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Even if he had essayed the role 30 or 40 years ago, 70-year-old Liam Neeson would make an odd fit for Philip Marlowe. Raymond Chandler ’s L.A. detective, whatever his disposition (and it was frequently not great), was capable of cutting a sprightly figure. This was true in Chandler’s novels and true of most of the great actors who’ve played Marlowe over the years, including Humphrey Bogart , Dick Powell, James Garner , and Elliott Gould . Neeson, even when playing comedy—even when clearing chain fences in thirteen cuts in seven seconds , or whatever it was—has a weight to him that doesn’t let up. In the wrong context, it can lead to performances of lugubriousness rather than gravitas. 

But the fact of the matter is that here's Neeson, 70, reteamed with his " Michael Collins " director Neil Jordan , to play the title role in “Marlowe,” adapted not from a Chandler book but one by John Banville , sanctioned by Chandler’s estate. Set in Bay City, L.A., in 1939, the movie opens with a shot of palm trees against the sun before giving us a glimpse of Marlowe conjuring himself out of bed.

The cutting of a sprightly figure notwithstanding, Marlowe was never a character who was light or meant to be taken lightly. Marlowe does not have joie de vivre. Chandler conceived the detective as a sort of modern-day knight. Behind his ironical observations and biting one-liners, there was a sense not only of purpose but of duty. The old song says a man’s got to be true to his code. Chandler’s Marlowe was; so are Jordan and Neeson. But where other Marlowes in cinema got let off with mere world-weariness, here Neeson sometimes acts as if he’s just been run down by a steamroller. 

That’s not a complaint, or rather, it doesn’t have to be. In choosing not to make it one—in other words, by allowing Neeson and Jordan to have their heads—I was able to get a reasonable amount of enjoyment out of this film.

The plot is not of the near-Gordian-knot variety that characterized Chandler’s books. It’s a bit more like, well, “ Chinatown ,” and the presence of Danny Huston as a transparent—and white-suited!—villain underscores that. Marlowe is approached by Diane Kruger ’s Clare Cavendish, a married woman who’s a trifle peeved by the disappearance of her young, movie-industry-affiliated boyfriend. It turns out the guy faked his death; turns out that Clare suspected that but didn’t tell Marlowe when she hired her. Turns out, too, that Clare’s got a dowager-ish mom ( Jessica Lange ) with an intense interest in her daughter’s personal life and in the life of an ostensible “ambassador” who is himself involved in the lifeblood of a (fictional) film studio.

Add to that Huston’s sleazy nightclub owner, a frightened sister-of-the-not-actually-deceased, an aging starlet with some dope on the not-actually-deceased, a couple of cop friends of Marlowe’s, a side order of corrupt bigwig played by Alan Cumming , and a savvier-than-expected chauffeur ( Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje ), and you’ve got more than sufficient components for a percolating plot.

Thing is, “Marlowe” doesn’t do much percolating. William Monahan and Neil Jordan's script keeps a near-elegiac pace and tone (bolstered and sometimes mildly overthrown by David Holmes ’ multi-varied score) as they pepper the dialogue with allusions to Christopher Marlowe, James Joyce , William Strunk, Jr., and Greek myth. He imbues all his characters with a self-consciousness, an awareness that they’re players in a pool of rot, a place some want to wallow in and others want to get out of at least a little clean. Early on, Kruger’s character says to Neeson, “You’re a very perceptive and sensitive man, Mr. Marlowe. I imagine it gets you into trouble.” The remainder of the film is an elaboration of that declaration.  

There are quite a few fight scenes, but Neeson doesn’t enter into them eager to show off any, ahem, skills. Before landing a blow, he looks around the room, assesses the situation, and thinks through his opening move as if solving a chess problem. (Which is something Marlowe actually does, both on the page and in this picture.) After one set-to, he observes that, yes, he is getting too old for this. But this cinematic prose-poem contemplates the truth that “too old” also can mean “not dead yet.” And the movie does build up a head of sinister steam, leading to a climactic nightclub siege that’s a riot of colored lights (recalling scenes from Stanley Kubrick ’s “ A Clockwork Orange ” and Martin Scorsese ’s “ New York, New York ”) and grisly corpses.

As for Marlowe’s code, in this vision, it’s open to interior negotiation. At the movie’s end, the detective behaves a little more like a Dashiell Hammett protagonist than Raymond Chandler would think advisable. Revisionist this may be, but it’s done with smarts and, sure ... perceptiveness and sensitivity.

Now playing in theaters. 

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Marlowe (2023)

Rated R for language, violent content, some sexual material and brief drug use.

110 minutes

Liam Neeson as Philip Marlowe

Diane Kruger as Clare Cavendish

Jessica Lange as Dorothy Cavendish

Danny Huston as Floyd Hanson

Alan Cumming as Lou Hendricks

Ian Hart as Joe Green

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Cedric

Daniela Melchior as Lynn Peterson

Patrick Muldoon as Richard Cavendish

Colm Meaney as Bernie Ohls

• Neil Jordan

Writer (character)

• Raymond Chandler

Writer (based on the novel by)

• John Banville
• William Monahan

Cinematographer

• Xavi Giménez
• David Holmes

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‘Marlowe’ Review: The Adventures of a Worn-Out Gumshoe

Liam Neeson and Neil Jordan try to breathe new life into Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled hero.

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By A.O. Scott

In “Marlowe,” somebody quotes Christopher Marlowe, the Elizabethan poet and playwright. There’s also a reference to James Joyce on the subject of tea. But of course the movie’s main literary business, its principal reason for existing, is implied by the fedoras and floppy neckties, the cigarettes and slugs of whiskeys, the flatfoots and dangerous blondes.

Philip Marlowe, wearily played by Liam Neeson, is the hard-bitten private detective invented by Raymond Chandler in a series of stories and novels mostly published in the 1930s and ’40s. Back then, he was played by Humphrey Bogart in “The Big Sleep” (1946), and later by Elliott Gould in Robert Altman’s 1973 version of “The Long Goodbye.” “Marlowe,” directed by Neil Jordan and set in 1939, isn’t based on any of Chandler’s work, but on “ The Black-Eyed Blonde,” a 2014 Chandler pastiche (or tribute, if you prefer) written by the Irish novelist John Banville under the pseudonym Benjamin Black.

