The Marksman (2021) * *

 

Directed by:  Robert Lorenz

Starring:  Liam Neeson, Jacob Perez, Katheryn Winnick, Juan Pablo Raba

The Marksman is the latest Liam Neeson action vehicle which at least tries to be Thoughtful and About Something.   Neeson plays Jim Hanson, a rancher along the Arizona-Mexico border who isn't Border Patrol, per se, but he uses a walkie talkie to alert the real patrol of illegals crossing into the U.S.  His wife died from cancer in the past year and his ranch is in foreclosure.   He has enough troubles when a young Mexican woman and her son Miguel (Perez) fleeing from drug cartel thugs cross the border on to Jim's property.   When confronted by the bad guys, Jim engages in a shootout which causes the mortal wounding of Miguel's mother.  Miguel has family in Chicago and Jim begrudgingly agrees to transport Miguel there with the cartel on his tail. 

We don't really know how Jim feels about Mexicans.   He doesn't seem to have anything against them except when they walk on his property after crossing the border.   He doesn't own a cell phone and speaks almost no Spanish, which is bizarre considering where he lives.   Miguel at first doesn't speak at all, so I'm thinking this will be the third movie in a month in which an older man can't communicate with a preteen youth in his charge.  But Miguel speaks English, thank goodness, and at least we are spared a dozen more scenes in which the man speaks to the child in English and the child doesn't respond.  Not unlike most of the characters Neeson has played since Taken, he has a military background and a particular set of skills which make him a nightmare for people like the cartel.   The movie is after all called The Marksman.  

Those viewing The Marksman expecting Taken 4 will be disappointed by the lack of action sequences.  People like me won't mind that but will wonder when the movie will start picking up the pace.   The plot coagulates when it should hum along.   There are so many pit stops on the way from Arizona to Chicago one might wonder if Jim will ever get there.   Jim's lack of technological inclination only drags things down further, since he doesn't own a GPS and has to rely on the world's last road atlas to find his way to his destination. 

The Marksman is simply the latest in the list of forgettable Liam Neeson actioners.   Directed by longtime Clint Eastwood producer Robert Lorenz, it wants to be different than other Neeson spectacles where he thrashes men half his age with those aforementioned skills.   Different doesn't necessarily mean good.   We are expected to care because Liam Neeson is helping a boy escape the clutches of cartel goons, but the outcome is never in doubt.   The tangents the movie goes on feel like marking time until the final showdown, which takes place on a farm outside of Chicago which no one seems to own or work at.   In any movie or TV show featuring a Mexican drug cartel, they always ride around in large black SUV's.   They may as well post a bumper sticker stating boldly, "WE ARE WITH A DRUG CARTEL. STAY BACK 100 FEET."  

I at least give The Marksman points for trying to be more than just a typical  Liam Neeson action film.  But it never comes together as a satisfying whole, and maybe we need a bit more substance than a typecast Neeson and some feckless villains biding their time to be Neeson's next victims.