to be Hitchcock, primarily, in North by North West: even an evil though amiable and courteous `Mr Big' a la James Mason's, Phillip Vandamm, in the form of Frank Langella, enters the action about half way through and January Jones and Diana Kruger are a kind of amalgam of Eva Marie Saint's, Eve Kendall. Fittingly, then, after suitably Machiavellian plot machinations, the film ends on a train. It might be derivative but very entertainingly so!

Very good customer service and quality

Fabulous film.

its not a bad thriller, just bot a great one, too many plot holes without spoiling too much, why did it take it so long for someone to look at airport camera footage and why didnt the guy notice the different accents of the people claiming to be someone hes talked with on the phone

One of the best films I have watched recently. Bear in mind that I don't follow trends in films, I am not always knowledgeable about actors, but when I like a film, I like it, whether it is old or new. ''Unknown'' has everything I like in an action film, intelligent plot, good acting and a twist in the end. It is true that the plot is not new, a man with temporary loss of memory, someone else takes his place and a beautiful stranger helps him, but the film is so brilliantly made that it avoided to fall into cliches and deja vus. I think for this kind of plot, you really need solid actors, otherwise, it becomes cheesy. Liam Neeson is very charismatic and Diane Kruger is excellent. A film I will watch again with pleasure.

This is one of Liam Neeson's best movies and certainly the most intriguing in my view. I much prefer its Alfred Hitchcock style plot to the rather more straight forward 'Dad on the rampage' story behind 'Taken' to which 'Unknown' has been compared. Set in Berlin, it is a real mind bender with major twists which takes Neeson's character to the brink of insanity. Ably supported by January Jones and Diane Kruger, this is a highly enjoyable stolen identity thriller which, despite mixed reviews at the time, did very well at the box office. Recommended. Christopher Garfield Allen is a Technical Author and a crime writer specializing in unusual and well researched fiction with the following books available through Amazon: His latest novel: Reality Shaper: The Quantum Detective Parallel Lifetimes The Beam of Interest: Taken by Storm Hypnotic Tales 2013: Some Light Some Dark Call of the Void: The Strange Life and Times of a Confused Person: 1