As is customary, the story begins with the appearance in Marlowe’s office of a woman, who engages his services as tobacco smoke curls in the moody sun that angles through the slatted blinds. A simple missing-person case, it seems at first, involving a man of dubious morals. Complications rapidly ensue, and Marlowe finds himself trading morose witticisms with members of Southern California high society as well as assorted lowlifes. The woman is named Clare Cavendish, and she’s played by Diane Kruger as part of a mother-daughter pair of femmes fatales. Her mother, Dorothy (Jessica Lange), is a wealthy and well-connected former screen star.

The cast is large and the costume and set designers have been kept busy with period details, but “Marlowe” neither dutifully copies nor cleverly updates detective-movie tropes. The dialogue is spiced with profanities and anachronisms, and the plot moves ponderously through a thicket of complications. The case of the missing gigolo, who may or may not have been run over by a car outside an exclusive club, leads Marlowe into a shadowy world of drug and sex trafficking.

Neeson fights off groups of much younger bad guys, as is his habit at this stage in his career. His Marlowe is a lumbering, melancholy figure, not so much cynical as bored by the endless corruption and duplicity he encounters. Some of that is embodied by accomplished performers — Danny Huston is always good as an eloquent rotter — but there isn’t much intrigue or conviction. The stakes, which somehow involve the fate of a Hollywood studio as well as the lives of motley strivers and schemers, seem trivial. The question of who did what and why is, at best, academic.

Marlowe Rated R. Smoking, swearing and gunplay. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes. In theaters.

A.O. Scott is a co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

In late 1930s Bay City, a brooding, down on his luck detective is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress. In late 1930s Bay City, a brooding, down on his luck detective is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress. In late 1930s Bay City, a brooding, down on his luck detective is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress.

• Neil Jordan
• William Monahan
• John Banville
• Liam Neeson
• Diane Kruger
• Jessica Lange
• 140 User reviews
• 105 Critic reviews
• 41 Metascore
• 2 nominations

Top cast 36

• Philip Marlowe

• Clare Cavendish

• Dorothy Quincannon
• Office Secretary

• Office Boss

• Nico Peterson

• Det. Joe Green

• Broad with the Cigarette
• (as Kimberly Delonghi)
• Security Guard

• (as Toni Corvillo)

• The Ambassador

• Richard Cavendish

• Lynn Peterson

• (as Jose M. Maciá)
• Pat the Bartender
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia This film is based upon the 2014 novel "The Black-Eyed Blonde" by Benjamin Black , not one of Raymond Chandler 's original Marlowe works.
• Goofs After Liam Neeson's Marlowe is knocked unconscious by the thugs, he tells Ian Hart's police detective that the thugs took his .38 caliber pistol when it was a .45 automatic in the previous scene. Hart hands Marlowe what he calls "another .38," which is a .32 caliber revolver.

Philip Marlowe : [after beating up two thugs] Fuck it!

[grabs a chair and hits one of them in the head]

Philip Marlowe : I'm too old for this shit!

• Connections Referenced in OWV Updates: The Seventh OWV Awards - Last Update of 2022 (2022)
• Soundtracks Coubanakan Written by Louis Sauvat , Robert Champfleury & Moïse Simons (as Moises Simons) Published by S.E.M.I., Paris (France) administered by peermusic (UK) Ltd. Performed by Los Lecuona Cuban Boys Courtesy of Ceiba World Music SL

User reviews 140

• Feb 17, 2023
• How long is Marlowe? Powered by Alexa
• February 15, 2023 (United States)
• United States
• Open Road Films (United States)
• Storyboard Media (United States)
• Hotel la Gavina, S'Agaró, Gerona, Spain
• Parallel Film Productions
• Hills Productions AIE
• Davis-Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• €22,300,000 (estimated)
• Feb 19, 2023

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 49 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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As it is, Dublin and Barcelona take turns subbing in for Chandler’s fictionalized Los Angeles district of “Bay City,” neither one very convincingly; DP Xavi Gimenez paints over the geographical disparities with a uniform yellow filter that at least lends a fittingly twilit air to proceedings. The year is 1939 — the same year, as it happens, that Marlowe made his literary debut under that name in “The Big Sleep” — but the eponymous detective is a far older, wearier figure than in Chandler’s stories of the era, inclined more toward resigned shrugs than cynical wisecracks, his every line emerging as a kind of sigh.

Others complicating this living-dead investigation include lascivious gangster Lou Hendricks (a ripe Alan Cumming, saddled with a “back entrance” pun), his ambiguously loyal chauffeur Cedric (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, saddled with a dated racial stereotype), and Clare’s former movie star mother Dorothy Quincannon (Jessica Lange, saddled in rigid equestrian garb), a hostile, secretive broad whose question marks only begin with her plummy English delivery. “You’re a long, long way from Tipperary, Dorothy,” Marlowe mutters in the film’s most inadvertently amusing one-liner: The audience may well wonder how close she ever was.

Chandler’s plots were never designed to be neatly disentangled: The best of them of them are so cryptic as to be immersive, drawing readers and viewers into the characters’ own obsessive circling. “Marlowe,” however, offers inscrutability without intrigue, its mystery both too easily solved and too muddily motivated to pass muster, while its various villains and macguffins and red herrings check off genre boxes without building the requisite atmospheric haze. Marlowe himself, meanwhile, should be aloof but not as disengaged as he appears here: The veritable gorge of missing chemistry between Neeson’s gumshoe and Kruger’s femme fatale ensures neither party’s persistence with the case makes a whole lot of sense. “He must sense something between us,” Clare purrs following a prickly encounter between Marlowe and her ineffectual husband, waiting a beat before adding, “Something sexual .” Audiences may be glad of the clarification.

Jordan and Monahan are keen on the kind of dialogue that wouldn’t have got past the Hays Code in film noir’s heyday, yet its preponderance of four-letter words and franker allusions leaves “Marlowe” feeling more artificial than edgy, a permissive cosplay exercise rather than a fresh genre intervention. Where Robert Altman’s 1970s-set “The Long Goodbye” ingeniously rewrote Marlowe for a then-new Hollywood, Jordan’s film is both resolutely conservative in its period framing and irksomely postmodern in its audience pandering: A strained Leni Riefenstahl shoutout is played for laughs, though the film risks no historical or political ideas of its own.

Indeed, the most contemporary embellishment here may be Neeson’s occasional, very non-noir switch-flip into all-out “Taken” mode, when his Marlowe briefly sets aside the droopy ennui to dispatch baddies with find-you-and-kill-you fisticuffs. “I’m getting too old for this,” he even growls after battering another disposable heavy, at which point it’s not clear who or what the joke is on: the film’s oddly placed star, its half-heartedly revived hero, or the genre it only intermittently appears to love. “The key to Hollywood is knowing when the game is up,” Lange’s imperious diva advises Marlowe at one point; “Marlowe,” on the other hand, never gets the memo.

