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It’s time for your annual Liam Neesoning: that cinematic tradition in which the seasoned star plays a grizzled character with a particular set of skills, which come in handy to dispatch bad guys and rescue good ones. But this year’s entry in the subgenre, “The Marksman,” is particularly mediocre.

There’s not much to the character Neeson plays, or anyone else in the film, for that matter. The story is thin, the suspense is wan, and the action sequences are uninspired. Director Robert Lorenz seems to be aiming for the kind of cranky-old-man-on-a-mission movies Clint Eastwood has directed and stars in of late—which makes sense, given that Lorenz has produced several Eastwood films over the past two decades including “ Million Dollar Baby ” and “ Gran Torino ” and directed him in “Trouble With the Curve.” But while the sheen of such movies exists here—perhaps too much, given the subject matter—the substance is sorely missing. And despite his ever-formidable presence, Neeson seems to be going through the motions, even as he’s kicking ass.

Neeson stars as rancher Jim Hanson, a Marine and decorated Vietnam War veteran living a quiet life in southern Arizona along the Mexico border. It’s been a year since his wife died of cancer, and he spends his days with his trusty dog, Jackson, patrolling the property he’s in danger of losing to the bank. At the film’s start, we see him driving along dusty roads in his pickup with his pooch riding shotgun as the setting sun bathes the desert landscape in a warm glow. An American flag waves in the foreground as he approaches his modest house. Cinematographer Mark Patten shoots this patriotic imagery as if it were a commercial for Chevy trucks—all that’s missing is Bob Seger singing “Like a Rock.”

But Jim’s peace is shattered when a mother and son cross into the United States from Mexico through a section of fence that borders his land. They’re on the run from vicious cartel members, and when the mom is shot, Jim agrees to her dying wish that he take care of her tween boy, Miguel ( Jacob Perez ). Interestingly, Jim takes no political stance on whether they should have entered the country in this manner; ever the pragmatist, he’s more concerned about the prospect of dealing with dead bodies on his property when immigrants succumb to this arduous trek.

The kid is understandably shaken into stunned silence, but a Chicago address scribbled on a strip of paper dictates where Jim must take him to reunite him with his family. Somehow, Jim still speaks no Spanish after years of living along the Mexican border—literally, the extent of his vocabulary is “familia” and “comida”—which seems both unlikely and irresponsible. Instead, he talks to the boy in frustrated, exaggerated English and reluctantly agrees to this journey, thinking that the backpack full of cash the mother gave him could help him pay off his debts.

In contrast with the “ Taken ” films, this time he’s the one doing the taking, albeit for a good cause. The bulk of “The Marksman” finds Jim, Miguel, and Jackson making their way from Arizona to Illinois, the cartel villains on their tail, led by an especially over-the-top Juan Pablo Raba . Then again, all these characters are flat stereotypes of violent, Mexican thugs; the script from Lorenz, Chris Charles , and Danny Kravitz isn’t interested in exploring them any further. Even Miguel, who’s on screen nearly the entire time, isn’t developed beyond a few simple traits including sweetness, fear and a love of Pop Tarts. (He is thoughtful enough, however, to take Jackson for an early-morning walk while Jim is still sleeping off the whiskey from the night before. But be warned: A later scene involving the dog is the most stressful in the whole movie, and the most unnecessary, given that we’re already fully aware of how dangerous the pursuers are.)  

There aren’t many surprises on this journey, and the fact that the old-school Jim proudly carries no cell phone allows for the few hiccups that do occur along the way. (Somehow he manages to pull into a small town in the Texas panhandle and find the gun store on Main Street without the help of Yelp.) Katheryn Winnick has a barely-there supporting role as his stepdaughter, a border patrol agent who shows up every once in a while to track down his whereabouts and try to talk him into turning himself in to authorities. As for the title, Jim doesn’t really get to use his sharpshooting skills until nearly the end, right around the time his gruff demeanor softens, just like we knew it would.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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The Marksman (2021)

Rated PG-13 for violence, some bloody images and brief strong language.

Liam Neeson as Jim

Jacob Perez as Miguel

Katheryn Winnick as Sarah

Teresa Ruiz as Rosa

Juan Pablo Raba as Maurico

Dylan Kenin as Randall

Luce Rains as Everett Crawford

Chase Mullins as Mark

• Robert Lorenz
• Chris Charles
• Danny Kravitz

Cinematographer

• Mark Patten
• Luis Carballar
• Sean Callery

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‘The Marksman’ Review: Liam Neeson Saves a Mexican Boy From Cartel Slaughter in a Feel-Good Action Road Movie

The star's latest thriller is one of those bonding-with-a-kid movies that's mostly boilerplate.

By Owen Gleiberman

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There have, on occasion, been terrific dramas built around the relationship between a crusty adult and a spiky kid. “True Grit” (1969) was good, with the firebrand tomboy Kim Darby a perfect foil for the aging cowpoke John Wayne (and it was a more memorable movie than the Coen brothers’ remake). “Paper Moon” (1973) was good, bringing a deserved Oscar to Tatum O’Neal, and playing off the bristly real-world chemistry between her and her father Ryan. “Logan” (2017) was good, an action film neatly grounded in watching Hugh Jackman’s metal-clawed but fading Wolverine, in his last journey, mentor Dafne Keen as the dark-eyed ferocious urchin who might be the one to replace him.

But those are exceptions. With the arrival of “ The Marksman ,” Liam Neeson ’s latest piece of watchable-product-that’s-not-as-good-as-he-is, the current movie season has now given us no less than three dramas in which stalwart adults partner with children who wind up showing them the way: the meandering Tom Hanks Western “News of the World”; George Clooney’s flatly dystopian Arctic-tundra-meets-space odyssey “The Midnight Sky”; and now “The Marksman,” in which Neeson, he of the bone-lean gaze and solitary skills, bonds with a just-arrived-from-over-the-border Mexican boy he’s shielding from cartel goons. I mean no disrespect to any of the young actors involved in these movies when I say that in all three, the taking-a-child-under-his-wing plot tends be a lead weight on screen. None of the films, on its own terms, is badly made, yet the kid characters are all spunky saints, and there’s a sodden predictability to where the stories are headed.

At first, Miguel (Jacob Perez), silent and doleful in his soccer cap (though the fact that he likes Gummy Bears is an indication there’s more to him), glowers at Neeson’s Jim Hanson, an Arizona rancher who has fallen on hard times. The boy’s mother, Rosa (Teresa Ruiz), got killed during a border scuffle, and if Jim hadn’t first intercepted them her death might not have happened. What we know — and the boy doesn’t — is that if it weren’t for Jim, the cartel would have taken them back to Mexico and killed them anyway, for possessing a cache of money stolen by Rosa’s brother. The boy simply has yet to discover the valor that lurks in every Neeson bruiser.

