As the trailer for "A Walk Among the Tombstones" played across the big screen and on home televisions, we saw Liam Neeson brooding and chasing after criminals in a dark, atmospheric setting.

First thought: This must be the third installment of the "Taken" series. Not so.

You can see the trailer here. Neeson plays Matthew Scudder, an ex-New York policeman with a tragic past, in "A Walk Among the Tombstones," which hits theaters Friday, according to a review from The New York Times.

Scudder works as an unlicensed private detective who claims that he does favors for friends in exchange for gifts -- a very underworld way of saying he gets paid under the table.

In "Tombstones", Scudder is hired to pursue two sadists who earn their livings by abducting the wives or kids of drug dealers and demanding a huge ransom. After the ransom is paid, they torture and kill their victims, Time reported.

His first client is a drug dealer who paid $400,000 for the return of his wife, only to receive her in bits a pieces. The rest of the film follows Scudder as her works to return the child of a Russian drug kingpin.

Reviewers claim the film is dark and grim, but with more intelligence than many of Neeson's recent outings, Taken included.

"A Walk Among the Tombstones" is based on the 1992 book of the same name, written by prolific crime writer Lawrence Block. The film is directed by Frank Scott and also features Dan Stevens, David Harbour, Boyd Holbrook, Brian Bradley and Razane Jammal.

This is the second story by Block given the Hollywood treatment, following the 1986 film "8 Million Ways to Die", starring Jeff Bridges and directed by Hal Ashby, which was released to unfavorable reviews.

Film review site Rotten Tomatoes has given the film a 63 percent "Fresh" rating, meaning that 63 percent of film critics have given it favorable reviews.