When Matty and I sat down to chat about Liam Neeson's "In the Land of Saints and Sinners," we were expecting to hold on to our hats with the usual Neeson-style thrills. Instead, we found ourselves peeling back layers of a compelling drama, rich with suspense and laden with a performance from Neeson that had us reconsidering our labels. The film, falsely marketed as a father's tale, actually unfolds an ensemble cast's saga in Ireland, proving that even the most predictable actors can surprise you. We chuckled over the synopsis snafu, but the real meat of our conversation lay in the nuanced performances that drove this film beyond its anticipated action roots.
Looking ahead, we're buzzing with excitement to bring Katy into the mix for a nostalgic run-down of the 80s hit "Stand by Me." As this episode winds down, we share a slice of our personal lives, touching on the resilience it takes to wade through life's tumults and the warmth of mending family bonds and budding romances. It's a wrap that ties back to the heart of Neeson's latest venture—perhaps formulaic, but undeniably fine-tuned to deliver a story that resonates with anyone who's ever faced a challenge or cherished a heartfelt connection.
When Matty and I sat down to chat about Liam Neeson's "In the Land of Saints and Sinners," we were expecting to hold on to our hats with the usual Neeson-style thrills. Instead, we found ourselves peeling back layers of a compelling drama, rich with suspense and laden with a performance from Neeson that had us reconsidering our labels. The film, falsely marketed as a father's tale, actually unfolds an ensemble cast's saga in Ireland, proving that even the most predictable actors can surprise you. We chuckled over the synopsis snafu, but the real meat of our conversation lay in the nuanced performances that drove this film beyond its anticipated action roots.
Looking ahead, we're buzzing with excitement to bring Katy into the mix for a nostalgic run-down of the 80s hit "Stand by Me." As this episode winds down, we share a slice of our personal lives, touching on the resilience it takes to wade through life's tumults and the warmth of mending family bonds and budding romances. It's a wrap that ties back to the heart of Neeson's latest venture—perhaps formulaic, but undeniably fine-tuned to deliver a story that resonates with anyone who's ever faced a challenge or cherished a heartfelt connection.
Try and do some good before you find yourself here.
Speaker 2:Finn bar Morphy, I'll have something else for you in a week or so.
Speaker 1:I've been thinking Been a lifetime of poor choices I've made, how many people have you killed altogether? There's more to me than this. I'd like folks to see it.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to find a friend. What's the name?
Speaker 1:Finbar Murphy has done something unforgivable. You can give him a message We'll tear right through this godforsaken place, no one will be safe.
Speaker 2:The explosion left six dead. What is it that?
Speaker 1:you did. I lost track long ago. A saint's gotta be a sinner first, don't he? I won't have you hurting anyone else in this town.
Speaker 2:We're not leaving, people will come. People a lot worse than me.
Speaker 1:She'll have me no choice. Simba Murphy's going to war. I'm not missing out on all the fun.
Speaker 2:I've seen enough killing for a lifetime. You're at your end killing for a lifetime.
Speaker 1:You're at your end, better make your peace. Hello everyone, and welcome to a surprise Saturday episode of Nady and Katie at the movies. I'm your host, nathan aka Nady, of course, and with me on today's surprise Saturday episode is not just me. I have a friend, and this is Maddie. Hey, maddie, how are you Good? How are you doing? I'm doing great. Hopefully I'll be doing better, because we have a buttload of stuff that needs to be done to our house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, once that's done, I think you'll be feeling so relieved.
Speaker 1:but windows, electricity, all the fun stuff. Oh, the joys of home ownership. But you know what else is fun? Irish dramas starring liam neeson yeah, I try, man.
Speaker 1:What a transition. Yeah, so on, if you don't follow us on our social media and you didn't see the quick reaction that Maddie and I did, we're going to be talking about the new Liam Neeson drama in the land of saints and sinners, which takes place in Ireland. But before we talk about the movie, I've got to go over Listen. Opsis. Damaged father is forced to fight for redemption after a lifetime of sins. But what price is he willing to pay? In the land of saints and sinners, some sins can't be buried. Then the land of saints and sinners stars Carrie Condon, desmond Eastwood, connor McNeil and a guy named Seamus, who plays a guy named Seamus.