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Neeson, in a light blue shirt, straw hat, and soulful pained expression, looks like a scarecrow version of Vincent van Gogh, but once the film settles in he wears a worn baseball cap that doesn’t flatter him; it makes him look depressed. Then again, that’s maybe intentional, since Jim is a man who is running on empty. He lost his wife to cancer in a battle that wiped out his assets, and now he can’t pay his mortgage. There’s a hole where his life used to be, and that’s the space that gets filled by his mission to save Miguel. After sneaking out of the local U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Station, the two climb into Jim’s ancient Chevy pickup and head for Chicago, where Miguel’s relatives are. “The Marksman” turns into an elemental action road movie in which the two are tracked at every turn by Mauricio (Juan Pablo Raba), the Vasquez cartel’s bald murder machine, and his fellow assassins.

As a character, Neeson’s Jim falls into place with a few stray not-quite-convincing traits: He doesn’t own a cell phone (“Nobody needs to call me, and I like it that way”), and he tells Miguel a rather doddering anecdote about loving the street hot dogs in Chicago when he was a boy (taking it on faith, as the film does, that the same hot dogs will be there today). He’s also a Vietnam veteran who wields a telescopic rifle with a sniper’s flair that makes it seem a more lethal weapon than a machine gun. The bare-bones quirks stick out because Jim is a less furious, more elegiac version of the mad-as-hell Neeson hero. He even gets a sendoff on a bus that evokes one of Dustin Hoffman’s most famous exits.

The director, Robert Lorenz, stages the action with a convincing ebb and flow, but thanks to an undercooked script what happens in between is mostly boilerplate. Jacob Perez, as Miguel, has the quiet demeanor of a genuine kid, but there are moments when you wish he had more spice to him, that he was a bit more of a cutesy movie kid. You could describe the young heroines of “True Grit” or “Paper Moon” that way, but they live on in your imagination. “The Marksman” is a movie to forget the moment it’s over.

Reviewed online, Jan. 11, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 107 MIN.

• Production: An Open Road Films release of a Voltage Pictures, Sculptor, Zero Gravity Management, Stonehouse Motion Pictures production. Producers: Tai Duncan, Mark Williams, Warren Goz, Eric Gold, Robert Lorenz. Executive producers: Mark. D. Katchur, James Masciello, Matthew Sidari, Nicolas Chartier, Jonathan Deckter.  
• Crew: Director: Robert Lorenz. Screenplay: Chris Charles, Danny Kravitz, Robert Lorenz. Camera: Mark Patten. Editor: Luis Carballar. Music: Sean Callery.
• With: Liam Neeson, Jacob Perez, Katheryn Winnick, Juan Pablo Raba, Teresa Ruiz.

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The Marksman

A rancher on the Arizona border becomes the unlikely defender of a young Mexican boy desperately fleeing the cartel assassins who've pursued him into the U.S. A rancher on the Arizona border becomes the unlikely defender of a young Mexican boy desperately fleeing the cartel assassins who've pursued him into the U.S. A rancher on the Arizona border becomes the unlikely defender of a young Mexican boy desperately fleeing the cartel assassins who've pursued him into the U.S.

• Robert Lorenz
• Chris Charles
• Danny Kravitz
• Katheryn Winnick
• Liam Neeson
• Teresa Ruiz
• 538 User reviews
• 113 Critic reviews
• 44 Metascore

• Mauricio Guerrero

• (as Sean Rosales)

• Bartender Clara

• (as Yediel O. Quiles)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia The scene where Jim and Miguel are in the hotel, both watch the classic Clint Eastwood western Hang 'Em High (1968) . The film's director, Robert Lorenz , worked with Eastwood for many years as a producer and included this scene as a tribute to his mentor.
• Goofs The pickup truck goes throughout the movie alternating between having bullet damage and not having bullet damage.

Jim : I don't scare easy.

• Connections Featured in WhatCulture Originals: 10 Recent Movies That Blew Great Concepts (2021)
• Soundtracks Highway Lines Written by Jordan R. Klatt Performed by Jack Klatt Published by Riff City Sounds Courtesy of Yep Roc Records

User reviews 538

• ivanmessimilos
• Jan 25, 2021
• How long is The Marksman? Powered by Alexa
• January 15, 2021 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• The Minuteman
• Wellington, Ohio, USA (store scenes)
• Cutting Edge Group
• Raven Capital Management
• Sculptor Media
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $23,000,000 (estimated)
• $15,566,093
• Jan 17, 2021
• $23,076,711

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 48 minutes

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‘The Marksman’ Review: In Need of a Mission

Liam Neeson plays the reluctant protector of an undocumented Mexican boy in this dusty drama.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

The plot of “The Marksman,” a melancholy road movie starring Liam Neeson, could fit on a bullet casing, but a list of its clichés would require substantially more space.

As would a tally of its improbabilities. Neeson plays Jim Hanson, a widowed Arizona rancher whose cattle are being eaten by coyotes and whose property is being devoured by the bank. All the usual good-guy signifiers are present: the U.S. Marines tattoo on his forearm, the Silver Star in his drawer, the American flag flapping on his porch. Gazing wistfully at the hill where his dead wife’s ashes have been scattered, Jim is a lonely warrior in need of nothing so much as a mission.

Along it comes in the diminutive form of Miguel (Jacob Perez), 11, and his dying mother (Teresa Ruiz), undocumented immigrants fleeing Mexico with money stolen from a drug cartel. One reluctant promise and several rounds of gunfire later, Jim and his rickety pickup truck are transporting Miguel to his Chicago relatives, a posse of deadeyed cartel goons on their tail. Luckily, Jim’s repeated use of a credit card — despite a bag full of cash under his dash — is making their pursuit much easier.

Slow and simple and minimally violent, “The Marksman,” directed by Robert Lorenz, cares more about bonding than brutality. Predictable to a fault, the movie coasts pleasurably on Neeson’s seasoned, sad-sweet charisma — an asset that’s been tragically imprisoned in mopey-loner roles and generic action thrillers. That melted-caramel brogue should be flirting with Diane Lane or Debra Winger, not teaching children how to use guns.

The Marksman Rated PG-13 for the shooting of several bad men and one very good dog. Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.

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‘the marksman’: film review.

Liam Neeson plays an ex-Marine sharpshooter attempting to protect a young boy from a Mexican cartel in Robert Lorenz's action thriller 'The Marksman.' 

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

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Liam Neeson continues the Charles Bronson phase of his lengthy career with Robert Lorenz’s action thriller representing the actor’s second starring effort in three months. Arriving shortly on the heels of Honest Thief , The Marksman is the sort of solid, unassuming programmer that Bronson pumped out with regularity in the ’70s and ’80s. Think of something like 1974’s Mr. Majestyk , except in this case the reluctant hero forced to deal with bad guys is an Arizona rancher rather than a Colorado melon farmer. In both cases, the star — and the film — gets the job done.

