The Marksman (2021)

 The Marksman (2021)

 

3/10

 

Starring

Liam Neeson

Katheryn Winnick

Juan Pablo Raba

Teresa Ruiz

 

Directed by Robert Lorenz

 

Liam Neeson’s The Marksman is all promise and no delivery. This action thriller is predictable to a fault. The movie sets up a very interesting premise with the feeling that this would be another one-man army movie which Neeson will have to take on the cartel and win. What we ended up having is Neeson’s character Jim, running from the cartel for most of the movie, until cornered and had to handle things the Neeson way.

His character is a somewhat disappointing one, with a plan that made absolutely no sense at all. He is running from the cartel with a kid which the cartel wants dead. Well, he too is wanted dead by someone in the cartel because during their initial meet, Jim killed the man’s relative. I can bet that you have seen such a setup before and if you feel that you have an idea where things will go from here, your guesses are probably right. After his interference between the kid and his mother getting away, his later action of gun fight with the cartel at the border led to the death of the mother. So, after talking with the woman before she died, he developed a sense of responsibility to the kid. Wanting to get him to family members in Chicago. The woman was on the run from the cartel because her brother stole cartel money, which we find in her possession.

The movie also has Jim’s step-daughter who is part of the border police, the boy was initially in their custody before Jim stole him away from them. In what seems like the most ridiculous way ever, what a porose police station. So, Jim is on his way to Chicago with the kid and the cartel is chasing after him leaving death and injury as they pass.

I don’t know why I had this feeling that this movie could have been more. I stopped thinking that when the setup has Neeson’s character as a sad, lonely man with nothing to lose. In addition to what pissed me off is that cliché bar speech given by ex-soldiers, telling us about how he has given to his country and his country has given him nothing in return when he came back home. performance is heads above the rest of the cast, but it is not their fault that the plot of this movie is so weak and the delivery so poor.

The movie had a theatrical release which during this pandemic period is not half bad