Speaker 2:How Irish can you get?
Speaker 1:Exactly, and I can't believe that IMDB doesn't list Liam Neeson as a star. It only has these three people. But anyway he is. He's like the main character in the movie. Anyway, I'll try not to do an Irish accent the entire episode, but I might slip in and out because the irish accent has a fun one to do thought the synopsis was weird.
Speaker 2:I read the same thing and like it says uh uh, liam neeson is a father and I was like that does not play in at all in the movie, like why is what? I mean that he? That made no sense to me. He has no kids. I don't know. I think that's just a mistake. I I have no idea yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Maybe at one point he was a father, but that plays no point in the movie at all he is a.
Speaker 2:He is literally not reference a son at all he is a widower.
Speaker 1:So I mean, yeah, that has something to do with his character. But let's get right into our likes and dislikes. I say this all the time. One of my biggest likes, and majority of the movies that I like, is the acting. I thought the acting in this movie was very, very good. Liam Neeson is still doing these. It's funny because I posted about this on our X account. If you don't follow us on there, go ahead, follow us on X, go ahead, follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter. Somebody actually mentioned the fact that we well, I mentioned that it's kind of like an action thriller movie and the guy was like, eh, it's more like a drama. Yeah, it's true it is. It is more of a drama, but Liam Neeson is just fantastic, I think, in everything he does, whether it's a taken movie or whether it's anything else he's done because he has a plethora of movies in his repertoire of movies, and so Liam Neeson is just a fantastic actor and I think he does great. I think this whole movie has a plethora.
Speaker 2:I like that word plethora it has a plethora of very well acted people in this movie careful, or you're going to use that word a plethora of times I mean there's just a plethora of ways you could use the word plethora.
Speaker 1:Oh no, what did you? What did you think of the overall theme and and and everything else in this movie?
Speaker 2:I would agree with you that it is more of a drama. I would say it's like a suspenseful drama. So thriller is a bit strong of a word. Action movie there is action in it, but it really is a drama with some suspense and I think that is accurate. And I also agree with you that the ensemble nature of the cast, the supporting I mean I honestly went to see it because of Liam Neeson and that's what you know A-list actors do they bring went to see it because of Liam Neeson and that's what you know a-list actors do, they bring people to the movies. But the entire supporting cast really made it a good movie and you expect greatness out of Liam Neeson and you got it and that. But you don't always get a great supporting cast around him. In a lot of his movies that's not always the case, whereas this one it really was. Every single person was cast phenomenally, Everybody did a great job. I thought the acting was probably the best part of this movie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's one of those movies that you see and you like notice certain actors and you can't pinpoint where you've seen them before, but you know you have. So, like I think it's Syrian. It's either Syrian or Curian. Hines is in this movie he plays. He was Aberforth Dumbledore, okay, okay. So I know I've seen him in stuff before and he plays like the police officer, and then Calm Meany who plays Robert McHugh. I know I've seen him in some stuff before.
Speaker 2:I could not figure out where I've seen him from. I don't know, but I recognized him.
Speaker 1:I just he's probably one of those actors who's in everything and I just never know it. Yeah, so it it definitely has. Like, oh, I know that guy, I, I know he's in that. Uh, he, he, apparently he was in star trek deep space nine, which I can, I think. I, I, yeah, he. I mean, I'm not really a star trek person. Uh, sorry for those who are listening who are, he was in layer cake.
Speaker 2:Never heard of it and he was oh, maybe that's okay, I have seen that. Maybe that's where I recognize you've seen layer layer cake. Yeah, it was a daniel craig movie when he was a wee baby oh, okay, not an actual child, but like when he was much, much younger and michael gambit was in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really, really interesting movie so, yeah, it had that going for the ensemble work was really really good. Um, I think that's. I mean I liked, I like the soundtrack, I I liked the music in it, because I like irish music anyway and it. So I mean that you know that did it for me. But yeah, that's my biggest like, I think is the acting. I think and it was very suspenseful. It did leave you on the edge of your seat close to the end.
