Liam Neeson will find you, and he will kill you, in A Walk Among the Tombstones, his best movie since the original Taken. Though the actor has found himself typecast in a bunch of so-so thrillers since “reemerging” in 2008, this one, about a private detective who agrees to hunt down the people responsible for butchering the wife of a drug kingpin, is smart, compelling and well worth watching.

Written and directed by Scott Frank (Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Minority Report), Tombstones is a dark, moody thriller that relies more on plot and dialogue than action and excitement, but the reward is a more satisfying production that plays more to Neeson’s strengths.

Neeson still gets to play a badass, but the story around him is grittier, twistier and more interesting. A side benefit is that while not staggeringly different, his character here feels unique, versus the variations of Bryan Miller he has delivered over the last six years.

A Walk Among the Tombstones isn’t perfect, but it’s a refreshing old-school crime thriller that is worth checking out.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.