THE MARKSMAN : Tuesday 2nd February 2021.

'THE MARKSMAN' which I saw at my local multiplex cinema this week is an M Rated American action thriller Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written by Robert Lorenz who has twenty-seven credits to his name as Second Unit Director or Assistant Director, seventeen as Producer and four as Director, with this film being only his second film making outing in his own right after 2012's 'Trouble with the Curve' featuring Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake. Lorenz has worked as a Producer on all of Clint Eastwood's films since 'Blood Work' in 2002 upto 'American Sniper' in 2014. Released in the US and in Australia two weeks ago now, this film has so far grossed US$10M off the back of a US$23M production budget and has garnered mixed or average Reviews along the way.

The film opens up in Mexico with Carlos (Alfredo Quiroz) being chased through a market while telephoning his sister Rosa (Teresa Ruiz) ordering her to take her young son young Miguel (Jacob Perez) and flee the town and make it across the border because the cartel are after him, and when they catch up with him, they'll then come after them. Next up we see the cartel having caught up with Carlos and having strung him up under a bridge and beaten him bloody, he is killed. We then cut to the Arizona/Mexican border and Jim Hanson - a retired US Marine who saw two tours in Vietnam - who unofficially patrols the border from his ranch and calls in to the Border Police any sightings of IA's (Illegal Aliens) attempting to gain illegal crossings into the United States. 

We learn that Jim's wife died three years earlier of cancer and he is in arrears with his mortgage payments on his modest home. A representative from the bank drives up to the ranch one day and catches Jim off guard with the news that they will foreclose in ninety days unless he can come up with the balance of monies he owes in arrears. Later that night Jim is in bar drowning his sorrows when walks in Sarah, his daughter (Katheryn Winnick) who works for the Border Police. Sarah escorts Jim home, they talk briefly and Jim falls asleep in a drunken stupor on the sofa. 

The next day Rosa and Miguel make it to the border fence between Mexico and Arizona, when they spy a black SUV approaching. Guessing it is the cartel gang hot on their heels they make it through a hole in the fence to the other side just as Jim approaches in his pick-up truck. Jim stops abruptly and questions the mother and son, who plead with him to let them pass, just as the SUV pulls up on the other side of the fence. Out step three heavies, who initially play it very cool saying that they want the woman and child returned to them, but still Rosa pleads with Jim. 

Needless to say in no time a gunfight ensues with Jim using his very particular set of skills as a former US Marine marksman to take out one of the heavies who just happens to be the brother of the leader of the gang, Maurico (Juan Pablo Raba). Maurico gives chase on foot but is evaded by Jim who escapes in his pick-up truck with Rosa and Miguel. However, Rosa has been shot in the stomach and is bleeding out. Once clear of the remaining cartel members Jim pulls up and helping Rosa out of the vehicle, she says her final goodbye to her son and asks that Jim looks after Miguel and takes him to his family in Chicago. Jim reluctantly agrees.    

Jim contacts Sarah and explains what went down. The Border Police arrive and take Miguel into their custody before decisions are made about his future. Jim knows that if Miguel is returned to Mexico he'll be dead within a week. And so, Jim busts Miguel out of the Police Station and off they head to Chicago. But, Maurico is already hot on their heels with three of his heavies having crossed the official border checkpoint into the US. Maurico is able to track down Jim's homestead and arrives there. Having rifled through his belongings, he sets the place alight and it burns to the ground with all of Jim's worldly possessions therein.

Jim uses his credit card to refuel and secure a road map somewhere in New Mexico, and this alerts Maurico to his whereabouts, who by now are a few hours behind Jim and Miguel. Jim in the meantime has found a bag that was being carried by Rosa containing a stash of US $100 bank notes - the money that the cartel want back and which ultimately cost Carlos his life. Continuing their journey, Jim's truck radiator springs a leak and they decide to hold up en route overnight waiting for a repair job in the morning. Again, Jim uses his credit card to pay for the repair job and Maurico tracks them to Route 66 in Oklahoma. 

Continuing their journey they are pulled over by a Police Patrol car, whose corrupt officer calls it into Maurico revealing their exact location. A fist fight breaks out when Jim smells a rat and suspects that something is not quite right with the officer. He knocks out the officer and handcuffs him to the front bumper bar of his patrol car. Jim and Miguel then speed off, hide the vehicle out of sight and climb to a vantage point to view the arrival of Maurico, who ultimately shoots and kills the officer, before departing the scene.

Jim stops further along the way to purchase a rifle and a handgun from a gun shop. This time Jim pays in cash, and strikes up a conversation with the store owner about his Vietnam background, his reasons for needing the guns and the fact that the owner will need to run a background check. Jim says that he doesn't have time to wait around for the results of the check and implores the store owner to take his word that he is trustworthy and responsible. The store owner relents and says that if asked he'll just say that the guns were stolen. 

Some fifty miles outside of Chicago, Jim's truck is sighted on the freeway by some local heavies that Maurico had enlisted to keep a look out for. It's not long before Maurico's SUV is on the scene giving chase to Jim's pick-up truck on the rural backroads of the Chicago hinterland. Jim's radiator blows again, and he brings the truck to a halt across the road over the brow of a hill. Taking out his rifle, he waits for the SUV to come into view and shoots the driver clean in the head sending the SUV crashing end over end into a nearby field. Out clamber three passengers, badly shaken, bloodied and stumbling to their feet a firefight breaks out. 

Jim and Miguel run to a nearby farmhouse pursued by the three. Jim is able to take out two leaving Maurico, who by now has captured Miguel. A skirmish breaks out between Jim and Maurico in which Jim is stabbed, but he manages to gain the upper-hand on Maurico and shoots him in the stomach. Jim orders Miguel to leave the barn intending to shoot Maurico dead but instead unloads the clip from his handgun and leaves him with a single bullet in his gun with the choice to kill himself or return home to Mexico. Jim and Miguel leave the farm as a single gunshot rings out.

The pair eventually arrive at the home of Miguel's family in Chicago. Miguel knocks on the door and is greeted overwhelming by his extended family. Miguel turns around to acknowledge Jim, but he is gone. Jim boards a bus holding onto the wounds in his side which he was able to hide from the young lad, and closes his eyes to rest. 

This film is a formulaic by the numbers predictable thriller but having said that it is reasonably well crafted. If you are expecting a high body count from which Neeson takes out a whole army of bad guys single handedly, then you're likely to be disappointed, as his body count here you can notch up on one hand. Instead Neeson and Director Lorenz opt for a much more human and emotional storyline that occupies the entire second act as old man and young lad head north east from Arizona to Illinois stopping en route to sleep, eat, drink, refuel, get the truck fixed up, buy guns, bury Jim's beloved dog, and attend an impromptu funeral service for Rosa - all the while dodging them pesky no good cartel types. Neeson is solid enough in this role which he's played countless times before and could practically phone it in, and perhaps for this reason he's recently announced his retirement from making this kind of fare, which at the tender age of 68 now, by his own admission he's getting too old for and beginning to lack the credibility to be constantly beating up guys less than half his age. He's got a few more in the pipeline so chances are he'll go out with a bang, and in the meantime this simple plot that sees Neeson's everyman overcome adversity and save a young orphaned lad from those evil cartel men will be sure to please his fans and lovers of this sub-genre.

'The Marksman' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-