It’s not that Neeson’s character, Jim Hanson, a former Marine sharpshooter (natch), wants any trouble. He’s still grieving over the recent death of his wife, his ranch is being threatened with foreclosure, and he’s the sort of deceptively gentle soul who coos to his elderly mutt, “Who’s the best dog in the world?” But he’s forced into action when he witnesses a young migrant woman, Rosa (Teresa Ruiz), and her 11-year-old son Miguel (Jacob Perez) fleeing from a gang of drug cartel killers. Hanson manages to hold them at bay, but not without Rosa being killed in the shootout. In her dying moments, she begs him to take her son to the safety of her relatives in Chicago.

Release date: Jan 15, 2021

When Miguel is subsequently detained by border authorities, Hanson lets his conscience get the better of him and manages to surreptitiously spirit the boy out, much to the consternation of his border patrol officer daughter Sarah (Katheryn Winnick, Vikings ). Thus begins the cross-country chase between Hanson and the killers, led by the bloodthirsty Mauricio (Juan Pablo Raba of  Narcos , impressively menacing), who’s less interested in the boy than the large sum of drug money he has in his possession.

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It all plays out about as predictably as you expect. The character delineation in the screenplay co-written by Lorenz, Chris Charles and Danny Kravitz mainly revolves around establishing Hanson as the sort of crusty curmudgeon who eschews modern technology like cell phones. “Nobody needs to call me and I like it like that,” he growls to the disbelieving Miguel. Of course, his Luddite tendencies lead to problems, including his attempting to buy a road atlas when the teenage convenience store clerk has no idea what it is. On the other hand, he definitely hasn’t lost his sharpshooting skills honed in the Vietnam War.

The film is most effective not in the relatively brief action sequences — although a climactic shoot-out is well orchestrated — but rather in its depiction of the growing bond between Hanson and the young boy he’s risking his life to protect. This is where Neeson’s too-often underutilized (these days, at least) sensitivity as an actor kicks in, making the formulaic relationship feel credible and organic. It helps that child actor Perez matches him beat for beat, displaying a naturalism all the more impressive considering that this represents his first feature credit.

Director Lorenz is a longtime collaborator of Clint Eastwood, having produced such Best Picture Oscar nominees as Mystic River , Letters from Iwo Jima and American Sniper as well as directing Trouble with the Curve; it’s easy to imagine that had this picture been made ten or 20 years ago, Eastwood would have been the star. The movie displays the measured pacing and tautness marking many of Eastwood’s films, and Neeson delivers an Eastwood-style performance while also revealing an emotional vulnerability that proves fully relatable. It’s easy to see how his distinctive combination of mature rugged masculinity and Irish soulfulness has made him a perfect action hero for these complicated times.

Available in theaters Production companies: Sculptor Media, Zero Gravity Management, Stonehouse Motion Pictures Distributor: Open Road Films Cast: Liam Neeson, Kathryn Winnick, Juan Pablo Raba, Teresa Ruiz Director: Robert Lorenz Screenwriters: Robert Lorenz, Chris Charles, Danny Kravitz Producers: Tai Duncan, Mark Williams, Warren Goz, Eric Gold, Robert Lorenz Executive producers: Nicholas Chartier, Jonathan Deckter, Mark David Katchur, James Masciello Director of photography: Mark Patten Production designer: Charisse Cardenas Editor: Luis Carballar Composer: Sean Callery Costume designer: Peggy Stamper Casting: Lilian Pyles

Rated PG-13, 107 min.  

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‘The Marksman’ Review: Liam Neeson Goes Full Clint Eastwood in a Redbox-Ready Action Movie

David ehrlich.

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Clint Eastwood’s shadow looms large over “ The Marksman ,” even if you don’t know that this quick and greasy Liam Neeson thriller is directed by “Mystic River” and “Million Dollar Baby” producer Robert Lorenz (“Trouble with the Curve”), or that it shares many of the same craftspeople who worked on those movies. The story of a grizzled old widower who reluctantly finds himself driving an orphaned Mexican boy from Arizona to Illinois with a bag full of drug money on the floor of his truck and a sociopathic cartel assassin in its rear-view mirror, “The Marksman” might be two three-ways short of “The Mule,” but almost everything about it — from its “get off my lawn” misanthropy to its general take on the uselessness of government in American life — feels geared for a late-career Eastwood vehicle.

By the time Eastwood himself actually shows up for a minute in the second act, the star grinning at us from inside a motel TV that’s airing a fuzzy broadcast of the 1968 Western “Hang ‘Em High,” the nod seems almost as inevitable and indebted as one of those Stan Lee cameos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But if superhero movies have unsurprisingly managed to outlive Stan Lee, a film as functional and flavorless as “The Marksman” suggests that Eastwoodism will die along with the man who inspired it.

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If Lorenz’s homage should feel so anonymous, perhaps that’s because crusty and cash-strapped Arizona rancher Jim Hanson — hard as he might try to be an ersatz Clint Eastwood — is also forced to be Liam Neeson, John Wick, and the creator of “The Muppets” at the same time. By now such an established action star that the post-“Taken” portion of his career has its own sub-sections nested inside of it (his 2019 self-cancellation marking the end of one and the start of another), Neeson has developed a clear screen persona of his own, and it doesn’t necessarily square with the “Old Man with No Name” energy of his latest character.

For one thing, he reads as sadder than the Eastwood archetype; not just wistful or lonely, but hollow. Jim is an apolitical character who’s too depressed to care about those around him, regardless of where they’re from or the color of their skin; when he and his dog Jackson come across an 11-year-old migrant named Miguel (Jacob Perez) and his mother Rosa (Teresa Ruiz) as they scupper through a hole in the border fence, Jim’s reaction is to give them some water and call border patrol — it’s the simple reflex of a former Marine who doesn’t have the emotional bandwidth to register the horror on these faces.

There’s no MAGA-related malice in the decision, and the movie isn’t much interested in “Green Booking” together a story about a white guy who only comes to see people of color as human once he’s forced to spend time with one of them (even if that’s basically what happens). “The Marksman” doesn’t unpack its protagonist enough to know his biases or chart his growth; he’s just empty when it starts, and fills up a bit as it goes along.

Jim only begins to react once some hard-looking dudes roll up to the Mexican side of the divide, start shooting through the fence, and fatally wound the boy’s mom. Even after Rosa uses her dying breath to ask Jim to deliver her son to some family in Chicago — and the marksman(!) picks off one of the baddies with his rifle — he can’t bring himself to do anything more than deliver Miguel to the authorities. That Jim eventually reconsiders, breaks the kid out, and drives him on a dangerous road trip to the Midwest feels both easily explainable and strangely unmotivated in equal measure.