Reviewed at San Sebastian Film Festival (Out of Competition — Closing Film), Sept. 23, 2022. Running time: 109 MIN.

• Production: (Ireland-Spain-France) An Open Road Films (in U.S.) release of a Parallel Films, Hills Prods., Davis Films production. (World sales: Storyboard Media, Los Angeles.) Producers: Alan Moloney, Gary Levinsohn, Mark Fasano, Billy Hines, Philip Kim, Patrick Hibler.
• Crew: Director: Neil Jordan. Screenplay: Jordan, William Monahan, based on the novel "The Black-Eyed Blonde" by John Banville. Camera: Xavi Gimenez. Editor: Mick Mahon. Music: David Holmes.
• With: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Colm Meaney, Ian Hart, Alan Cumming, Danny Huston, Seana Kerslake. (English dialogue)

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World-weary gumshoe Philip Marlowe has been played most famously by Humphrey Bogart but also by James Garner, Elliott Gould, Robert Mitchum and sundry others. Enter Liam Neeson , 70 this year but still apparently capable of disabling five assailants at once with the right small arms and some smashable furniture in Marlowe, Neil Jordan ’s frisky film noir pastiche. He’s in tough company. He also has a tough crowd – film noir purists, who are legion – to please.

The year is 1939; the setting is old Hollywood, though the film actually shot as an Irish-Spanish co-production in Barcelona. Marlowe is commissioned by Clare Cavendish (Diane Kruger), a dame who could cut diamonds with her teeth, to find her missing lover. Nico Petersen (François Arnaud) is – or was – a prop master at a film studio, making regular trips to Mexico to buy cheap ornaments that are a literal cover for the drugs he deals in the bowels of an ostensibly classy casino. The police say Petersen has been murdered. Mrs. Cavendish thinks not. Not so far, anyway.

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Everybody wants something on somebody else, says Marlowe at one point. There are a lot of everyones here, swapping Mickey Finns and barbed one-liners; just try to keep up. Mrs. Cavendish’s mother Dorothy (Jessica Lange), a former movie star, may or may not be her daughter’s love rival – not just for the missing man but for her own business partner and for Marlowe too, if either of these gals can swing a date. In the meantime, she tries to commission him as well. And she isn’t the only schemer trying to get Marlowe on the payroll; there’s a lot of money in this town, most of it filthy.

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So what about this Marlowe? Lines like “I’m too old for this,” panted in the middle of a fight, draw an appreciative chuckle from audiences, but Neeson is wearing pretty well. He can still run convincingly and has a neat way of bashing in a pane of glass with his elbow that tells you he’s done this kind of thing before. Obviously, Neeson is also his own genre. Inevitably, he brings the trappings of that genre with him, right into the heart of film noir: even in Bogie’s raincoat, he is recognizably the action guy from Taken , impassive of face and firm of fist.

So he isn’t Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe, to the chagrin of some viewers, but Jordan’s film isn’t Chandler either; it is based on The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black, the thriller writer who in real life is the Irish literary author John Banville. Read it as a commentary on the genre – a kind of meta-text studded with references most film-goers will pick up easily – and it all falls into place. The pacing, the use of light and the characters are illustrative: this is a film about film noir rather than the thing in itself.

It isn’t the first Marlowe film in color, but Jordan takes his color to the max, saturating it in golden light – sunshine outside and the glow of lamps inside – and then playing with that light, reflecting it from multiple mirrors, patterning entire scenes with stripes of shadow cast by Venetian blinds and sometimes peering through the refractions created by two windows in alignment. Similarly, the costumes could come from a “noir” dressing-up box. Neeson has the raincoat; Kruger has crimped bleached hair that, if nothing else, marked her out as a Bad Egg; Arnaud wears a matinee idol’s louche pencil moustache.

A good deal of writing about film noir of the ‘30s and ‘40s delves into its resonances in a world wracked by economic depression and the threat – followed by the horrible reality – of war; it is seen as a theater of anxiety. The modern parallels to those saber-rattling times are easy enough to draw, but nobody should take Marlowe too seriously. Any film featuring Alan Cumming as a gangster, so decadently and fabulously camp he seems destined to die in a frosting of pink bullets, is hardly aiming at streetwise realism.

Nor does it bear too much comparison with classic cinema, but does that matter? Marlowe isn’t perfectly hard-boiled, but it isn’t scrambled either. It’s fun and it’s fast: Information and wisecracks are packed into every minute of every scene to the point of giddiness. Casting is inspired across the board, including those actors whose accents veer dangerously towards Dublin – because what could be more redolent of old Hollywood than the echoes of exile? The sunshine is glorious, the palm trees reach the sky, ice cubes clink in crystal glasses and anyone – actually, in this story, pretty much everyone – can get away with murder. You might as well enjoy it.

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Violence, drugs in slick, cynical private-eye story.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Marlowe is a 1930s-set mystery/thriller featuring Raymond Chandler's iconic literary detective character Philip Marlowe (Liam Neeson), although it's based on a newer 2014 novel by John Banville. Violence includes guns and shootings (sometimes fatal), blood spurts and bloody wounds,…

Why Age 15+?

Guns and shooting (some fatal), with blood spurts. Dead bodies. Bloody crime sce

Several uses of "f--k." Also "s--t," "bulls--t," "ass," "up your ass," "goddamn,

Scenes in a sex club include a seemingly naked woman covered with cash, a man sl

Character sniffs cocaine. Characters sell drugs. Frequent cigarette smoking thro

Any Positive Content?

Movie is largely about wealth and power leading to corruption, greed, hypocrisy,

Marlowe works hard to keep ahold of his moral center, trying to do the right thi

Many central characters are White men; a Black character (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agba

Violence & Scariness

Guns and shooting (some fatal), with blood spurts. Dead bodies. Bloody crime scene. Car runs over a person's head, squishing it. Character threatened by two others with garden shears and shovel. Several scenes of fighting, punching, head-bashing, characters beaten up. Woman threatened with gun. Knife held to woman's throat. Character handcuffed to wall. Character grabbed by lapel, shoved up against wall. Building on fire. A character throws a tantrum in a restaurant, flinging a tablecloth from a table. A movie shoot depicts a man being shot by a Tommy Gun and crashing through a window. Actor made up to look like her eye has been shot out. Violent dialogue. Nazi symbols depicted during movie shoot.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Several uses of "f--k." Also "s--t," "bulls--t," "ass," "up your ass," "goddamn," "hell," "Jesus" (as an exclamation), "damn" "whore."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Scenes in a sex club include a seemingly naked woman covered with cash, a man slipping cash into a woman's stocking, women dancing in suggestive ways, etc. Sex-related dialogue. Discussions of infidelity, characters with many partners. Flirting. Kissing.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Character sniffs cocaine. Characters sell drugs. Frequent cigarette smoking throughout. Characters drink whiskey, scotch, and beer in several scenes. "Mexican powder" smuggled in statue. Characters are given "Mickey Finns" (i.e., knockout drugs). Dialogue about drug use ("heroin," "marks on his arms," etc.).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Movie is largely about wealth and power leading to corruption, greed, hypocrisy, and immorality. Discussion about how, especially in the 1930s, men could rise to power almost effortlessly while women were locked out.

