MOVIE REVIEW by Lucas Allen: ‘Marksman’ so-so, but Neeson saves it

The Marksman
(Open Road Films/Voltage Pictures)

By Lucas Allen

In his recent string of action films, Liam Neeson likes to play characters with a “particular set of skills.” Last fall, he portrayed an “Honest Thief,” and this time he takes on a restrained part of “The Marksman.” Co-written and directed by Robert Lorenz, the movie is what you get when you combine elements from Clint Eastwood westerns, Logan, and Sicario with Neeson playing up the “old man with a gun” heroics.
As a retired Marine, Jim (Neeson) is now a widowed rancher living in an Arizona farm with his pet dog, Jackson. He spends his days helping Border Patrol with Mexicans and South Americans breaking through the fences. Unfortunately, because of money troubles, he’s on the verge of losing his ranch. Then he runs into a young mother, Rosa (Teresa Ruiz), and her son Miguel (Jacob Perez), who are escaping from a renegade drug cartel after a relative stole money from them. The cartel’s hitmen led by the sadistic Mauricio (Juan Pablo Raba) soon attack before Jim shoots and kills one of them and escape with the mother and son. Rosa is dying from a bullet wound, but before she dies, she pleads with Jim to take Miguel to her family in Chicago.
At first, Jim wants to drop the young boy off with friendly Border Patrol officer Sarah (Kathryn Winnick), but he has a change of heart and takes the kid with him in a drive across the country. The two of them have a growing bond, finding commonality from their lives. But the revenge-driven Mauricio and his gang soon catch up to them leading to a final showdown with guns-a-blazing.
The movie does have some good things going for it, like the pivotal friendship between Jim and Miguel. Much like the far better “News of the World,” this special bond becomes the film’s backbone and does a fine job at it. There’s not much on the action, but there’s some decent gun-battle scenes plus some nice stunt work to boost. For an average film like this, at least they were trying to keep it from being boring.
However, the script remains a big issue when it comes to the overall quality of the film. If you’ve seen hundreds upon hundreds of movies, you can see every cliché and plot point coming in each scene. The writers of this film didn’t try hard enough to make their story different from the rest, so they throw every overused concept into one script to try to make it work. The script’s quality is quite mediocre that when you see the film, you’ll find yourself teetering between the film being good or bad. As mentioned above, News of the World did a much better job than this film.
On the bright side, Neeson makes the movie watchable especially when he balances between his serious acting and his action scenes. He makes the most of the cliched script by making the friendship with the young boy very believable. As for the villain, Pablo Raba dials up his performance beyond the scale, it’s like he thinks he’s in “Rambo: Last Blood,” rather than this film. At least “Honest Thief” did try to be more of a thriller, but The Marksman simply doesn’t go any further beyond what the script calls for. In the end, it’s just an average action/drama elevated once more by the presence of Neeson. But as far as his action movies go, it’s still much better than the “Taken” sequels.
THE MOVIE’S RATING: PG-13 (for violence, some bloody images, and brief strong language)
THE CRITIC’S RATING: 2.75 Stars (Out of Four)