Retribution review: It’s a Taken rip-off – but nobody does ‘angry dad’ like Liam Neeson

If there’s one thing we know about Liam Neeson, it’s that he will find you and he will kill you. Taken, with its memorable threat and its violently determined father, was a breakout hit and became a legend of badass movie-quote history. It is also a clear template for Retribution with its speedy cutaways, twitchy close-ups of the protagonist’s face, and high-octane car chases through the streets of Berlin.

The story, too, is familiar to the point of being rote: Matt Turner (Neeson, of course – always good value for money playing a clenched, angry paternal figure) works for a successful financial firm and has a wife (Embeth Davidtz) and two children, Zach (Jack Champion) and the young Emily (Lilly Aspell). He is driving the kids to school when he learns, via a mysterious and twisted phone call, that there are powerful explosives wired into his car, and pressure plates in the seats, meaning that any attempt by him and his children to escape will lead to catastrophe. (And in case there was any doubt, this is demonstrated in spectacular fashion for him as he is forced to watch the blowing up of a friend who is also under threat from a bomb.)

Forced to follow the increasingly high demands from the monster on the end of the line, Neeson tears across the grey streetscape of the city, fending off authorities who think he is the villain and trying to outmanoeuvre the money-grabbing bomber. A Europol agent, Angela, (Noma Dumezweni) attempts to provide assistance on the phone, becoming his eye in the sky on his hellish journey to save his children.

Among the best in a series of exciting sequences is one excellent nail-biter where the bomber uncovers a secret account belonging to Turner’s CEO boss (Matthew Modine, perfect as an unctuous untrustworthy finance guy) and demands the money in it, later arranging a meet-up where he demands that Matt shoot and kill his boss in exchange for the lives of his children. When Matt refuses, all hell breaks loose, with gunfire and shrapnel launching across the screen in a moment of genuine throat-clutching peril.

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Retribution may be what used to be known as “straight-to-video” material, even with strong anchoring turns from Neeson and Modine. But if you know what you’re signing up for, it’s still great fun: white-knuckle chases, genuine emotional stakes of a careworn father concerned for his children’s welfare, and a good old-fashioned race against the clock.

There are no frills and no or aspirations – John Wick this is not – to be anything more than a good time. And you know what? It is.