Positive Role Models

Marlowe works hard to keep ahold of his moral center, trying to do the right thing, but due to the world he inhabits, he often resorts to lowdown schemes or violent behavior. He does show kindness to another character.

Diverse Representations

Many central characters are White men; a Black character (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) teams up with the main character to take down some villains. He has some agency, makes certain decisions on his own. But he's still viewed as a servant in the movie's 1930s setting, with far less power than his White counterparts. Women are depicted as being kept down by the system, but certain female characters with agency are able to manipulate things to gain advantage. Posters for a real movie called Mexican Spitfire , which starred the real-life Mexican-born performer Lupe Velez. Latino characters are depicted in minor roles as drug dealers. Minor characters use the terms "wetbacks" and "beaners." Term "Mick" is used to describe an Irish person.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Marlowe is a 1930s-set mystery/thriller featuring Raymond Chandler's iconic literary detective character Philip Marlowe ( Liam Neeson ), although it's based on a newer 2014 novel by John Banville. Violence includes guns and shootings (sometimes fatal), blood spurts and bloody wounds, dead bodies, fighting, punching, head-bashing, etc. A character's head is run over by a car, and a woman is threatened with a knife and a gun. There's kissing, mature sexual dialogue, infidelity, and brief scenes inside a sex club with scantily clad women. Language includes several uses of "f--k," plus "s--t," "ass," "goddamn," and more. Drug smuggling is part of the plot, a character sniffs cocaine, and characters drink (mainly whiskey) frequently and smoke cigarettes constantly. The story is more cynical than exciting or clever, but veteran director Neil Jordan 's skill and Neeson's slick performance make it worth a look for teens and up. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Just watch all but the last 5 minutes...

What's the story.

In MARLOWE, it's 1939, and private eye Philip Marlowe ( Liam Neeson ) is visited by society woman Clare Cavendish ( Diane Kruger ). She hires him to locate her missing lover, Nico Peterson, who's been declared dead, but Clare insists that he's still alive. Things get even twistier when Nico's sister, Lynn (Daniela Melchior), is brutally murdered. As Marlowe digs deeper, he finds himself in a world of faded movie stars ( Jessica Lange ) and dirty schemers and shady businessmen like Lou Hendricks ( Alan Cumming ) and Floyd Hanson ( Danny Huston ), with everything leading to a powerful character called The Ambassador. After Hanson makes his move, capturing and torturing Hendricks to find the location of a valuable object, Marlowe teams up with Hendricks' driver, Cedric ( Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje ), to take matters into his own hands.

Is It Any Good?

While the mystery here may disappoint Raymond Chandler fans, the rest of this well-crafted detective movie enthralls with its stylish, sordid underworld and fresh take on a classic character. Veteran director Neil Jordan directs Marlowe , and his high level of skill is immediately apparent. In his decades-long career, Jordan has proven to be most at home with crime stories, like this and the classic Mona Lisa . He has also worked with Liam Neeson several times, including on the biopic Michael Collins . Between them, there's hardly a misstep here, with Neeson finding Marlowe's complex moral center, as well as his dry charm. The catch is that this isn't a classic detective story like The Big Sleep . There isn't really an aha! moment in which everything becomes clear. Marlowe is more of a cynical, subversive story -- like Robert Altman 's grungy version of Chandler's The Long Goodbye -- using its familiar setting and characters to uncover hypocrisy, greed, and immorality. It can feel like a bit of a drag, but the point is not to wallow in nostalgia, but rather to suggest that the good ol' days weren't necessarily good.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Marlowe 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

What are the characters' attitudes toward sex in this movie? What values are imparted?

How are smoking, drinking, and drug use depicted? Are they glamorized? Are there consequences? Why is that important?

How is the Black character, Cedric, depicted? Does he have agency? How is his character affected by the time in which the story takes place?

How does this take on Marlowe differ from previous versions of the character? How is he similar?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : April 18, 2023
• Cast : Liam Neeson , Diane Kruger
• Director : Neil Jordan
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Open Road Films
• Genre : Thriller
• Topics : Book Characters
• Run time : 110 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language, violent content, some sexual material and brief drug use
• Last updated : May 10, 2023

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‘Marlowe’ Review: Liam Neeson's 100th Film Makes You Thirsty For More

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'Rebel Moon' Director’s Cut Review: Somehow, Zack Snyder’s Netflix Movies Got Worse

'oddity' review: a supernatural horror that will tear you to pieces, 'strange darling' review: willa fitzgerald and kyle gallner romance becomes a spectacular survival horror.

Watching any Liam Neeson -starring movie is rarely a bad experience. Even in the titles that feel repetitive – namely, those countless action flicks he’s starred in ever since Taken – his performances always find a way to pull you in and get you at least a little bit involved in the story. In his hundredth film Marlowe , this isn’t any different, even though by its very nature, the story doesn’t focus too much on the title character.

Set in 1930s Hollywood, Marlowe pays little homage to that era and noir cinema. The title character is a private investigator who is recruited by Clare Cavendish ( Diane Kruger ), an heiress who’s in search of her ex-lover Nico ( François Arnaud ). The only trouble is, he’s presumed dead and witnesses saw him die, but she says he's alive and well somewhere. It’s up to Marlowe to get to the bottom of this story and find out what truth is there in all versions of the story.

One of the best elements is Marlowe is that it fully understands the nostalgia that it’s evoking. At the same time, director Neil Jordan never lets this nostalgia take over: You get a glimpse of an old movie being filmed, but it’s never romanticized, and life in 1930s Los Angeles is depicted as pretty normal, even though it’s from the elite’s standpoint. The result is that you genuinely feel like you’re watching a Golden Era movie, which certainly works and looks a lot better on the big screen. And then there are the recurring themes of an investigative plot (Did Nico manage to fake his own death? Does Clare have ulterior motives?) which are always fun to watch and try to figure out.

