The Marksman (2021)

 

Director Robert Lorenz. Cast: Liam Neeson, Jacob Perez. 108 min. Action/Drama.

• Liam Neeson keeps on with his "retired action guy" roles (the Taken trilogy, Unknown, Non-Stop, The Commuter, etc etc), because hey ... acting may be an art form, but even actors need to pay bills. Neeson seems to have given up on that trivial thing called versatility. 
• Here he has a calling to deliver an illegal alien boy to his family in Chicago, with the Mexican drug cartel in hot pursuit. The storytelling and kind-hearted old man with youngster in peril themes are highly reminiscent of Clint Eastwood's style (as recent as Cry Macho), and of course, midway through the movie we see the boy watching an Eastwood movie in a motel. (I later found out that the director has produced some of Eastwood's films, namely Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino.)
• The movie shows the drug cartel pulling some powerful strings both at the border and within the US. This much influence is either dramatized, or if true, quite scary.
• Don't blame me for watching this - I was stuck on an airplane.

MoGo's rating: 5/10

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