Is it because Jim knows that some of the border guards are being paid off by the cartels, and that Miguel’s survival depends on finding a safe home in the States? Is it because the bank is going to auction off his ranch in 90 days, he’s never going to be able to pay off his late wife’s medical bills in time, and his Border Patrol director stepdaughter (Katheryn Winnick) is too underwritten to puncture the bubble of loneliness that’s built up around him? Is it just that he’s bored? The right answer is never more than a messy hodgepodge of those reasons, as “The Marksman” aims at a moving target that also has to accommodate some geriatric action sequences — there’s a lot of hiding, and several beats where Jim and Miguel escape a location mere seconds before the villains arrive — and a Terminator-style bad guy played by “Narcos” actor Juan Pablo Raba. His Mauricio is a walking stereotype who doesn’t realize who he’s dealing with, and his Anton Chigurh swagger (complete with the murder of an innocent gas station attendant) only goes so far to justify the screen time he chews up along the way. And when Mauricio takes aim at the dog, well… let’s just say I’m thinking Jim Hanson is back.

In between the flying bullets and screeching tires, Lorenz strains to establish an unlikely bond between Jim and Miguel, but there isn’t a lot of meat on that particular bone. Perez is a winsome presence, and it’s always fun to watch a brutal old git make friends with a hapless kid, but the surrogate dad thing doesn’t have the time it needs to take hold. Miguel initially blames Jim for his mother’s death, and then — a steak and a shootout later — simply doesn’t anymore. Easy as it is to appreciate how the kid might have come around to the truth of his circumstances, “The Marksman” elides so much of the nuance that might have elevated this story above basic genre shlock.

Character is implied, but seldom investigated. Jim steals enough swigs of booze to raise an eyebrow, and Miguel groans that he “didn’t even want to be in your stupid country,” but neither of their wounds and frustrations are explored further than the action requires them to be. While an ambient sense of “the government needs to get its shit together and figure that mess out” is subsumed into the narrative (especially when Jim barks that “the government needs to get together and figure that mess out!”), “The Marksman” is too enamored with its low-rent January aesthetics to make any detours towards depth.

Much like his mentor, Lorenz shoots straight from the hip. The action is clean, the beats are broad, the color palette is muted. There’s so little muss or fuss to this movie that any stray moments — such as a quick scene in which Mauricio makes eyes at a blonde American woman as if he’s never been north of the border before — only call attention to its narrow focus and Redbox ambitions. Neeson is a fine stand-in for the haggard soul of a country where people feel the need to take the law into their own hands, but his latest cinematic vendetta is so eager to get where it’s going that it loses any real sense of itself along the way. By the time “The Marksman” fades out on its very Eastwoodian finale, Clint’s touch doesn’t feel like an unsubtle inspiration so much as it does a severe kind of absence.

Open Road will release “The Marksman” in theaters on Friday, January 15.

As new movies open in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic, IndieWire will continue to review them whenever possible. We encourage readers to follow the safety precautions provided by CDC and health authorities. Additionally, our coverage will provide alternative viewing options whenever they are available.

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‘The Marksman’ Review: Cowboys vs. Cartels, Liam Neeson-Style

By K. Austin Collins

K. Austin Collins

In The Marksman , Liam Neeson plays Jim Hanson, a former Marine living in Naco, Arizona, within spitting distance of a border fence. This means that he can phone local authorities when he sees a new crew of “I.A.’s” making their way into the country, on the one hand, and offer water to the stragglers left behind to fend for themselves after that merciless crossing, on the other. So: unquestionably law-abiding, but also, in excess of what the law requires, notably humane. The first thing we see him do is shoot a coyote — the animal, that is, not one of those doomed and frequently dangerous smugglers of desperate migrants across the border. But the double meaning is clear.

You suspect that Jim would probably prefer above all to be left alone on his ranch to sulk with his dog, Jackson. His daughter, Sarah (Katheryn Winnick), works for border patrol. Good for her. His wife, meanwhile, has recently passed away after a long and brutal illness. And now, more trouble: A young boy named Miguel (Jacob Perez) runs out in front of Jim’s dusty blue Ford pickup, his mother not far behind him. There’s a crew of cartel assassins on their tail. And, well, the inevitable happens. A shoot-out, an unexpected killing: Hanson is Miguel’s de facto guardian, now, with a mother’s dying wish — get the boy to family in Chicago — on his conscience. And a bag of someone else’s money in his front seat.

The Marksman is a borderland action weepie, a Liam Neeson movie in a Clint Eastwood costume. But what every Eastwood movie lacks is the humor of an Irish actor whose accent remains defiantly, subtly Irish, no matter how hard he tries (if indeed he does try). Eastwood movies also tend to be “better”: sharper, weirder, more fraught, if not always less predictable. Whereas Neeson — with the likes of the Taken franchise under his belt — is the 21st century’s granddaddy of American Dad Action. Mix the two and you get … something! Not a great movie, but courtesy of director Robert Lorenz, a lean, plausibly entertaining one with all the fixin’s and none of the extra flab of deep, incisive meaning. It’s a buddy movie, a cartel chase, a sentimental redemption story. It’s a comfort watch. 

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The star and the premise are the obvious attractions here, but you have to savor the little things in pulp like this. For example, there’s the ongoing cat-and-mouse dilemma that sustains the plot, with the vicious cartel killers, led by Maurico (Juan Pablo Raba, suitably dangerous, even fun to watch), taking no prisoners and offering near-nothing in the way of personal qualities beyond chewy villainy. But this is a movie whose real soul is in the image of Neeson with an American flag draped over his shoulder, the Arizona plains playing a parched but handsome backdrop to his life. Or in him telling a stooge from the bank about his wife’s ashes buried just yonder on his property — a way of getting a little sympathy for his late mortgage payments. (Her illness is what bankrupted him.) The movie is steeped in the man’s utter sense of compromise: his drinking problem, the fact that he’s losing his home despite having served his country. It coasts on our awareness of the Tough Choices to come, to say nothing of our sympathy for the circumstances that landed Hanson here.

The Marksman ‘s damnation is its predictability; it’s saving grace is the smattering of small details that ward off self-seriousness. Miguel knows more English than Jim at first assumes (a light punchline) and is a sprightly, responsible whippersnapper who walks Jim’s dog when the man is too drunk. Obviously the movie has a stirring, infuriating political crisis at its heart — and it isn’t here to shout out against that crisis outright so much as make due. The Marksman ’s politics are old-school cowboy politics: less compassionate conservatism than compassionate vigilantism. Lorenz’s direction is swift, capable, and to the point, and he sells us on this idea pretty effectively. “I already called the cavalry,” Jim says, at one point, to the cartel brutes. “So I suggest y’all just … turn around and adios . ” (A good, cheesy line; the movie’s full of them.)

What starts off as a beleaguered portrait of a dead-end frontier hero soon reminds us that violence in the name of moral goodness trumps all. In the end, not even the cops can be trusted. The odds are stacked so heavily against the hero that the ending is damned to be bittersweet. How could it be anything but? Men like Jim are a dying species, the movie seems to say. Then it points to Jim himself and says: Case in point. 

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The marksman, common sense media reviewers.

Guns and violence in well-made but cliche-ridden thriller.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Raise the question of why, if they follow all the

Jim Hanson is a law-abiding man with a good heart.

Guns and shooting; characters are shot and killed,

One use of "f--k," and a few uses of "s--t," "ass,

Pop Tarts prominently shown in one scene.