One thing that may keep audiences at bay, though, is Marlowe’s involvement with the case. The detective is not really personally connected nor obsessed with it, which at times makes us feel the same general lack of connection. The case is intriguing and indeed makes us curious, but at the same time, it’s not the edge-of-your-seat mystery that makes you feel like you just have to know the answer to the riddle at all costs. And sometimes, that may keep the audience from connecting with the characters directly or indirectly involved in the mystery.

RELATED: Liam Neeson Talks ‘Marlowe,’ Playing the Hard-Boiled Private Detective, and ‘The Naked Gun’ Reboot

On the other hand, Marlowe has the luxury of managing to draw the audience in through its cast alone. Kruger, Alan Cumming , Danny Huston , and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje are always fun to watch, but there’s one particular pairing that greatly elevates the experience. Whenever you see Neeson and Jessica Lange interacting, you pretty much get the feel of being in the presence of Hollywood royalty doing their very best in every take, all the while making it seem effortless.

In one particular scene, Neeson and Lange are in a restaurant, and you get the feeling that the whole movie could just be these two talented actors talking to each other for two hours, and you’d absolutely buy it. Just seeing Lange interact with the environment around her and Neeson’s Marlowe trying to see through Lang’s character Dorothy provides all the fun you’d need during a screening, and the only problem is that we don’t get a lot of interactions between the two throughout the movie.

William Monahan ’s ( The Departed ) script makes a point of showcasing Neeson’s particular set of skills, and sometimes Marlowe gets into fights just so we won't forget that the Academy Award nominee can kick ass. It’s a shame the movie doesn’t make as much of an effort to showcase Marlowe’s wits, limiting the character’s most brilliant moments to scenes like him playing chess against himself and a maneuver with a dangerous drink you’d be hard-pressed to believe no one noticed his lack of sleight of hand (you'll know it when you see it).

Marlowe is a movie that seems okay with not giving its title character a whopping first impression. Luckily, Neeson’s performance is compelling enough to keep you interested, even though as the case unfolds you realize that it’s going in a pretty obvious direction. That’s why the movie greatly benefits from its cast, whose undisputable talent fire up the screen and make you feel like the trip to Golden Age Hollywood — which was beautifully recreated with a grade-A production and costume design — was worth your time.

Marlowe is playing in theaters now.

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Home » Movie News » Marlowe Review

Marlowe Review

Neil Jordan’s Marlowe is a solid new take on the classic Raymond Chandler character, with Liam Neeson an excellent noir hero.

PLOT: In 1939 Los Angeles, hard-boiled private detective Philip Marlowe (Liam Neeson) is hired by the daughter (Diane Kruger) of a legendary silent star (Jessica Lange) to find a prop man who went missing. Marlowe quickly finds himself embroiled in a case involving drugs, murder, and secrets that the powers-that-be in Hollywood would like kept secret.

REVIEW: With Marlowe , Liam Neeson finds himself stepping into the shoes of perhaps the most iconic film noir hero of all time. Writer Raymond Chandler’s books were big favourites in Tinseltown in the forties, with Dick Powell ( Murder My Sweet ), Humphrey Bogart ( The Big Sleep ) and many more playing Philip Marlowe during the peak noir era. In the seventies neo-noir revival years, the character once again became hip, with Robert Mitchum playing an older Marlowe in Farewell My Lovely and a remake of The Big Sleep . In contrast, Elliot Gould played a hip, spaced-out Marlowe in Robert Altman’s fantastic The Long Goodby e (which is streaming on Criterion Channel this month).

So how does Neeson compare to all these iconic portrayals? Quite well, actually. Like Mitchum, he plays an older Marlowe, but truth be told, even though he’s seventy, he doesn’t look much older than Powell and Bogart did when they played the character in their forties (and looks way younger than Mitchum did in his fifties). People age differently now, and Neeson’s taken care of himself. His Marlowe isn’t as quick with his mouth as Bogart’s, but Neeson does his own thing here. His Marlowe is world-weary but still an optimist, and as the character has always been portrayed, he has a code of honour that makes him incorruptible.

Director Neil Jordan , who’s memorably dabbled in noir with Mona Lisa and The Crying Game , is the perfect director to modernize the character. Notably, the film is based on a more recent novel, “The Black-Eyed Blonde” by John Banville, and the film feels more in keeping with our times than vintage Chandler. The premise, which involves a lot of evil done by studio chiefs, feels very much the product of a post-Weinstein generation. The movie gets more violent than Chandler would have been allowed to get in his novels. There’s a lot of darkness, especially once Neeson’s Marlowe begins digging deeper into the web of sin he finds.

As a concession to Neeson’s more recent status as our generation’s Charles Bronson (I mean that in a good way), there’s more action than you’d typically find in a Marlowe movie. He’s a lot quicker with his fists than Bogie ever was, with some brief, brutal fights effectively filmed by Jordan, who knows exactly how to showcase his leading man (with them having made High Spirits , Michael Collins , and Breakfast on Pluto together).

Jordan’s surrounded Neeson with a solid cast of character actors, including Jessica Lange in full Gloria Swanson mode as a former star who knows exactly where all the bodies are buried. Diane Kruger is being tipped as the movie’s femme fatale, but her character is more sympathetic than usual for the genre, and as keeping with classic Marlowe, he’s always too smart to fall for anyone’s charms. Some great Irish character actors like Ian Hart and Colm Meaney show up in small roles as Marlowe’s cop pals, while Danny Huston has a ton of fun channelling his father (the legendary John Huston) as the film’s central, coke-shovelling bad guy. Alan Cumming also pleasingly chews a bit of scenery as a red herring, with him effortlessly digging into screenwriter William Monahan’s fanciful take on the character. Plus, there’s former Lost star Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as a smarter-than-he-seems henchman, The Suicide Squad ’s Daniela Melchior, and a few others.

Best of all, though, is Jordan’s impeccable technical sense, with the film having a hyper-vivid visual style courtesy of DP Xabi Gimenez. Typically, neo-noir movies opt to mimic either the golden age black and white look or opt for a more art deco approach. Jordan has this shot like it’s Blade Runner , with incredible lensing that makes it look unlike anything else out there. The music by David Holmes ( Ocean’s Eleven ) is likewise excellent.

