Trailer Park: Liam Neeson kicks ass -- again -- in A Walk Among the Tombstones

It's written and directed by Scott Frank, an ace scripter (Get Shorty, Minority Report, Out of Sight) whose debut effort as a multihyphenate, The Lookout, quite impressed me. And it's got Liam Neeson doing his moody badass thing -- which can be a lot of fun -- as novelist Lawrence Block's tarnished antihero, alcoholic ex-cop Matthew Scudder. A safe bet: Fans of the Block books likely will enjoy A Walk Among the Tombstones a lot more than the only other previous movie adaptation of a Scudder story, Hal Ashby's critically mauled 1986 thriller 8 Million Ways to Die.

Here's the trailer:

A kinder, gentler ending for The Grey

Would The Grey have been even more popular with critics and audiences had director Joe Carnahan offered a more upbeat, less ambiguous ending? Who knows? But even Carnahan has Tweeted his good-sport appreciation of this, ahem, alternative. (Speaking for myself: I still think this should have been played under the closing credits.)

Tangles with Wolves

I'm kinda-sorta looking forward to seeing The Grey -- i.e., Liam Neeson Tangles with Wolves -- which opens Jan. 27 at theaters and drive-ins everywhere. But after seeing this television spot for the last several weeks, I almost feel like I've already been force-fed a stealth ad campaign for the movie.

'Falls' fast-forwarding to DVD

Seraphim Falls made only a fleeting appearance in a handful of theaters a couple months ago. But if you missed it, don't fret: Director David Von Ancken's gritty Western, starring Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson as Civil War veterans who wage their own private war on each other, will be released May 15 on DVD.

By the way: Brosnan evidently enjoyed making the flick -- he's now talking about making "an all-Irish Western" with fellow actors who hail from the Emerald Isle. Faith and begorrah, maybe Gabriel Byrne and Colm Meaney will be ropin' and ridin' alongside the former 007.