‘Retribution’: Putting pedal to metal for a fun ride with Liam Neeson

This father-with-his-family-in-danger action thriller zips through its wonderfully small running time, with brief stops at all of the common signals.

There is one thing to say about thrillers starring impossible action hero Liam Neeson: they are all about being on the run. Following the massive success of the Taken films ("I will find you and kill you"), the 71-year-old has been in dangerous circumstances on trains, aircraft, and automobiles that demand his extremely specific set of talents.

And so it is in Nimród Antal’s Retribution. Matt Turner (Neeson) is an investment banker in Berlin making pots of money, living in a beautiful house with his wife Heather (Embeth Davidtz), son, Zach (Jack Champion) and daughter Emily (Lilly Aspell). Matt is a super-busy dad, and reluctantly agrees to drop Zach and Emily at school as Heather has an important meeting.

Once in his posh SUV with chipper Emily and sulky Zach in the back, Matt makes a call to a nervous investor, on the insistence of his boss and friend Anders Muller (Matthew Modine). Zach sneers and says Matt makes his money by lying to everyone including the family.

And then there is a phone call from an unknown phone lying in the car. Matt picks it up only to learn to his horror that there is a bomb under his seat, which will detonate if they try to leave the car. The voice on the phone wants Matt to execute a series of tasks all of which implicate Matt in a gigantic conspiracy and ends up having him chased around Berlin by the law led by Angela Brickmann (Noma Dumezweni).