Main character drinks shots/whiskey in a bar and f

Parents need to know that The Marksman is an action/thriller starring Liam Neeson as a White man who agrees to transport an 11-year-old Mexican immigrant from Arizona to Chicago while pursued by members of a killer cartel. It's well-made, but cliches in the story and the oversimplified representation of…

Positive Messages

Raise the question of why, if they follow all the rules, people sometimes still wind up with the short end of the stick. But there's never any question that people should continue to move forward by following rules and trying to do the right thing. Violence has repercussions. Reinforces "White savior" plot cliches.

Positive Role Models

Jim Hanson is a law-abiding man with a good heart. He barely hesitates before taking on a dangerous good deed. He perhaps resorts to violence a little too quickly, but he pays a price for that. Although some of the movie's immigrant characters are viewed sympathetically, the ones who seem, intended to be perceived as "good" (aside from Miguel) aren't on screen long enough to become well-developed characters. And the villains are total one-note cliches.

Violence & Scariness

Guns and shooting; characters are shot and killed, sometimes with bloody wounds. Character hung by wrists on a chain. Villain strangles a young woman. Character slices her leg on fence (blood shown). Bloody animal corpses. Character shoots dog (offscreen), followed by dog burial. Bloody, wounded foot. Stabbing. Fighting. Car crash with fire. An 11-year-old boy is briefly taken hostage. Dialogue about main character's wife who died of cancer.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

One use of "f--k," and a few uses of "s--t," "ass," "bastard," "goddamn," "damn," "hell," "crap," and "piss."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Main character drinks shots/whiskey in a bar and from a flask. He gets sleepy-drunk in more than one scene, but no other consequences.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Marksman is an action/thriller starring Liam Neeson as a White man who agrees to transport an 11-year-old Mexican immigrant from Arizona to Chicago while pursued by members of a killer cartel. It's well-made, but cliches in the story and the oversimplified representation of characters of color (as well as the White savior elements of the plot) eventually sink it. Expect to see lots of guns and shooting, bloody wounds, stabbing, fighting, and animal corpses. A woman is shot and killed, and another is strangled. A dog is shot and killed offscreen. A boy is briefly in peril, and there's dialogue about a woman dying of cancer. Language is strong but infrequent, with one use of "f--k," plus "s--t," "ass," "hell," etc. The main character drinks in a few scenes and seems to get sleepy-drunk, but there are no other consequences. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 4 parent reviews

"Woke" reviews by Commonsense media

What's the story.

In THE MARKSMAN, former U.S. Marine Jim Hanson ( Liam Neeson ) is now a rancher living on the Arizona border and struggling with paying the bills after his late wife's long illness. He happens upon a young mother, Rosa (Teresa Ruiz), and her 11-year-old son, Miguel (Jacob Perez), crossing the border from Mexico. Rosa begs him not to call the border patrol because she and her son are being pursued by evil cartel leader Maurico ( Juan Pablo Raba ) in retaliation for Rosa's brother stealing a bagful of money. When Rosa is shot, she asks Jim to take Miguel to live with family in Chicago. Jim reluctantly agrees, over the objections of his step-daughter, Sarah ( Katheryn Winnick ). But first Jim must keep Miguel, and himself, safe from the villains pursuing them.

Is It Any Good?

Thanks to Robert Lorenz 's smooth, simple direction and Neeson's appealing, sympathetic bond with young Perez, this action-thriller, which is steeped in cliché from top to bottom, very nearly gets by. Lorenz, a producer and/or assistant director on many Clint Eastwood movies, channels his mentor with The Marksman , using unhurried, classical storytelling and treating the creaky old material with care. Neeson's Jim Hanson is shown both with an American flag draped over his shoulder (as the bank tries to take his ranch away) and showing concern for an injured immigrant ... even as he calls border patrol.

Perez is a sweet kid who's positively portrayed, but too little time is spent on other characters of color, and the Mexican villains are crushingly one-note: They're depicted as pure evil with no humanity. Neeson is fine in his low-key role: Hanson is a good man at heart (like Tom Hanks' similar role in News of the World ) who just happens to be handy with firearms. The actor's fans will be pleased with the traditional shootout ending, which is presented neatly and without cluttery shaky-cam or choppy editing. But even as The Marksman wraps up, it already starts to fade from memory.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Marksman 's violence . Did it feel thrilling or shocking? How much is directed at women? At animals? How does that affect its impact on you?

How are immigrants and/or people of color depicted in the film? Did you notice any stereotypes ? How do stereotypes counteract attempts at diverse representation?

How is drinking depicted? Is it glamorized? Are there consequences for drinking? Why does that matter?

How did you feel about the main character teaching the 11-year-old boy how to handle a gun?

What's the appeal of Neeson as an action hero? How is he different from other movie action heroes? Do you think his character here can be seen as representing the "White savior" cliche?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 15, 2021
• On DVD or streaming : May 11, 2021
• Cast : Liam Neeson , Katheryn Winnick , Teresa Ruiz
• Director : Robert Lorenz
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors
• Studio : Open Road Films
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Run time : 108 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : violence, some bloody images and brief strong language
• Last updated : April 27, 2023

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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'The Marksman' Review: The Latest Liam Neeson Action Movie Aims For The Heart