While it’s easy to see why people would be wary of yet another Liam Neeson action flick, Marlowe is one of the good ones. I haven’t liked much of his recent output , but with Jordan at the helm, the Monahan screenplay, the cast and the visuals, this is a surprisingly excellent modern noir that I really enjoyed. Aficionados of the genre will eat this up, provided you don’t go in expecting another Taken .

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About the Author

Chris Bumbray began his career with JoBlo as the resident film critic (and James Bond expert) way back in 2007, and he has stuck around ever since, being named editor-in-chief in 2021. A voting member of the CCA and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, you can also catch Chris discussing pop culture regularly on CTV News Channel.

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‘Marlowe’ Review: Liam Neeson Is The Dullest Denizen Of A Noir Lacking Energy and Wit

What do you get when you strip philip marlowe of raymond chandler and use barcelona as stand in for l.a. not much..

I thought Raymond Chandler ’s famous, fictional private dick and gimlet-eyed tough guy Philip Marlowe, who prefers nibbling on a pretty girl’s ear to plugging her crooked boyfriend, had packed up his shingle and retired to some condo in Palm Springs. I guess I underestimated Hollywood’s addiction to  sequels, prequels and recycling old hits into stale, second-rate repros. Marlowe, directed by Ireland’s Neil Jordan, drags him out of mothballs again, wearing the same old hat and the same rumpled suit from the 1930s every Marlowe from the past has worn, from Humphrey Bogart to Dick Powell and Robert Mitchum. The suit has worn out its welcome and so has Philip Marlowe.

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In the decades since Bogey played the downbeat investigator in The Big Sleep (l945), no improvements have been noted. Liam Neeson is a fine actor, especially on stage, but he’s too frayed around the edges and long in the chops to be mistaken for a debonair gumshoe, although not as hopelessly baggy as the woefully miscast Elliot Gould in The Long Goodbye (1973). In every incarnation, Marlowe has always been hired by a beautiful, dangerous, and bafflingly mysterious femme fatale who wants him to find a missing person. This time it’s an heiress ( Diane Kruger ) and the daughter of a hard-boiled film star ( Jessica Lange ) who enlists his services to find an ex-lover named Nico, one of the kingpins in the Hollywood underworld. Ironies build, narrow escapes accelerate, and familiar fisticuffs multiply, to little avail, in William Monaghan’s yawning screenplay.  

Not many filmmakers know how to make a film noir any more. Black and white camera work would help, but I don’t see any remedy to Liam Neeson’s bland expressions or indifferent line readings. In the clinches with Diane Kruger, there isn’t a shred of the sexy chemistry that turned Bogart and Bacall onto household names in The Big Sleep, and nothing happens you haven’t already seen orchestrated in keener and far superior films, such as Edward Dmytryk’s Murder, My Sweet and Roman Polanski’s Chinatown. Random characters appear to revisit early Hollywood locations, including a shady club owner (Danny Huston), a wealthy ambassador (Mitchell Mullen), a collector of rare and priceless antiques (Alan Cumming), and the missing man’s tortured sister (Daniela Melchior). They all waft in and out of incoherent subplots, contributing nothing important or fascinating to the narrative.  

Liam Neeson is the dullest denizen of this particularly unctuous Hollywood After Dark. As Marlowe, he uncovers the usual blackmail, grand larceny, homicide and other crimes corrupting the klieg light rays of Southern California, without much energy or wit. Distilled from the 2014 novel The Black Eyed Blonde  by John Banville, writing under the pen name Benjamin Black, this movie isn’t even original Raymond Chandler, and a great opportunity has been missed to bathe a film noir in the brittle ambience of old Hollywood, ignoring the glamour and decadence so beautifully captured in colorful films of the same period ( Farewell My Lovely and L.A. Confidential, to name just two). Marlowe is set in 1939, but it was filmed in Barcelona and Dublin, of all places, erasing its most valuable character—Los Angeles—and leaving the viewer under-stimulated by an oversexed pulp fiction hero who shrugs his way through it looking bored. His sleuthing is reduced to uncover the answers to only three vital questions: “Whose ashes are filling Nico’s urn?” “Why?” And “Does anybody care?”

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But how does a film become Verified Hot? In order to qualify for it, it has to earn a Verified Audience Score of 90% or higher on the Popcornmeter and meet a set of eligibility requirements, which you can read about here . If a film earns Verified Hot status, but its Popcornmeter subsequently drops below 80%, it will lose the Verified Hot designation. This goes into effect for all movies that have qualified for it since May of 2019, when we originally introduced Verified Audience Reviews . Some of the most recent Verified Hot movies include  Deadpool & Wolverine ,  Twisters , Inside Out 2 , and  Bad Boys: Ride or Die , but you can see the full list of current Verified Hot films here .

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Marlowe was a disappointment

I saw the lukewarm reviews, but none of the complaints seemed egregious and I like film noir so I decided to see it last night.

Theatre experience was fine; last time I went the seats were gross, but they were fine this time.

Everything about the film was fine or incredibly mediocre. It felt very uninspired and soulless. The story is OK, but not compelling. The characters are interesting. The acting is well done. Costumes and sets are fun. And its got a lot of stars in it that will have you going "I remember them!" The script is very bleh. Putting all this together leaves you in a constant state of expecting something and never quite meeting those expectations, only to be led into another scene.

I wanted a grizzled and cynical detective, but Marlowe is very competent and straight to the point with no endearing lines or an overly jaded narrative.

It felt like they were just going through the motions and checking the boxes. "Remember how depressing Chinatown's ending was? Lets do that!" Ok done and move on to the next story beat. None of those big hits or reveals felt very impactful. I also watched Babylon recently, so the "old hollywood icons coming to terms with fading away" felt very flat in comparison too.

Also, trying to push 60 year old Liam Neeson as a sexy and intimidating hulk of a man just wasn't working for me. There was one scene in particular of a woman swooning for him, but he's such a gentleman and they just dance. I thought they were going to add to the story or reveal some information but no. Its literally just this girl horning after Neeson's character and there's obviously no chemistry so its just out of place. And the constant "WOAHMAGAWD he's hooge!!" from the henchman felt unnecessary.

Overall the movie is JUST ok. But its just so bland that just OK feels incredibly unsatisfying. There were 3 other people in the audience with me. At the end I stood up and asked them what they thought, and one of them stormed passed me saying "IT SUCKED! it was a waste of my time" and honestly... I'm not sure I disagree.

Best part of the movie:

"how do you say this in Spanish?" *blows them away with a tommy gun*

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Screen Rant

The crow's debut rotten tomatoes score keeps a grim franchise trend alive.

