It should be noted, first and foremost, thatLiam Neesonhas been in plenty of great movies and is a more versatile actor than some give him credit for. He’s become a surprisingly strong action star in the wake ofTaken, but has also proven capable of so much more, as demonstrated by his roles in great films likeSilence,Schindler’s List,Widows, andBatman Begins, to name just a few.
But Neeson is also very prolific as an actor, and sometimes, taking on multiple roles leads to a body of work that’s not super consistent. It’s not quantity over quality, necessarily, becausethere are still plenty of high-quality Liam Neeson movies, but so too are there a decent number of duds. What follows is a rundown of some of those duds, starting with the less-than-great and ending with the worst of the worst.
15’The Other Man' (2008)
Appeared as Peter
If you’ve ever wanted to see ahackneyed thriller about a love trianglethat stars Liam Neeson andAntonio Banderasas men competing over a character played byLaura Linney, thenThe Other Manis potentially just what you’re looking for. If you’re not after specifically that (which is, naturally, very likely), thenThe Other Manshould probably be avoided at all costs.
It’s pretty much been forgotten, especially considering the three main stars here are relatively well-known. The only semi-interesting thing to say aboutThe Other Manbeyond “it’s bad” is that it came out the same year that Neeson really reinvented his image by starring inTaken, with that film, of course,kicking off a string of soon-to-be-mentioned less-than-great action/thriller flicksstarring the man himself.
The Other Man
14’Marlowe' (2022)
Appeared as Philip Marlowe
30 years on fromthe groundbreakingThe Crying Game,Neil JordanmadeMarlowe, which is not nearly as good, but it does star Liam Neeson, so here it is. Neeson’s the central character, Philip Marlowe, with the film being set in the late 1930s and involving a complicated film noir storyline with the titular private detective finding himself in the middle of it all.
As a throwback to the noir films of old,Marlowecould technically be worse, but there are also numerous superior film noir movies made outside the genre’s primary golden era (the 1940s and 1950s).Marloweshifts out of being interesting and becomes something closer to dull unfortunately fast, andits sometimes impressive technical qualities can only take it so far, in the end.
Appeared as Mike McCann
The Ice Roadis adisposable at best andvery stupid at worst action moviethat managed to rope in a couple of noteworthy actors (namely, Liam Neeson andLaurence Fishburne), but was also happy to let them be on autopilot much of the time. The film concerns a rescue mission in freezing cold conditions, but having a clear goal – a group of trapped miners – does little to make things actually involving or exciting.
If you’re after vehicles being driven through perilous terrain in a movie, you’re better off watching either the originalThe Wages of FearorSorcerer(which starredRoy Scheider).The Ice Roadkind of wants to scratch a similar itch, but fails pretty miserably, ending up as a regrettably sleepy action/thriller movie that struggles to even feel recommendable as background noise.
The Ice Road
12’Memory' (2022)
Appeared as Alex Lewis
Marlowewasn’t the only time in 2022 that Liam Neeson starred in a movie with a one-word title beginning with “M” directed by someone who’d done much better things in the past. This other movie wasMemory, and the director wasMartin Campbell, who’s best recognized for being the filmmaker behind two popularJames Bondfilms:GoldenEye(1995) andCasino Royale(2006).
Memorysets itself up to be called unmemorable by anyone who puts the same amount of effort into reviewing this film as the people behind it put into making it. It’s an utterly plodding action/thriller movie that fails to have sufficient action or thrills, telling a boring story about a boring assassin who has memory loss and thereby struggles to stay one step ahead of the people who are out for him.It’s a weird gimmick to base a film like this around, and the execution leaves countless things to be desired.
11’Absolution' (2024)
Appeared as Thug
So,Memorywas a lackluster action movie featuring Liam Neeson as someone with memory problems, and nowAbsolutionisa lackluster crime moviefeaturing Liam Neeson as a different person who also has memory problems. He’s an aging gangster who wants redemption and seeks to distance himself from the life he used to lead, but – shock, horror – that turns out to be easier said than done.
It’sgot a generic title, butAbsolutionprobably wishes it was of generic quality. It’s worse than that, and feels muddled when it comes to balancing the crime elements alongside the sappier family drama stuff. It’s hard to care too much when everything is just so flat and lacking in commitment or believable emotions. It’s sloppy stuff, and is likely to challenge the attention span of even the most die-hard Liam Neeson fans out there.