It's not a good time for much, but weirdly enough, it is a very good time to be a Liam Neeson fan. While DC-heads just had to watch its latest offering on their televisions and Marvel-stans don't really know when they're likely to see Black Widow, Liam Neeson has starred in not one, but two theatrical offerings during the pandemic: first the generic and boring Honest Thief and now the much better but still pretty generic The Marksman . Congrats to you, if your favorite films involve grizzled Irish tough guys with huge hearts of gold. And even if you're tired of this fare, you could do a lot worse than get stuck watching The Marksman . The film involves a road trip of sorts, featuring Liam Neeson as a cowboy protecting an immigrant boy on the run from a drug cartel. Their trip from Arizona to Chicago should be simple enough, but an untrustworthy truck and a ton of movie coincidences favoring the villains keep their arrival in suspense right up until the bloody end, especially if you've never seen a movie before. Aside from its occasional bursts of violence, however, The Marksman offers a relaxing ride. The boy seems genuinely tough, not too precocious. Neeson's character has a classic cute movie dog. They eat at restaurants and discuss Chicago hotdogs and generally bond in a way that feels earned. At one point, Neeson teaches the kid to shoot a gun. Stuff like that. Measured against other films, there isn't much here, but that's also by design. These movies are meant to pop up one day, only to become interchangeable with the sea of other Liam Neeson films soon after. They might as well not have titles. When they do, it's best if they broadly describe Neeson's character: "Oh, he's a marksman in this one. Here's one where he's an honest thief." As such, it's better to compare them with each other rather than the slew of other films that might come out each calendar year. This one has a bit more character than normal. It's PG-13, but it makes sure to grab its F-Bomb. The film smartly condenses the cartel hunting Neeson and the kid to one main tough-guy. He's not on that The Counselor -tier of gritty realism, but he's mean enough to feel serious. And he has a genuine axe to grind since Neeson kills his brother in the film's opening incident of marksmanship.  Neeson himself plays a guy named Jim Hanson. This character is a lot of things: a Vietnam vet, a widower, an alcoholic, someone economically destroyed by America's brutal healthcare system. Few of these character quirks come into direct play. You'd expect his drinking problem to eventually become a big deal, but it never really does. It's just window dressing. He's not riddled with guilt or seeking redemption or anything, just sad and old and broke, waiting around to finally die. These films frequently try to make Neeson too perfect. The Taken series, for instance, was way too interested in making him the world's greatest (absent) dad. The problem is affection-seeking dads to adult children are kind of lame. Here he has an adult step-kid and she spends most of her time taking care of him . It's way better to watch him bond with a child over time because it means he can start rough and grow softer from there. It also helps that The Marksman cribs from the Western suite of action tropes. He can be noble and teach a kid to shoot a pistol at the same time. Jim Hanson isn't perfect. He's not good at much. He's talented at sniping but he doesn't even do that very often. Despite touching upon illegal immigration, The Marksman doesn't take a strong political stance, so don't come for any sort of polemic on the issue. Hanson snitches on illegal immigrants he sees, but he's compassionate enough to call an ambulance for one in need of medical attention. The film does have obvious sympathies for the mother and son running to America solely to save their own lives, and portrays nearly every authority figure near the border as corrupt. Meanwhile, Jim Hanson's experience as a typically upstanding, hardworking American who fought for his country, yet got crushed under the boot heel of economic oppression does position him as a bit of a lapsed Republican, someone who made sure no one was peeking when he checked the box for Biden. But, like his alcoholism, it's more window dressing than anything the film directly utilizes or comments upon. If you watch enough of these films, one can easily forget Neeson's ability to do challenging work. Here, he's just kind of coasting. There's a vague attempt at an accent early on, but it doesn't stick. He only gives us one good "Y'all" and it's just as awkward as that sounds. Neeson spends most of the film just being Liam Neeson. That's okay because Liam Neeson is a cool guy to be. On stature and performance alone, he's still one of Star Wars ' most interesting Jedi, for instance. He's a movie star for a very good reason. And The Marksman makes better use of him than these films normally do. Nevertheless, it lacks vitality or distinction enough to set it above other Liam Neeson action films. You know what you're getting into as soon as it starts. Ultimately, The Marksman hits its generic target. It is the kind of film you watch on accident more than seek out, but you probably won't regret the accident. /Film Rating: 6 out of 10

Review: Liam Neeson’s ‘The Marksman’ misses its target

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Liam Neeson is back with another very particular set of skills, but uses them only sparingly, in “The Marksman.”

Neeson plays Jim, a modern-day rancher near the Arizona/Mexico border who has lost his wife to cancer and is about to lose his ranch to foreclosure. He comes across young Miguel (Jacob Perez) and his mother crossing into his property from Mexico as they run from killers; Jim winds up trying to reunite Miguel with relatives in Chicago as feds and bad guys pursue.

“The Marksman” is more drama than thriller, but really more old-fashioned western than anything else — and a familiar one at that. It’s a tale we’ve seen often, most recently in the Paul Greengrass-Tom Hanks “News of the World” : The struggling old cowboy (-ish) doesn’t want any part of the desperate innocent but ends up taking him/her on a dangerous journey.

The tension-free narrative moves slowly and stumbles over head-slapping moments (you’re carrying what looks like hundreds of thousands in cash, you’re on the run from the cartel and the feds, and you’re ... using your credit card all over the place?). The few-and-far-between action sequences are OK; they’re kind of low-key, though from the “Sicario” -quoting score, one assumes this is meant to be a thriller.

Actually, it’s not clear why the film is called “The Marksman,” as that ability only pops up in a couple of scenes and isn’t otherwise a defining characteristic of Jim’s, or even discussed. The film’s really about the relationship between Jim and Miguel but doesn’t explore either character deeply enough, or their interaction uniquely enough, to have emotional impact.

It’s a simplistic, closed-loop moral universe in which the major plot thread is tied up too neatly and others are pretty much forgotten. Also, good-guy gun shop owners know mandated background checks aren’t needed if the buyer looks OK (heck, they’ll even report the guns stolen if bad guys use them), Mexico is indeed not sending its best and the act of teaching a young boy to shoot is more awesome in front of a red-white-and-blue eagle mural. When it comes to the “IAs” (illegal aliens), Jim growls, “It would be fine if the government would get its s— together and figure that mess out.” In lieu of immigration reform, the film offers a truck ride with Jim. A bunch of folks die.

“The Marksman” has a couple of meta moments, as when a Clint Eastwood movie pops up on TV (director Robert Lorenz is a longtime Eastwood collaborator ) or Neeson declines to release the Kraken (he picks up, then declines a bottle of booze marked “Kraken”). However, its lasting impression is of a tensionless road trip that hits potholes of its own making. For a far-superior road movie that actually does delve into Mexican-American relations and takes the value of life seriously, audiences will have to wait another week until “No Man’s Land” is released Jan. 22.

Review: ‘No Man’s Land’: An immigration tale told with empathy and humanity

Two families are shattered, setting off a search for redemption in the Allyn Brothers’ “No Man’s Land”

Jan. 21, 2021

'The Marksman'

Rated: PG-13 for violence, some bloody images and brief strong language Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes Playing: Starts Jan. 15 in general release where theaters are open

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The Marksman Movie Review: A largely stereotypical story with some good acting 

Rating: ( 2.5 / 5).

The Marksman finds itself in a long list of predictable action thrillers, but despite the nature of things, it is an oddly watchable film. The main reason for that is Liam Neeson, of course (a fine actor, typecast or otherwise). Young Joe Perez, who plays second fiddle to the big star, doesn’t do his reputation any harm, either. If acting is the benchmark we are going by here, one would expect the story to come through more than it actually does. All the standard tropes are thrown in for good measure: A retired marine with his best years behind him; illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican border daily; a mother-son duo fleeing from the wrath of the drug cartel. It could not have been more done-to-death.

And yet, there are instances in the story that surprise you. From the title and gist, you’d think the bullet and body count are endless. But no, Neeson’s Vietnam vet Jim Hanson isn’t a proponent of violence. He takes out his firearms only when absolutely necessary. He philosophises with Miguel (Joe Perez) when the latter proclaims he will murder the men responsible for his mother’s fatal shooting. “No good feeling comes from taking another person’s life,” Jim says. 

Director: Robert Lorenz 

Cast: Liam Neeson, Juan Pablo Raba, Joe Perez, Katheryn Winnick, Teresa Ruiz

The film is more of a chase thriller as a majority of the plot involves a beaten down pick-up truck being tailed by the Mexican drug mafia. Jim and Miguel cannot come from more different circumstances. The former, a tired, old veteran, who may lose his ranch on the Arizona-Mexico border, lives out his days with his beloved dog. On occasion, he reports illegal crossings to the authorities. Miguel and his mother are forced to flee Mexico when his uncle finds himself on the wrong side of the drug cartel. The only thing tying Jim to Miguel is the murder of the boy’s mother in his presence; her last wish is for Miguel to be handed over to relatives in Chicago.