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Where To Watch 2024's The Crow: Showtimes & Streaming Status

"i'm surprised": the crow 2024 producer responds to criticism from original 1994 movie director, the crow 2024 cast & character guide.

• The latest version of The Crow falls short with a 21% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, a minor improvement over previous sequels.
• Every attempt to follow the original movie has stumbled, with the 1994 version widely accepted as a cult favorite.
• The protracted development process for The Crow saw multiple setbacks, leading to disappointment with the latest reimagining's critical response.

The early responses for the latest big-screen reimagining of The Crow are in, and it continues an unfortunate trend from the franchise’s later movies. Helmed by Ghost in the Shell director Rupert Sanders, and starring Bill Skarsgård as the latest actor to step into the role of James O’Barr’s resurrected comic book vigilante, the new movie follows in the footsteps of the 1994 cult classic adaptation starring Brandon Lee. While Lee would tragically lose his life during production on the original movie, The Crow franchise would continue with three additional sequels and a 1999 television reboot.

With the 2024 version of The Crow now officially in theaters, early reactions have painted a grim picture for the franchise’s latest movie. Currently sitting at 21% on Rotten Tomatoes from 42 reviews , the movie’s early critical score falls well short of the 86% fresh rating enjoyed by the original.

However, as disappointing as that score may seem, it is still a minor improvement over the dismal scores held by the franchise’s assorted sequels . Check out the franchise’s current scores below:

Why Is The Crow So Hard To Get Right?

Every attempt to follow the original has stumbled.

Few movies hold such a treasured place in pop culture history as the original version of The Crow . Hauntingly beautiful, and heartbreakingly inseparable from the real-life tragedy surrounding its making , its place as a much-beloved cult favorite is well-earned. Yet, where 1994’s version of The Crow would come to be widely accepted as one of the best comic book adaptations ever made, it seems that every attempt to follow in its footsteps would ultimately fall well short of the original movie starring Lee.

Of course, it is still very early days yet, and The Crow’ s Rotten Tomatoes score will likely continue to fluctuate as more reviews begin coming in for the movie.

Even in the lead-up to this latest reimagining, it seemed for a long time that a new Crow movie might never happen. Passing between multiple hands, and with plans to cast everyone from Bradley Cooper to Jason Momoa in the leading role, The Crow’s protracted development process was fraught with a nearly endless supply of setbacks and false-starts. With this kind of history in mind, it is even more disappointing to see the latest version also struggle to strike a chord with critics.

Bill Skarsgård's The Crow movie is here, and there are different options for where to watch 2024's The Crow in theaters or on streaming over time.

Of course, it is still very early days yet, and The Crow’ s Rotten Tomatoes score will likely continue to fluctuate as more reviews begin coming in for the movie. However, given the controversial response that Skarsgård’s heavily tattooed Eric already received from prospective viewers, these less-than-positive reviews do not paint an optimistic picture for the movie’s general audience response either. It would seem, at least for now, that the 1994 version of The Crow will remain unmatched by any other attempt to follow in its enormous footsteps.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

The Crow (2024)

The Crow (2024) is a dark and gritty reimagining of the original graphic novel. It follows Eric, who is resurrected from the dead to avenge his and his soulmate’s brutal murders. Armed with supernatural abilities, Eric seeks justice against the killers responsible, navigating through a corrupt city that is as much a character as he is. This adaptation introduces new elements to captivate the modern audience.  

The Crow Reviews Lead to Terrible Rotten Tomatoes & Metacritic Score

By Tamal Kundu

The reviews for The Crow , the 2024 adaptation of James O’Barr’s comic book series of the same name, are coming out — and they are far from flattering. This film, one of the most highly-anticipated releases of the year, is the second direct cinematic adaptation of O’Barr’s source material after the 1994 movie, featuring Brandon Lee.

The Crow reviews call 2024 movie a ‘total disaster’

The Crow debuted in the U.S. theaters on August 23, and the reviews it has been receiving paint a rather grim picture.

Benjamin Lee of The Guardian called The Crow “a total, head-in-hands disaster,” adding the film is “incoherently plotted and sloppily made, destined to join the annals of the very worst and most pointless remakes ever made.”

Meanwhile, Inverse’s Lyvie Scott wrote that The Crow sought to update the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, but it was ultimately restrained by its source material. “What starts as a compelling love story ends up choked by a gory, gruesome tale of revenge: there are glimmers of brilliance here and there, but there’s not always room for the dark to mingle with the light,” Scott elaborated.

Derek Smith of Slant Magazine gave the 2024 film credits for not being a “rehash” of the previous adaptation, but went on to criticize the “superfluous, hackneyed backstory and narrative threads,” which he believed “are conspicuous for their lack of emotional gravitas, causing the film to feel like a wheel-spinning exercise.”

In the midst of all this criticism, the Rupert Sanders directorial venture has received a few positive responses from professional reviewers. Discussing Film’s Bill Bria acknowledged that The Crow has flaws but argued that it has its share of wonderful moments as well. “Make no mistake: The Crow (2024) is flawed and will probably not win over diehard fans of the classic 1994 movie, but it’s the bright spots in between those flaws that keep it from being dull or forgettable,” Bria observed.

The Crow receives low Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores

The Crow has garnered abysmal scores both on the aggregating site Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, which rates films via a weighted average. On Rotten Tomatoes , The Crow has a 21% approval rating after 42 reviews, while the gothic superhero movie has accumulated a score of 29 after 18 reviews on Metacritic .

As implied above, there had been considerable buzz around the movie. Accordingly, even though the film has performed poorly with the critics, it still can do well at the box office, both in the U.S. and internationally. Now, how it performs at the box office remains to be seen.

Entertainment and pop-culture writer at ComingSoon. In his spare time, Tamal dreams of dragons.

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The ‘borderlands’ movie debuts with a 0% on rotten tomatoes (update).

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Borderlands

This post was published on 8/8 and republished on 8/10.

I’m not sure I knew of anyone, Borderlands fan or not, who believed that the movie adaptation of the game was going to be good, based on everything from casting to trailers. Now as reviews come in ahead of its release tomorrow, those fears have been validated. And then some.

As I write this, the Borderlands movie has a flat 0% on Rotten Tomatoes . No positive reviews whatsoever ( Update : A single positive review has come in raising it to a 3%), and the ones that are in are not just negative, but brutal . Here’s a sampling:

• Discussing Film: “The fans deserve a lot better than whatever director Eli Roth is trying to do with Borderlands. This is the video game movie curse at its worst.”
• Men’s Journal: “If Borderlands doesn't stop studio executives from salivating at the sight of every single IP that comes across their desks, nothing will.”
• Next Best Picture : “It’s impressive how Roth can elicit the poor quality of 2000s video game adaptation energy yet somehow forget the discernable sense of fun or style that made even those terrible movies stand out.”
• IGN : “Borderlands is an abysmal waste of a beloved franchise that takes a kooky band of murderous misfits and drains the life out of their first adventure together.”