Absolution
Appeared as Peter Swan
Not to be mixed up with those movies featuring the Merc with a Mouth,The Dead Poolactually belongs to theDirty Harryseries, being the fifth and final one for the series that spanned nearly two decades. It’s not one ofClint Eastwood’s finest hours cinematically, and neither is it one of Liam Neeson’s, the latter appearing here as a film director who’s suspected of murdering a rock star (played byJim Carrey, of all people).
Maybe there’s some novelty in seeing Neeson and Carrey show up in aDirty Harrymovie, given both were relatively young at the time and – especially for Carrey – not yet famous. Eastwood goes through the motions to some extent, as does most of the rest of the film, which rarely comes alive or excites. It’s not nearly as gripping or action-packed as it needs to be, butThe Dead Poolisn’t technically the worst thing ever; just disappointing and only sporadically interesting.
The Dead Pool
9’A Million Ways to Die in the West' (2014)
Appeared as Clinch Leatherwood
It’s hopefully not too controversial to suggest thatSeth MacFarlane’s work in the film and TV sphere has been a little inconsistent. He’s the creator ofFamily Guy, of course, which has its good episodes and a fair few not-so-good ones. He was also behindTed, though that film’s sequel wasn’t nearly as good. Between theTedscame another misfire on MacFarlane’s part:A Million Ways to Die in the West.
There’s an impressive cast here, cameos galore, and the sort ofirreverent humor (now with a Western slant)that has worked in other projects MacFarlane’s undertaken, but things never quite materialize into something genuinely compelling.A Million Ways to Die in the Westhasscattershot jokes and feels longer than it actually is, and not even a villainous Liam Neeson performance can do much to save it.
A Million Ways to Die in the West
8’Taken 2' (2012)
Appeared as Bryan Mills
Takenprobablywasn’t the kind of movie that ever needed a sequel, to the point where it’s hard to imagine whata genuinely good follow-upcould look like. The original, released in 2008, worked because it was no-nonsense, had a handful of memorable lines/sequences, told a simple story, and featured Liam Neeson emerging as a surprisingly good older action star. The film wasn’t amazingly well-received critically, but it did enough, and proved successful financially.
The sequels makeTakenlook like an action/thriller masterpiece, withTaken 2feeling, at best, like a fairly desperate cash-grab. And grab cash it did, proving successful by grossing nearly$400 million and costing less than $50 million. Instead of Neeson’s character’s daughter getting kidnapped, inTaken 2, he and his wife get kidnapped, because the father of a kidnapper in the first movie wanted revenge, and… well, just trying to summarize it all is exhausting. But it gets worse!
7’Taken 3' (2014)
The kidnapping shenanigans are dropped forTaken 3… at least at first, with Bryan Mills’s daughter eventually getting abducted once again closer to the film’s conclusion. But before then,Taken 3is largely about Mills getting framed for a murder, and then going on the run while trying to find out the truth, and eventually getting revenge against whoever actually committed the murder.
“Man on the run” thrillers are almost always fun when done right (seeThe Fugitiveanda good many Alfred Hitchcock movies), but the execution is lacking when it comes toTaken 3. This is a step-down from the already not-greatTaken 2, andfeatures the least compelling action – and most sluggish pacing – of any film in the series(with some of the editing, of all things, being infamously bad).
6’Wrath of the Titans' (2012)
Appeared as Zeus
2012 was not a great year for Liam Neeson, because not only wasTaken 2released, but so too wereWrath of the TitansandBattleship. To focus on the former (for now),Wrath of the Titanswas a sequel to a movie that already wasn’t particularly great –Clash of the Titans(2010) – but was apparently good enough/successful enough to warrant a sequel.
Asa live-action fantasy moviewith generous helpings of computer-generated imagery,Clash of the Titanswas serviceable at best, andWrath of the Titansultimately felt more underwhelming and can most generously be described as “more of the same.” But, releasing a sequel that doesn’t offer much new so soon after the original? It’s not exactly a recipe for success,but at least the film does have Liam Neeson playing a Greek God (Zeus) who getsTaken(well, imprisoned, thereby needing to be rescued). So that’s something. Maybe.