This granting of a dying mother’s final wish keeps gnawing away at Jim through the story. His prickling conscience and intense demeanour have him breaking the law in order to fulfil that promise. One look at Neesom’s face and you know that his character is man who doesn’t break promises. The exchanges between Neesom and Perez move from initial awkwardness and distrust to more genial territory as the plot progresses. Jim does all the talking at the start, peppering his English sentences with the only Spanish word he knows: comprende . Miguel remains as reticent as ever, until finally, he retorts in perfectly good English. This sequence is indeed funny, as Jim’s response bears testament: “Well, well, well. He speaks!” 

These two characters are generations and worlds apart, but find ways to make the best of a difficult situation. And whether they are bonding over Jim’s dog or learning from each other’s individual histories, such aforementioned scenes form the best The Marksman has to offer. Their acting holds up a rather cliché-ridden narrative. Neesom is his brooding and intense best, while Perez is as natural as can be. This brooding intensity we have come to expect from just about every Liam Neeson performance (even in the more dreadful films) is unwavering over here. He may be outrunning and outsmarting the drug mafia or providing perspective to a young boy on the ill-effects of violence or occasionally whipping out his sniper rifle when his back is to the wall, but one thing he does not do is slip out of character.

The anti-violence stance of the film is indeed an intriguing one, and comes to the fore in one of the last scenes involving Jim, Miguel, and the leader of the drug cartel. Jim is forced to use violence to protect the boy and himself, but he will see to it that Miguel does not go down the same road.

On the whole, the plot treads the beaten track. Some of the characters are decently sketched out and the acting is fairly good, but the story’s broad strokes render it both predictable and average. However, it is the pairing of two very different characters and their many conversations on the run, that pique our curiosity. The cross-country chase outranks shorter sequences of shootings and hand-to-hand combat. And though Liam Neeson is great in whichever way one chooses to see it, he is in desperate need of better scripts to show off the full range of his acting ability. 

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Marksman’ on VOD, Another in a Growing Pile of Boilerplate Liam Neeson Action Movies

Where to stream:.

• The Marksman
• Liam Neeson

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Another year, another movie requiring Liam Neeson to carry a gun and wear a weary expression. Now on VOD, The Marksman is the latest of the stalwart star’s steady-as-she-goes action movies with interchangeable titles and interchangeable characters and interchangeable plots (although I’ll admit that The Grey stands out because it’s the one where Neeson fights WOLVES with his DAMN BARE HANDS). So as Neeson’s wont to do, will he make this movie good enough to watch, or is it just crappy in spite of him? Let’s find out.

THE MARKSMAN : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Jim’s (Neeson) dwindling cattle ranch in Naco, Arizona butts right up against the Mexican border fence. We meet him as he lines up a coyote (literal, as in the four-legged animal) in his rifle sights and guns it down for killing one of his calves. Foreshadowing? Symbolism? MAYBE! He drives his battered American-made pickemup truck along the small portion of property he has left after selling chunks of it out of desperation. Sometimes he finds thirsty, suffering, vulnerable Mexican people in the scrub and reporting them to the border patrol: “Found one,” he says into his radio, and we’d find such objectification more objectionable if he hadn’t just shown some kindness and given the man some water.

He gets back to his house where he’s met by a bank jerk delivering a foreclosure notice. Jim points to a hill and tells the jerk that’s where his wife’s ashes are spread, but the jerk just reminds him he has 90 days, maybe less, to pay up or get out. Jim’s a Marine Corp vet who’s about to lose his farm because his late wife’s medical bills crippled him financially: America! He’s also an alcoholic whose stepdaughter Sarah (Katheryn Winnick), who happens to work for the border patrol, has to schlep his drunk butt home from the local watering hole. This is precisely the type of nothing-to-lose situation that’s ripe for Jim to, oh, I don’t know, come across a Mexican single mom and her son sneaking through the fence while being chased by cartel stereotypes, forcing him to gun down one of the bad guys during a firefight during which two people are killed, the sociopathic boss’ brother and the single mom, and therefore compelling one to road-trip the boy to his relatives in Chicago while being chased by the hellbent revengeful bad guys. Don’t you HATE when that happens?

Coincidentally, that’s exactly what happens to Jim. So he and young Miguel (Jacob Perez) sidestep the border patrol stepdaughter and take off in the now bullethole-ridden American-made pickemup truck, with the stereotypes hot on their heels. The road ahead of them is full of large, dangerous plot holes (not a typo), but I had confidence that Jim could drive and/or shoot through them at least competently. Not that I’m going to reveal whether or not he does that, because I SHOOT AND KILL SPOILERS FROM VERY FAR AWAY.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Marksman exists somewhere in the muck among Shooter ‘s ex-military sniper story, American Sniper ‘s bumpy Clint Eastwood politics, a Clint Eastwood grumpy-old-man movie, a Clint Eastwood grumpy-old-man Western and a half-dozen Liam Neeson actioners like one of the Taken s, Non-Stop and/or The Commuter .

Performance Worth Watching: Even in prosaic mediocrities like The Marksman , Neeson’s deep-sigh depictions of sad-guy desperation have just enough soul to make us almost care about what happens. (If you want a great recent Neeson performance, queue up Ordinary Love , but be warned, there’s no action or dumbass cliches in it.)

Memorable Dialogue: “It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he’s got, and all he’s ever gonna have.” — William Munny to the Schofield Kid, Unforgiven

Er, I mean, “Nothing feels good about killing a man.” — Jim to young Miguel, The Marksman

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: I know what you’re thinking — is this yet another sniper movie? Almost. It’s actually less original than that, being a conglomeration of generic characters working their way through a sloppyplot stacked with yeah-RIGHT eyeroller moments that gun down our suspension of disbelief from 375 meters away. Everything here is a cliche as weary as Neeson’s facial expressions: Tough-guy vet lost his wife, is losing the farm, drinks too much, bonds with the orphan boy on a road trip, gives the kid a shooting lesson, is way smarter than the bad guys, exists in a story that conveniently ignores the conflict of interest of his border patrol stepdaughter working his case, etc.

I’m surprised Jim doesn’t undergo a softening of his worldview, but it’s defined with enough vagueness that one can’t help but conclude that director/co-screenwriter Robert Lorenz is trying very hard to be apolitical. Jim’s take on immigration is that the government needs to get its act together, a no-shit-sherlock assertion that’s generically critical of The State of Things, but flies in the face of what we actually see in the movie, which is a distasteful depiction of drugs and thugs leaking out of Mexico. But this is Hollywood, so we’ll just give it a pass, right? NOPE: Looking beyond its basic-thriller plot, this movie is junked up with thoughtless, problematic subtext fitting a grossly xenophobic political narrative.