It’s true there are not many reviews in yet, and the score may tick up, but everything I’ve seen outside of some video game influencers who attended premieres (or are literally extras in the movie) has been relentlessly negative, and I would be surprised to find more than a handful of positive reviews come in when all is said and done. If any.

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A 0% on Rotten Tomatoes is of course as low as you can go. If we are looking at the worst-scored video game movies ever made, that list would now be (Updated list with the 4%):

• Alone in the Dark (2005) – 1%
• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009) – 3%
• House of the Dead (2003) – 3%
• Borderlands (2024) – 3%
• In the Name of the King (2007) – 4%
• Bloodrayne (2005) – 4%
• Mortal Kombat Annihilation- 4%
• Silent Hill Revelation (2012) – 8%
• Hitman Agent: 47 (2015) – 8%
• Postal (2007) – 9%

I put the year there so you can see that most of these ultra-terrible ones are in a decade or so when making a good video game adaptation was borderline impossible and the only people trying were directors like Uwe Boll half the time. As of late, we have seen very solid live action video game adaptations on both film (Sonic) and TV (The Last of Us, Fallout), and Borderlands seems to be a 10-15 year step backward.

I do expect it to rise above a zero percent. There are so many critics on Rotten Tomatoes of questionable quality and taste that probably someone will like it and knock it above some of these (I am one of those critics, so no judgement), but that has not happened at the time of this writing.

Who saw this coming? Everyone. Everyone did. And here we are.

Update (8/10): We have 92 reviews in now, and Borderlands has gone from 0% to 3% to now settling at around 10%. This puts it outside much higher on the “worst video game adaptations ever” list, which would now look like

• Borderlands (2024) - 10%

Of course there is absolutely no pretending a 10% is good. I do agree, however, that it does not deserve to be quite as low as that terrible decade of Uwe Boll movies and a few other very poor ones. Like no, this is definitely not on par with Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

I have indeed now seen the movie myself, and a 10% is something I can get behind. My own negative review is now on Rotten Tomatoes, and here’s an excerpt:

“This is neither a good Borderlands movie or nor a good movie, period. It feels like Gearbox and Eli Roth tried to split the difference here, making a mass-appeal PG-13 action film but gesturing vaguely at the games to try to get that crowd to show up too.

But the end result is throwing the Borderlands games at a wall, watching them shatter, and gluing back together a handful of mildly recognizable pieces.”

I said in the piece that the casting of Kevin Hart and Cate Blanchett are big problems, as expected. Hart mostly acts like a barely toned-down version of his usual self, and is nothing like game Roland. Blanchett is of course normally a great actress but a 30 year or so age increase from Lilith is bizarre, and also makes no sense within the confines of the film as actresses close to her age appear to remember her as a child.

This is a franchise killer. Gearbox had big plans for a Borderlands cinematic universe that is clearly going nowhere after this. And given how this went, that is fully justified.

Follow me on Twitter , YouTube , and Instagram .

Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy .

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Well, wherever he is, he's certainly not appearing in this lame satire of '30s and '40s hard-boiled noir -- that's for damn sure.

Successful screen humor comes from witty spins on the believable, not wheezing broad stabs like this.

If it had a livelier pace and more believable acting by secondary characters ... Where's Marlowe? would be a big treat for audiences seeking a hip comedy.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Bill Skarsgard's The Crow Debuts With Disastrous Rotten Tomatoes Score

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The debut Rotten Tomatoes score has been revealed for The Crow , the latest adaptation of the original comic book by James O'Barr. Featuring Bill Skarsgard and FKA twigs in the lead roles, the new adaptation was directed by Rupert Sanders.

Shortly after the embargo lift for The Crow , the film debuted on Rotten Tomatoes with a very low score of 6% . This number is likely to fluctuate a bit as more reviews continue to be submitted in the coming days, but with a rough debut score that's very close to rock bottom, it doesn't seem likely to climb much higher. The current score is a far cry from the one garnered by the original 1994 adaptation , which has an 86% approval rating along with a 90% audience score. An audience score hasn't yet been determined for the new version of The Crow , and there's a chance that it could be given a much higher number in comparison, as sometimes happens with critics and audiences.

The Crow Director Reveals How Bill Skarsgard and FKA twigs Landed Eric and Shelly Roles

Director Rupert Sanders shares the story of how Bill Skarsgard and FKA twigs landed their roles in The Crow.

The current score for the new film is obviously not great, but it's not the lowest of the franchise, sparing the new movie from hitting a new low fo rthe movie series. After the original film from 1994, the other installments of the franchise includes 1996's The Crow: City of Angels at 14% , 2000's The Crow: Salvation at 18% , and 2005's The Crow: Wicked Prayer at 0% . The reviews for the 2024 film may be mostly negative, but having any positive reviews at all has ensured that it will stay above Wicked Prayer ..

Critics Are Not Being Kind on 2024's The Crow

"Brandon Lee’s original was hard to shake because of his untimely demise. This forgettable new version doesn’t just fail to honor his memory -- it never justifies its existence on its own merits," reads one review by Tim Grierson of Screen International . David Rooney of THR also said of the film, " The Crow is a sluggish, overly self-serious gloomfest that never takes wing ."

Bill Skarsgard's The Crow Rating Teases a Much Bloodier Adaptation

The new adaptation of The Crow looks to be a bit more graphic than the 1994 movie.

Giving the film a score of 1 out of 5 stars, Guardian reviewer Benjamin Lee noted, " The Crow 2.0 is a total, head-in-hands disaster , incoherently plotted and sloppily made, destined to join the annals of the very worst and most pointless remakes ever made."

...destined to join the annals of the very worst and most pointless remakes ever made.

Directed by Rupert Sanders, The Crow is written by Zach Baylin and William Schneider. The film stars Bill Skarsgård, FKA twigs, Danny Huston, Josette Simon, Laura Birn, and Sami Bouajila.

The official synopsis for the movie reads, "Soulmates Eric (Skarsgård) and Shelly (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right."

The Crow officially premieres in theaters on Aug. 23, 2024.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

The Crow (2024)

A modern re-imagining of the beloved character, The Crow, based on the original graphic novel by James O'Barr.