Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

The Marksman Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 1, 2021

Were The Marksman either a great film or a poor film there would be an easy introduction for it, to say it "hit the bullseye" or "missed the mark completely." But as a midrange film it...at least hits the paper, albeit somewhere off to the side and well off-center. Director Robert Lorenz's (Trouble with the Curve) film delivers perfectly fine entertainment -- it's solidly built, tells a capable story, and boasts fine acting -- but it's also a completely generic picture. Its heart beats but its soul is nowhere to be found. The movie holds value for the excellence of its essential ebbs and flows but it misses the opportunity to dig deeper beyond the surface. That is the problem with so many Liam Neeson vehicles these days: they are, like Marksman, movies made by rote, internally empty shells that rely on superficial polish to cover up for the lack of purpose.

Arizonan Jim Hanson (Neeson) is a decorated Vietnam veteran, diligent civilian border patroller, and recent widower who is on the verge of losing his home. His wife's illness bled his bank account dry and he has little hope of financial recovery. One day while travelling along the Mexican border, Jim spots a pair of immigrants -- a mother and her son -- crossing the fence. He stops them and radios Border Patrol for pickup but before help can arrive the Mexican cartel appears on the scene and a firefight ensues. The three barely escape but the mother (Teresa Ruiz) is fatally wounded. She leaves her son Miguel (Joe Perez) in Jim's care and begs of Jim to take him to Chicago where he has family to look after him. Jim ultimately chooses to help but quickly comes to realize that the cartel, led by Mauricio (Juan Pablo Raba), is chasing them across the country and will stop at nothing to kill him and the boy.

If the basic plot synopsis wasn’t already clue enough, The Marksman is a Liam Neeson movie through-and-through. The venerable, if not typecast, actor once again plays a man who is more than handy with a gun and who has a willingness to put his skills to work when the situation turns dire enough to warrant his efforts. The filmmakers have also wisely built in him a man with nothing to lose and only everything to gain by taking young Miguel under his protective care. He’s a broken man whose personal life has befallen tragedy and his projected future is one of steady downward spiraling. Of course, and as with all that the movie has to offer, most of this is only explored at a superficial level; this is by no means a deep character study where one might have rightly, and richly, existed. Lorenz simply builds a picture with bare minimum backstory that is enough to invest the audience and propel the action forward, paying little heed to the more substantial undercurrents along the way.

It works, though, in that context of superficial excitement and façade focus. Neeson is right at home in the part, portraying the broken man with a legitimate feel for the glum and gloomy, sullen and sad man that defines the character. He, more so than the script, develops the character to enough satisfaction to carry the rest of the film, even if the audience is left wanting a more deeply rooted and narratively insightful exploration into his psyche in several areas: his wartime exploits, emotional unbalance and upheaval following his wife’s death, and his sudden care for Miguel when he makes reporting illegal aliens his primary work on his way to financial destitution and personal collapse. But he holds the movie together, sharing good chemistry with Joe Perez, the young boy who plays Miguel. Juan Pablo Raba is physically effective as the antagonist. The film features well executed shootouts and several scenes of legitimate tension.

The Marksman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Marksman was digitally photographed and brings a clean, clear, high efficiency image to Blu-ray. The picture can essentially be assessed from the outset as the action begins to unfold in a dusty Mexican village where clarity reaches general standard for format excellence, where textures impress for intimate yield, and color reproduction soars. The picture never wavers from the establishing opening minutes. Audiences will find high end clarity and tight, intimate definition throughout, ranging from facial stubble and wrinkles to fine clothing definition. Environments are finely revealing throughout the film, offering expressive definition to a number of locations ranging from Hanson's home interior to ragged motel rooms, from convenience store interiors packed with little treasures to a barn stacked high with hay as seen in one late film critical sequence. Colors are healthy and vibrant. The palette is consistent in output, offering steady, high impact colors that effortlessly bring real world color spectrum balance and integrity to the screen. Basics like skin, blue skies, and natural greens never disappoint. Black levels are likewise on point. The picture suffers from no egregious noise and is not home to any other serious source shortcomings or encode flaws. No complaints here.

The Marksman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Marksman's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is fundamentally effective if not a little flat and unaggressive. The track does start well with its effortless recreation of wide-open Western spaces in the opening act that takes place primarily in Mexico and, later, along the border in Arizona. Listeners will find an agreeably defined feel for location immersion as light winds and background insects gently, but accurately, define the location. On the flipside, music and gunfire are not quite so commanding as they might perhaps should have been, neither one playing with that sort of expressive depth or high yield intensity a movie like this would seem to demand. Instead, both are tepid at reference volume, picking up a little here and there but even some of the more intense shootouts don't accomplish much from a sonic perspective. Still, the net effect is fine, just nothing that will test a sound system's limits. Dialogue delivery is always fine for volume, center positioning, clarity, and prioritization.

The Marksman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Marksman contains one extra. The Making of 'The Marksman' (1080p, 8:19) runs through the typical supplemental gamut: story essentials, cast and characters, Neeson's commitment to the part and the film, the qualities the remainder of the cast brought to the film, and Robert Lorenz's direction. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase. This release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.

The Marksman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Marksman offers relatively safe cinema escape -- it's an enjoyable watch -- but it's also devoid of any deeper meaning or purpose. It's a Liam Neeson vehicle if there ever was one, a simple, straightforward Action film that feigns its way around the center heartbeat and expends most of its energy on the essential ebb-and-flow superficialities. Audiences seeking empty calorie moviemaking will find this a perfectly good film. It's technically well executed and, yes, it's an agreeable 100-some-minute diversion. But its ignorance of and unwillingness to explore deeper content -- the surrogate father-son relationship, proclivities towards good and evil -- to which it so frequently hints is plainly lacking. Universal's Blu-ray delivers fine video and acceptable audio. One extras is included. Worth a purchase on a steep sale.