There’s been a long stream of movies featuring Liam Neeson in aging action star mode that began with Taken back in 2008, and the actor is still going strong. The latest in this ongoing career arc is The Marksman, which finds the actor playing an ex-Marine sharpshooter just trying to get by on an isolated stretch of borderland. But when a young immigrant child on the run ends up in his care, he takes it upon himself to fend off the drug cartel assassins who are on his trail.

The Marksman Trailer

Is it just me, or does it seem like Liam Neeson is phoning this in? He’s never been too skilled at an American accent, and here it seems like he’s barely trying to make it happen, especially when he spouts off that brilliant line, “I was in the Marine Corps, so I suggest you all turn around and adios.” Now that’s what I call dialogue!

This is exactly the kind of movie that you expect it to be, with a trio of drug cartel assassins in hot pursuit of Kinda Cowboy Liam Neeson as they head towards Chicago, evading the law as much as they can. Though the focus in the trailer is on the action, the official synopsis below hints at the unlikely relationship that forms between Neeson and the boy, which feels like it’s similar to the long-developing Cry Macho that Clint Eastwood recently picked up to finally make.

The Marksman is directed by Robert Lorenz, who also co-wrote the script with Chris Charles & Danny Kravitz. Where will it rank among the rest of the old man Liam Neeson action movies? We’ll find out next year.

Hardened Arizona rancher Jim Hanson (Liam Neeson) simply wants to be left alone as he fends off eviction notices and tries to make a living on an isolated stretch of borderland. But everything changes when Hanson, an ex-Marine sharpshooter, witnesses 11-year-old migrant Miguel (Jacob Perez) fleeing with his mother Rosa (Teresa Ruiz) from drug cartel assassins led by the ruthless Mauricio (Juan Pablo Raba). After being caught in a shoot-out, a dying Rosa begs Jim to take her son to safety to her family in Chicago. Defying his cop daughter Sarah (Katheryn Winnick), Jim sneaks Miguel out of the local U.S. Customs and Border Patrol station and together, they hit the road with the group of killers in pursuit. Jim and Miguel slowly begin to overcome their differences and begin to forge an unlikely friendship, while Mauricio and his fellow assassins blaze a cold-blooded trail, hot on their heels. When they finally meet on a Midwestern farm, a fight to the death ensues as Jim uses his military skills and code of honor to defend the boy he’s come to love.

The Marksman is slated to arrive in theaters in January 22, 2020.

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