Speaker 1:I was really like, really invested in what was going on, and I don't know if it was because that's when a lot of the the gun fighting happened and I was like oh who's gonna die, who's gonna get shot, and all that stuff it was kind of a slow build up to that though yeah, and I think that's probably one of my biggest dislikes, it was a because when you invited me to go see this, we originally I originally invited you to go see a movie that probably is a little bit more action-packed Godzilla and King Kong but you're like I don't think I want to see that, I don't know about that and so we went to go see this and again, it's one of those movies that I wouldn't point and say, hey, I want to go see that. But it's also one of those movies that at the end of it I'm like you know what Kind of glad I went to go see it, because it was actually pretty good. But I will say one of my dislikes is what you just said. It's kind of a slow burn, it's a very like it's, and I think it's because it's very character driven, which is not necessarily a bad thing driven, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker 1:But I think it takes a lot of time for you to get to know all the characters because you know it is an ensemble work, but I don't think there are any like supporting characters. I think every character is important and they play a big part in the overall scope of the film, and so to me, it was just was just like okay, I get it, I. I. I understand that Liam Neeson is going to kill some people and you know some other stuff's going to happen. Can we just get to that part of the movie? Do you, would you agree with that, or or did you appreciate that it took?
Speaker 2:its time. The second one I really appreciated that it took his time because the trailer made it look like it was going to be just bang, bang, bang, shoot out all the time, which. So I think my problem is not with the movie, it's with with the marketing and the expectation setting. I thought it was going to be like taken or any of a number of Liam Neeson movies, but it really was. Once I kind of settled into it and realized what was happening, I actually really enjoyed it and really appreciated how much time they took and they were in no hurry to get to the climax and I thought that made it a better movie. I just think the expectation setting was pretty poor because, like, I think that more than half of the trailer is is probably cut from the last 10 minutes of the film and and I think that's just, that's just bad, bad practice, and so I don't blame that on the movie.
Speaker 2:I would say probably my biggest dislike is that I was talking with somebody about this. They're like, oh, what did you go see? And I just I, as soon as I mentioned it was a Liam Neeson movie, they said, oh, so it was, uh, liam Neeson, a former fill in the blank. Who tries to escape? Fill in the blank. And uh ends up killing. Fill in the blank and.
Speaker 2:I was like, yeah, it's just Liam Neeson, mad libs, you know, and so, and again, like that doesn't really bother me that much, but it really was kind of a paint by the numbers Liam Neeson movie in that regard. But, that being said, if you go see a Fast and the Furious movie, you have certain expectations, like you did, like the the. The people see it as a feature, not a bug. And I say the same same here is like you go see a Liam Neeson movie and you can expect this is this is what you're going to get, and that's totally fine. But it was a little bit formulaic in that regard well and I and I would agree.
Speaker 1:I think that's probably why I have that dislike of it being slows, because I saw the trailer too and I was expecting something and it was something completely different. And, yes, it does follow that formula of a liam neeson movie nowadays, but I think it's a lot deeper the majority of those formulaic because it does, yeah, it does rely heavy on the characters and you do invest in the characters, like, yeah, you do get sad when certain characters die in this movie, like you actually care. Like in the movie I didn't really care about the daughter.
Speaker 2:I know that makes me sound bad but I was not a good actor, like because Liam Neeson did not have a good supporting cast around him in that movie. It was Liam Neeson and that was it. A couple of the bad guys were pretty cool, but but the other supporting actors in that film were garbage. You just went to see that movie because of Liam Neeson, whereas in this one everybody was so good and you cared about the collateral damage, yeah it really was.
