Five intense Liam Neeson action thrillers to stream on Netflix right now
Every time you think the crooks in a Liam Neeson thriller would have learnt to leave him alone, those idiots come back with greater force only to get punched, and thank God they do, because watching Neeson reach the end of his tether is just the entertainment we sign up for.
The funny thing is, he can sell the most outrageous bit of nonsense, and he doesn’t need some superhero swagger or any of that Hollywood tough-guy rubbish. He’s had enough, and whoever’s responsible is in for a bloody miserable afternoon.
Mind you, being a Neeson fan means putting up with the flops too. A few of those scripts deserve a proper telling-off, and the fight choreography hasn’t escaped criticism either. Like, come on, he’s just a human after all, but when the material’s good, hot damn, the man earns his money.
And these five action thrillers starring Liam Neeson on Netflix are worth your time, especially if you’ve missed watching him give the baddies what for.
Five intense Liam Neeson action thrillers to stream on Netflix right now
Taken (Pierre Morel, 2008)
Kidnapping Liam Neeson’s daughter has to be one of the stupidest decisions in action cinema, and if you’ve watched Taken, you’ll know those Parisian criminals haven’t got a single clue what they’ve brought upon themselves. Neeson plays Bryan Mills in the movie, a retired CIA operative trying to reconnect with his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace), who goes to Paris with a friend and gets abducted by a human trafficking gang.
What’s mad is that Neeson thought the film might end up going straight to video. Straight to video! Instead, the man ends up becoming an action star in his fifties. Director Pierre Morel lets him loose in Paris, and Bryan’s got no time for anyone who gets in his way. I mean, his daughter’s been kidnapped, and he’s absolutely fuming… Who wouldn’t?
Unknown (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2011)
Imagine having to convince your own wife that you’re her husband. For starters, how do you even begin that conversation? Well, that’s what Liam Neeson’s dealing with in Unknown, except there is another man standing next to his wife claiming to be Dr Martin Harris. His name! And you remember that face Neeson pulls when he’s about seconds away from knocking someone’s teeth out? Yeah, he’s got that face on for most of the film, but nobody gives a damn. His wife, Elizabeth (January Jones), hasn’t got a clue who he is; the hotel staff reckon he’s gone mad, and the police? Fat lot of help they are.
The guy only came to Berlin for a bloody conference! One taxi crash and four days in a coma, and he’s woken up to find some other person’s living his life. Oh, and there are assassins after him too. At least he’s got Gina (Diane Kruger), the taxi driver from the crash, helping him work out what’s going on, but the deeper they search, the less sense any of it seems to make.
The Grey (Joe Carnahan, 2012)
There came a time when The Grey was being sold as Liam Neeson taking on a pack of wolves, and come on, who wouldn’t want to watch that? But the director had other plans. Liam Neeson plays John Ottway, a man whose job is to keep wolves away from oil workers in Alaska, but the problem is he’s already had enough of life before he ends up in a plane crash. Now he’s stranded in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of terrified men, and there are wolves lurking about, waiting to have them for dinner.
You’ve got Neeson looking like he hasn’t slept in about a fortnight, trying to keep everyone alive while dealing with his own issues. The other men are losing their heads; the cold’s getting worse. Forget watching Neeson punch the living daylights out of someone. This time, you’re watching a man who’s not even sure he wants to live trying his bloody hardest to survive.
Non-Stop (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2014)
Jaume Collet-Serra must have taken great pleasure in making Liam Neeson’s life miserable, because after putting him through an identity crisis in Unknown, he decided to trap the poor bugger aboard an aircraft with a murderer. And Neeson’s Bill Marks isn’t your usual heroic air marshal either. He’s got a drinking problem with a temper and the miserable face of a man who’d rather be anywhere else.
In Non-Stop, Bill receives threatening messages demanding $150 million, with a passenger set to die every twenty minutes. And before he can work out who’s behind it, all the evidence starts pointing at him. So now you’ve got Neeson trying to save a plane full of people who reckon he is the one trying to kill them.
In the Land of Saints and Sinners (Robert Lorenz, 2023)
In the last recommendation of this list, we have Kerry Condon adamant about giving Liam Neeson an absolute nightmare. In the Land of Saints and Sinners takes you back to 1970s Ireland, where Neeson plays Finbar Murphy, a hitman who’s had enough of killing people and wants a bit of peace in a Donegal village.
But then you’ve got Doireann (Condon) and her IRA folks turning up after a bombing in Belfast, and wouldn’t you know it, one of these scumbags has been abusing a young girl from the village. Now, Finbar’s trying to leave his old life behind, but what’s he supposed to do? Sit there and let the bastard get away with it? Now Neeson isn’t playing some hard nut who can take on twenty men without breaking a sweat. Finbar’s done some awful things; he knows it, and you can tell the man’s got plenty on his conscience.