I feel the need to point out how The Marksman features the dumbest gun-store scene since the Bruce Willis Death Wish remake, and offers a crucial life lesson about NOT circling your road-trip destination on an atlas with a red felt-tip pen because it makes it easier for the Mexican bad guys to follow you — Mexican bad guys who, by the way, are so deeply connected that they’ve got cops on their payroll deep into the U.S., cops who conveniently patrol the exact same roads our protagonists are taking to Chicago. It’s really quite remarkable. Sure seems like there’d be more commonsensical ways of getting to a final shootout between the aging vet and the murderous heavies at a Midwestern farm that’s curiously populated with zero farmers, but I’m not a screenwriter earning piles of Hollywood money to write this dreck.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Neeson has used his charismatic presence to single-handedly rescue some boilerplate action movies from the scrap heap, but The Marksman is not one of them.

Should you stream or skip the Liam Neeson action movie #TheMarksman on VOD? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) May 12, 2021

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba .

Where to stream The Marksman

• Prime Video
• Stream It Or Skip It

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• DVD & Streaming

The Marksman

• Action/Adventure , Drama , Thriller

Content Caution

In Theaters

• January 15, 2021
• Liam Neeson as Jim; Katheryn Winnick as Sarah; Juan Pablo Raba as Maurico; Jacob Perez as Miguel

Home Release Date

• April 27, 2021
• Robert Lorenz

Distributor

• Open Road Films

Movie Review

As Jim Hanson rides the lower part of his Arizona ranch with his faithful dog, Jackson, he can’t help wonder how the world came to this.

He’s worked hard, paid his taxes, served his country. And yet here he is in the latter part of his life with what little he has being snatched away from him.

His beloved wife got sick from a horrible disease, and that drained away nearly every dime they had. Then she passed, and that drained away everything good left in Jim’s life.

The bankman showed up next, notifying Jim that he had 90 days before his scrub-covered stretch of land along the Mexican border would go into foreclosure.

How did it come to this?

Jim is wrenched out of his revery, though, when he almost hits a pair of illegals climbing through the border fence near the dirt road he’s driving. After slamming on his breaks and giving a call on his radio to the border authorities, he realizes that the pair appear to be a mother and son. And she’s pretty hurt: a nasty cut she got while climbing through the wire fence.

As Jim moves to help, he also spots drug-cartel thugs climbing out of their large black SUV on the other side of the fence. “Sorry, Pancho, these illegals are mine,” Jim calls when one of the thugs demands the return of the woman and her boy.

Then the shooting starts. And Jim, a former marine sharpshooter, returns fire. When it’s all said and done, the woman is shot and bleeding out. She offers Jim money and hands him a blood-soaked scrap of paper with an address in Chicago where the boy’s relatives are. And she begs Jim to promise to bring her son to them.

Of course, that’s insane. He’ll simply hand the boy over to border patrol. They’ll take care of him. But there’s something about the fevered intensity of those cartel goons. And there’s been just enough dirty money exchanging hands and corruption amongst the local authorities, that Jim is pretty sure the boy will be dead or back in the wrong hands very soon.

Even if Jim has lost everything else, he still has the ability and the wherewithal to protect an innocent. That hasn’t yet been stripped away from him.

Besides, he hasn’t been to Chicago in some time.

Positive Elements

In spite of his gruff exterior, there’s definitely a goodness to Jim’s action. He wants to do right by this boy, whose name is Miguel. And as the two travel together, they form a mutual understanding and friendship.

Jim also doesn’t want to break the law. But that’s something he feels forced to do to in order to protect Miguel and keep him out of corrupt hands.

Meanwhile, Jim’s stepdaughter, Sarah, is a border patrol agent. And she stretches her authority as much as possible to help protect her father.

Spiritual Elements

Early on, we see a statue of Jesus in a small Mexican town. As she dies, Miguel’s mother gives him her rosary.

Miguel, who was raised in a Catholic family, states that Jim’s dog is in heaven after the animal is shot and killed. Jim, however, makes it plain that he believes there’s “no such thing.”

When Miguel worries that his mother never got a proper funereal, Jim stops at a church and arranges for a small funereal service through a local pastor.

Sexual Content

Violent content.

We see a bloody man being tortured while hung up by his wrists under an overpass. The camera also catches a glimpse of a man with bloody feet who was injured while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

There are a number of shootouts between cartel thugs and Jim. He uses his sharpshooter skills to shoot various men in the head and chest from a distance. We also see one well-placed shot cause a speeding vehicle to flip and crash—after which, badly bloodied men crawl out of the wreckage. Jim gets shot as well and is stabbed several times in the side while being thumped around by a large man.

Jim also fights with a corrupt cop whom he eventually punches in the face and knocks unconscious. Cartel goons then arrive and execute the fallen policeman with a bullet to the head. A cartel henchman manhandles a young girl at a service station then kills her (offscreen). These criminals burn Jim’s ranch house down.

A man is given a sidearm to “honorably” end his own life. He does so (off-camera). We see a woman and a man both wounded and bleeding out. Jim shoots a wolf that’s attacking a young cow. (The camera examines the gaping bloody wound on the animal.)

Crude or Profane Language

A half-dozen s-words are joined by multiple uses each of “a–,” “h—” and “d–n.” God’s and Christ’s names are both misused on four occasions (with God being combined with “d–n” on three of those).

Drug and Alcohol Content

Jim drinks quite heavily on several occasions in a bar and a restaurant, twice getting pass-out drunk. He also carries a flask that he sips from. However, as he starts connecting with Miguel, he purposely bypasses the booze to stay clear-minded.

It’s obvious that the thugs chasing Jim and Miguel are part of a drug cartel. (Though we never see the drugs themselves.)

Other Negative Elements

We see several occasions where U.S. police and border agents break the law because they’ve been paid off with drug money.

Liam Neeson has found himself fitting snuggly into the older-guy-uses-his-seasoned-skills-to-take-on-some-nasty-characters kind of role. You know, the sort of grizzled hero part that both Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood championed in the latter part of their acting careers.

In this case it’s the tale of an aging ex-Marine sharpshooter whose crumbling ranch is facing foreclosure after his beloved wife’s hospital bills nearly wipe him out. He’s a lonely widower who just wants to do the right thing while fearing that the corrupt world around him won’t.

That’s the kind of selfless hero you can root for. And his choices suggest that there’s still something healthy and decent at the American core.

The problem is, while reaching for that goodness, this hero and his story both wade through quite a bit of bloody murders, heavy drinking and foul language. And their final dreary denouement—involving loss, suicide and ill-fated injuries—is none too heartening either.

Even this film’s sacrificial victory, then, plays out as something of a tragic defeat. You can blame it on a weak script or a faltering directorial vision. But The Marksman makes for a rather depressing and cheerless trip to the movies.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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The Marksman Reviews

Written, directed, lensed, and edited with all the grace of a drum-set falling down an elevator shaft.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Sep 17, 2005