Speaker 1:It was probably one of his best, you know, formulaic movies that he's made, because he's made, like we said, we made. He's made a lot of these same old, same old revenge kind of movies, and this is another one, but I think it's probably one of his best ones out of out of all the ones he's made. So yeah, do you have any other any other thoughts about this film before we give it a rating?
Speaker 2:yeah, I will say one other thing that, as opposed to just classic revenge story, part of what made this so interesting was that, like, yes, it's set in the 1970s in ireland, part of it in northern ireland, so it's during the. Yes, it's set in the 1970s in Ireland, part of it in Northern Ireland, so it's during the Troubles. But it's not a Protestant Catholic film, stereotypical battle that you think of during the troubles it was. It was a much more personal revenge story, and what was so interesting to me was that liam neeson gets his revenge pretty early on in the movie. And then what's that actress's name? Is it carrie conlon? Uh, exactly, condone, condone, condone or something. Yeah, she's the main antagonist, and so then it's kind of her story about getting back at Liam Neeson, and that's what I thought was so interesting is that she is so compelling and I'm kind of on her side for a lot of it. I'm like, yeah, this bro killed your brother.
Speaker 2:You didn't know your brother was a complete garbage of a human being, and so so then there's like there's so much playing into her avenge story that it's it wasn't just like a one-way street, like most of these formulaic movies are.
Speaker 1:So I I really really enjoyed that part yeah, I think, but I think overall, I think my favorite part is that this is basically just an irish equalizer movie 100, 100.
Speaker 2:Agree with you on that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you don't you don't mess with the people that I love, and if I'm gonna come out and kill you and then I'm gonna bury you in a forest and plant trees. You know at least, at least he was doing something for nature you know, yeah, right exactly you know he killed him and bury him and then plant a tree.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like uh, liam Neeson AKA sustainable assassin.
Speaker 1:I did think that was kind of funny. Uh, you know he was. He was protecting the environment, using natural fertilizer to do it. That's right, that's right. So let's go ahead and give our ratings for the land of saints and centers. What would you give this liam neeson formulaic movie with a with a deeper meaning? One to six stars. I'm gonna give this a four yeah, I'm yeah, I'm probably gonna give it a 4.5, maybe a five, because I did enjoy it.
Speaker 1:It was again it was very slow, but I mean, you can't go wrong with Liam Neeson.
Speaker 2:I guess I will also. Maybe I'll bump that up to a 4.5. I don't want to give it a five out of six. I don't think it's quite there, but four. It's not going to change your world, but it was a lot better than most of these movies.
Speaker 1:So I think 4.5 is fair so so let's just call it an even 4.5 for both of us, because even 4.5 I mean it was it was good. It was surprising. It had depth.
Speaker 2:It wasn't just to shoot them up and I think that it really wasn't at all until the very, very end. Yeah and yeah, and so yeah, it was pretty good.
Speaker 1:So that is the land of saints, and centers are surprised. I really shouldn't be calling these surprise Saturday episodes, because we do quick reaction videos and then we release an episode.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I was going to call you out on that at the very beginning, but you moved on too quickly. I was like, how is this a surprise Saturday? You just told everybody about it, like in the video.
Speaker 1:Maybe I'm just a doubting Thomas and just I doubt people actually watch this.
Speaker 2:Well, fair enough.
Speaker 1:So next up is Katie and I talking about the 80s classic. Stand by Me on Tuesday so you can give that a listen. Can't wait. It is a classic, so can't wait to talk about it with Katie, and that'll do it. Maddie, do you have anything you'd like to add to end this episode of the Land of Saints and Sinners?
Speaker 2:Thank you, liam Neesonon, for keeping at it and keep doing this for the for the rest of your life, because it's it's always a good time.
Speaker 1:Thanks, liam and if you don't, I will find you nathan has a particular set of skills wait, did I just threaten liam neeson?
Speaker 2:For a while there it was rough, but lately I've been doing better Than the last four cold Decembers I recall.
Speaker 1:And I see my family every month.
Speaker 2:I found a girl my parents love She'll come and stay the night. I found a girl my parents love She'll come and stay the night and I think I might have it all.