44
Metascore
22 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckThe movie displays the measured pacing and tautness marking many of Eastwood's films, and Neeson delivers an Eastwood-style performance while also revealing an emotional vulnerability that proves fully relatable. It's easy to see how his distinctive combination of mature rugged masculinity and Irish soulfulness has made him a perfect action hero for these complicated times.
- 50The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThe A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyIf one were to diagnose a central problem with The Marksman, it’s that it isn’t actually a Clint Eastwood movie; it lacks the breathing room, the first-take nonchalance that always makes an attractive opposite to the Eastwoodian sense of purpose.
- 50Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzArizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzThe Marksman is not awful. It’s not particularly good, either, but it’s not the disaster it should have been. Part of that has to do with the way Lorenz stages the action — well-choreographed and tense. Part of it has to do with Perez, who combines being adorable with a kind of hard-won wisdom beyond his years that makes for a completely winning character.
- 50Chicago TribuneKatie WalshChicago TribuneKatie WalshThe film wants to speak to some kind of old school, lone-ranger American hero type (as portrayed by a man from Northern Ireland), but it’s too vague, shying away from any controversy, to say much at all.
- 45TheWrapAlonso DuraldeTheWrapAlonso DuraldeNeeson has certainly starred in worse action vehicles than The Marksman, but rarely have they been more forgettable.
- 42IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichIf superhero movies have unsurprisingly managed to outlive Stan Lee, a film as functional and flavorless as The Marksman suggests that Eastwoodism will die along with the man who inspired it.
- 40VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanThe director, Robert Lorenz, stages the action with a convincing ebb and flow, but thanks to an undercooked script what happens in between is mostly boilerplate.
- 40Screen DailyTim GriersonScreen DailyTim GriersonAlthough Neeson has a nice rapport with young costar Jacob Perez, there’s no escaping the formulaic storyline featuring uncomplicated good guys and abundantly villainous bad guys.
- 40Los Angeles TimesMichael OrdoñaLos Angeles TimesMichael OrdoñaThe Marksman is more drama than thriller, but really more old-fashioned western than anything else — and a familiar one at that.