Sunday, September 5, 2021

(2021) The Marksman - Another Liam Neeson's Starrer Action Thriller Movie

Yesterday this new movie was released on HBO/HBO Go. If I am not mistaken, it never played in Indonesian theaters. So I was delighted to get the chance to see it. Now what was the movie about? I'll get right to it.

Brief Story Line

Jim Hanson (Liam Neeson - Cold Pursuit, Batman Begins etc) was a former Marine Corps and war veteran who lived only with his dog Jackson at a ranch near the border of Mexico. His life was turned upside down when a Mexican woman named Rosa (Teresa Ruiz - Narcos: Mexico TV series etc) and her young boy Miguel (Jacob Perez) ran into Jim while being chased by the cartel's soldier Mauricio (Juan Pablo Raba - Peppermint etc).

Despite his heavy reluctance, Jim decided to help them and bring Miguel to Rosa's cousin in Chicago against his step daughter Sarah (Katheryn Winnick - The Big Sky TV series, Polar etc) advice not to get involve. 

So what would happen to Jim while they were being chased by Mauricio and his goons? You can find them in this action thriller movie.

End of Brief Story Line

So this was another Liam Neeson's action thriller movie which have come quite frequently in the past few years. It was his typical style of movie where he usually became the oppressed and had to fight back against the oppressors. This time around, he had to fight against the Mexican cartel. While he looked like a tired old man, but he was still charismatic enough. I really liked the way the action was mostly using a long rifle where he could use distance to his advantage (hence the title). Although there were still hand to hand fights scene.

The story, even if it's said to be very formulaic by critics was still nice to see. I liked Jim's interaction with the boy Miguel who was well played by Jacob Perez. Unfortunately Katheryn Winnick and Teresa Ruiz did not have too much screen time to leave impression. Juan Pablo Raba was good enough as the villain, although I was a bit disappointed with his part towards the end. Talking about the ending, I loved the way they made it here as to me it was quite realistic. However, there were few coincidences in the movie that were a bit too convenient. But a lot of action movies also used the same formula anyway.

The main attraction of this movie was definitely the big name of Liam Neeson. It is pretty amazing how a man of his age could still perform in action movies. Although, in the past we did have lot of older generation action stars who portrayed tough guys on screen such as Charles Bronson or Clint Eastwood or the latter ones like those stars playing in The Expendables movies. But I think Neeson is probably one of the most prolific actor playing at least 2 films in the past decade, especially after the success of Taken trilogy. 

Overall this was an OK action thriller movie with nothing extraordinary on the plot. But as a fan of Liam Neeson, I still like his performance in here, plus I liked the way he showed us his vulnerability, not just the standard tough guy. In addition, I also quite like the action, even though they were quite scarce plus obviously the ending. It has got a duration of 108 minutes which felt just nice and it did not have any mid or post end credit scene. So if you are a fan of Neeson like I am, then I think you would like him in here.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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