Unknown: Review By Huntsman

                       "It's simply not a good movie."
Warning there might be some spoilers ahead. I haven't seen a movie in just about two months since Tron Legacy. There wasn't anything that interested me until UNKNOWN. It looked like it would be a good action/suspense movie but I was wrong. I'll be blunt this movie was pretty boring. It's kind of reminds me of The American with George Clooney. It had potential but failed to rise above ordinary to bad.
The story follows Dr. Martin Harris(Liam Neeson) and Elizabeth Harris(January Jones) who have arrived in Berlin for a conference. Things are going well for them until Martin gets into a accident. When he awakes he finds out there's someone else has taken over his life and impersonating him. Things go from bad to worse when he tries to prove who he is. The overall story isn't very good a plot to assassinate someone at the conference. The intriguing part is Martin. Is he really Martin Harris or is the other Martin the real one. The payoff worked well when you find out who he really is. The problem with the story is the pacing and the editing of the story. How many minutes were wasted with Martin just wandering the streets. I mean it must have been ten minutes. Then there was the action which was few an far between and outside of one good scene was bad. Then there was the ending which planned sucked.
The acting was what hurt the movie the most. All the lead actors seemed to be on autopilot through this movie. Liam Neeson did a ok job. There were times he did a great job and there were others he seemed to be on autopilot. Aidan Quinn and January Jones seemed like zombies. The only one of the leads that showed any real emotion was Diana Kruger(Gina). Because of the bad acting you or at least I ended up not caring one bit about any of them. Oh one of them died all well who cares and you move one. The actor who stole the show and the film was a supporting actor. His name is Bruno Ganz. I had never heard of him before. He plays Ernst Jürgen a ex Stasi(The East German State Security) officer. His character is the most intriguing and surprisingly the most likable. Ernst is also in the best scene in the movie. Where he is at his home with Rodney Cole(Frank Langella). This two veteran actors do a superb job but again Bruno is the one that shines. To be honest I wish the made the movie about his character.
Now back to the action that was hard to find. The fight scenes weren't very well done. The climax in a hotel was done terribly. Maybe the director wanted to rely on the mystery and suspense but those two weren't good enough make this a good movie. I don't mind movies with out a long of action but when there is it had better be good. The only really great action scene in the near midway part of the film where there is a car chase in the streets of Berlin which I thought was really well done.
As for directing by Jaume Collet-Serra was bad. Which I guess shouldn't be surprising once I found out who he was and what he directed before. He's only directed four movies and the only one I know about or seen is the god awful HOUSE OF WAX. I wish the movie studio had found someone else to direct this movie maybe then it would have been better.