Unknown

Amnesia, Berlin in winter, secret agents, car chases, a cold femme fatale, an Arab sheikh, a trustworthy and likeable woman taxi driver, a brilliant scientist, powerful people pulling the strings behind the scenes, hit men, an unexpected twist. And also a great cast. It’s all here, but only in a recycled and somewhat overdone form. In his previous Orphan, Jaume Collet-Serra managed to shake up some genre clichés, but that doesn’t happen here. The film’s only memorable scene is the chilling encounter between the excellent actors Bruno Ganz and Frank Langella. (01.05.2011)

Unknown doesn't come up with groundbreaking or new. By unraveling the puzzle surrounding the main character's identity(ies), it additionally brings back into play one recent fashion wave, BUT... Jaume Collet-Serra proves once again, after the brilliant Orphan, that his first film was a necessary evil for its time in order for him to enter Hollywood, and only now can he show what all is brewing within him. I won't lament the plot, which again follows a template that has been seem many times. Serra has a way with actors that is absolutely perfect, and his baby works especially when he’s playing the paranoia card. The ending, however, offers something that has not failed to amaze me of late. That something is the current acting position of Liam Neeson, who, on the verge of sixty, has switched to the role of uncompromising action hero who hides under the guise of civilian ordinariness, only to shoot accurately and deliver a hard hits at the right moment. His ruthless charisma permeates the entire film and makes you forget that it doesn't fit the logic in places. PS: The extremely kind Arab sheik and a former Stasti member as positive characters? :) (27.05.2011)

A step backwards from Orphan, though it looks very promising at the beginning. A Hitchcockican hero with the world turned against him wanders around in snowy Berlin, trying to figure out who he is. And when he does figure it out, everything goes to hell. A decent thriller, but it had a lot more potential. (31.05.2011)

Many reviews here mention something about a (dumb) punchline suffering from lapses in logic. Quite on the contrary, I think that the story logically (whether or not clever, is a different matter) links and smooths out apparent over-complexity and lapses in logic with something that makes sense, but you must bear in mind that this is a genre movie not pretending to be anything more, so it would be naive to expect anything sophisticated à la Hitchcock. And it works fine, the same as the story in the last thirty minutes. When you add to this the uncompromising Neeson, the snowy atmosphere of Berlin and the great car chases, then... You simply have a quality genre movie. (03.06.2011)

After reading the plot summary I made a bet with myself as to whether I would give 4 or 5 stars. Unfortunately, I lost in both cases and I'm still quite disappointed. The whole movie kind of unfolds without surprises with a lot of unnecessary car chases. Only the excellent ending is above average. Otherwise nothing new under the sun. A little better 3 stars. (02.07.2011)