"A Walk Among The Tombstones" Is The Perfect Vehicle For Liam Neeson. He plays Matt Scudder - an ex-cop haunted by a troubled and alcoholic past who makes ends meet by working as an unlicensed private detective. He gets hired by a wealthy drug dealer to find the scum who kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered his wife, and as he investigates he discovers that she isn't the only one who's fallen victim to the killers - they've been targeting the wives, girlfriends and daughters of wealthy drug dealers - and in the end the movie focuses on the desperate search for a 14-year old girl who's been taken by them.This movie is dark and suspenseful, and Scudder is a dark, troubled and gritty character. From the very beginning the viewer is drawn in because after only a few minutes we become aware of what's happening to these young women with creepy shots of one of the terrified victims being bound and touched by her captors. It's enough to make you feel sympathy for the victims. You want these guys to be caught. You want justice and/or revenge for what they've done. The movie plays on that. It avoids the temptation to become overly graphic with what's happened to the victims. Just a few shots every now and then make things clear. There's a tense and sombre feel to this from the very beginning and that mood never really goes away.Neeson was superb. This character fit him to a "t." I was basically unfamiliar with the rest of the cast. They all did well enough. But they're not what I would consider big name actors. This was Neeson's movie. He would be the draw - his presence in the cast was why I chose to watch this - and he does not disappoint.There were a couple of things here that didn't work especially well for me. I wasn't entirely clear on how Scudder made the connection between the various killings as quickly as he did, and the character of T.J. - a homeless boy who befriends Scudder and becomes his sort-of partner - seemed extraneous to me. The movie could have worked perfectly well without him and I never really understood the point of his presence. But those are relatively minor quibbles. This is a very good movie with a story and performance from Neeson that are first-rate. (8/10)

I think it was a good movie and do not understand it is below 7 in the rankings here.In fact, I avoided it for a long time for the same reason. It was therefore a pleasant surprise.There are many films that have scored 7 which is worse than this in my opinion. Maybe it's because Liam has got a reputation where it is expected more action. But this is not an action type of movie. If you like movies like "Seven", "Cape fear" and that kind of crime movies i think you should give this one a try. Not to compare or equate at all.

The detective story has been a staple of movies for years. Everything from the deductive reasoning of Sherlock Holmes to the down and dirty Phillip Marlowe have been on display, making the private detective a character that can be either slick or down and dirty. Author Lawrence Block has made a career of writing about one detective in particular, Matthew Scudder. While the character has been around since 1976, only one movie has been made featuring him, 8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE. That is until the release this last year of A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES which has just arrived on DVD.Liam Neeson plays the title character, a police detective when the film begins in 1991 and then a private detective 8 years later shortly thereafter. Scudder is a recovering alcoholic due to scenes we witness in the opening. Peter (Boyd Holbrook), a fellow addict who met Scudder at an AA meeting, shows up one day and asks for his help for his brother Ken (Dan Stevens). Scudder reluctantly agrees.It turns out that Ken is a high end drug dealer whose wife was kidnapped. When Scudder tells him he doesn't handle kidnapping cases Ken informs him that he's already paid the ransom and that the kidnappers returned his wife in pieces. He wants Scudder to help him find the kidnappers/murderers.While looking into the case Scudder discovers there have been more cases of victims cut into pieces and dumped around town. As he researches the information at the library he meets T.J. (Astro), a young homeless boy. The pair gradually help one another as T.J. helps Scudder navigate the library's computer. In return Scudder pays T.J. Eventually this becomes a situation where they pair help one another as the film progresses.Using clues to track down information about the past murders Scudder comes to realize that they have all been connected. Each of the victims was tied to a drug dealer in one form or another. This prevented those the ransom was demanded of from contacting the police. With each piece of information Scudder gathers the closer he gets to the kidnappers/murderers. But will he turn them over to those whose loved ones were kidnapped knowing full well they'll seek their revenge or will he contact the police? While these are the basics of the story found in this movie it's more about the journey taken by Scudder that is the heart of the film. Scudder has been a rudderless person when we see him in 1999. He lives but isn't alive. The combination of helping the families of the victims and his own helping of T.J. bring him back to the real world, one he gets involved in rather than merely walks through.The movie and the performances reflect the gritty streets that exists as opposed to the glamorous cityscapes seen in most detective movies these days. Scudder is no slick hustler with a quick $20 in his pocket dealt out to tons of connections. He is instead a diligent investigator who claims it's more about luck while delving into the problem at hand. The world he walks in is drab and dirty, more grays, brown and blacks for a color palette than the bright neon's we're used to seeing. This is the truth of what the occupation offers instead of the glitz most movies offer. In the end it helps rather than hurts the film.Neeson does a fine job here, never yelling or doing the acrobatic styles of fighting most films, including his own TAKEN series, offer. He remains calm in most situations and doesn't carry a gun. When he does arm himself it's the last thing he does. There is even a section of the film where he warns T.J. about the dangers of walking around armed. With Neeson's recent comments on guns in America he still has no problem walking around shooting people when the character calls for it. But the fact is this is a movie and he's entitled to his opinion. The movie hearkens back to some of the detective films of the seventies rather than the typical gumshoe of the thirties and forties. Streets are dirty, killers are despicable and drug dealers live in nice houses but not mansions. As with those films it is the diligence on display by the detective that helps him find the bad guy. In a world overrun with numerous car chases and enough arms to supply a small army it's nice to see a return to this kind of detective. Here's hoping we see more of Matt Scudder.

I thought this film was a surprise-a Liam Neeson film that had a whole bunch of bloopers in it that I missed completely the first time I saw it. A character gets killed in a shoot out in the park only to seemingly reappear minutes later (he looks almost identical to another actor) and a guy who has been obliterated by several shots fired at virtually point blank range is shown to have survived by wearing a bullet proof vest but a few minutes later is shown dying with the other guy who has just been killed very much alive standing beside Liam Neeson's character watching bullet proof vest guy die. Confusing. Then the bulletproof vest guy guy who has died in the park reappears minutes later injured in a van with his cohort. Whatever. I think the film has some good ideas which are obliterated by this lack of internal logic not at the very end but close to the very end-like they all of a sudden just up and gave up on the film. I think many films pass at first viewing but not at the second one where you are more apt to pick up on an errors in them and sometimes there are really big errors in the film that can really take away from the films appeal. The fact the film is about two off the charts bad guys doesn't change the fact it bombs because of flow errors. I think they made this film too fast.