An amnesiac action thriller that forgot to make any money at the box office retraces its streaming steps

Even Liam Neeson’s staunchest supporters would surely agree that it’s about time he finally made good on his promise to retire from the action thriller business, with Memory one of several recent examples that underline in no uncertain terms just how drastically the law of diminishing returns has set in.

Despite boasting an esteemed and accomplished filmmaker at the helm in the form of GoldenEye, The Mask of Zorro, and Casino Royale‘s Martin Campbell (yes, and Green Lantern), as well as a talented supporting ensemble filled out by Guy Pearce, Monica Bellucci, and the late Ray Stevenson to name but three, the forgetful shoot ’em up was a catastrophe on every level.

Earning a paltry $14 million at the box office – which used to he the low end for an opening weekend when Neeson was indulging his particular set of skills – Memory was also sunk by a stone-cold 29 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. Then again, an 81 percent audience approval rating shows that it appealed to the target audience, but it’s evident that none of them actually paid for a ticket to see it on the big screen.

Nevertheless, regardless of his downturn in box office fortunes, Neeson can always be called upon to propel a bog-standard genre film to untold heights on streaming, and he’s at it again after FlixPatrol named Memory as one of the most-watched movies on the charts of both Prime Video and HBO Max over the weekend.

The veteran headliner’s elite operative is seeking that fabled “one last job,” but a combination of a moral compass and his failing cognitive abilities creates a maelstrom of mayhem that leaves him with no other choice but to shoot his way out, as Neeson has been wont to do over the last decade and a half.