Poor Liam Neeson can’t seem to catch a break these days, with the actor’s repeated returns to the action thriller well suffering horribly from the law of diminishing returns. Even when he isn’t beating bad guys to a pulp in a B-tier shoot ’em up, the results are largely the same; as last year’s Marlowe can attest.
Guaranteed a spot in the history books as the leading man’s landmark 100th feature credit at least, director Neil Jordan brought Raymond Chandler’s iconic investigator into live-action for the 17th time across film and television, and it proved to be a fairly futile exercise in the grand scheme of things.
Despite stellar work from Neeson in the title role, Marlowe may have had the opportunity to launch a franchise of its own had it not been treated so harshly by critics and crowds alike. Respective Rotten Tomatoes scores of 25 and 37 percent from both parties hammer home the overwhelming sense of disappointment, never mind that the film barely managed to squeak past $5 million at the box office.
Neeson does have a habit of seeing his back catalogue stir up a new lease of life on streaming, though, which is just as well when that seems to be about the only way people would ever get around to watching Marlowe. Per FlixPatrol, the already-forgotten crime caper has emerged as one of the top-viewed movies on Prime Video, iTunes, and Google Play’s worldwide rankings, proving once again that no matter how many interminable thrillers he continues lending his name to, the elder statesman of ass-kicking is still a draw on the small screen.
Published: Aug 28, 2023 03:15 am