1. I can’t handle marlowe with an Irish accent.
2. Neeson is too big and tough and doesn’t have a sarcastic smirk and a twinkle in his eye. He’s not enough of a smart ass.
I didn’t like it. Liam Neeson’s Marlowe seemed hammy; and, at least in the trailer, the heavy emphasis on action set pieces seemed inauthentically like the book’s Chandler
I hope the movie is better than this trailer.
I’ve just about stopped going to movie theaters but I’d buy this on dvd or watch it on cable. I buy anything having to do with Chandler.
Last movie I saw in a theater was Fury, about a tank crew in WW II. The ticket was $12.50 and the popcorn was $8.00 and so salty I couldn’t finish it. Plus several times I was distracted during the film by other viewers checking their phones.
And not to be confused with 1969’s MARLOWE with James Garner and Rita Moreno, adapted by Stirling Silliphant from THE LITTLE SISTER. If Chandler’s ideal for the role had ever been cast, it would have been Cary Grant.
This is the older Marlowe in the pastiche it is based on set roughly between PLAYBACK and POODLE SPRINGS (an older James Caan played him in that), as for Marlowe’s size he is described as big every time Chandler describes him, in that only Mitchum, George Montgomery, Phil Carey, Danny Glover, and James Garner got it right. Bogart, one of the best screen Marlowe’s was completely wrong physically for the part so was the fine Powers Boothe.
That doesn’t bother me much.
The accent doesn’t bother me much either. George Sanders basically played him in THE FALCON TAKES OVER and we were supposed to buy the Falcon was an American.
This is not being made to spawn a series of Chandler adaptations. It is Neil Jordan, a British director at the helm of a pastiche of a British Marlowe novel, with a British star. At that at least they didn’t move the plot to England.
Marlowe has been James Caan, former boy singer Dick Powell, Lloyd Nolan (one of the Michael Shayne’s was based on a Marlowe novel), Robert Montgomery, and Van Heflin on radio.
Neeson was superb as Matt Scudder in A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES, despite his age I don’t see why he can’t be a good Marlowe considering some of the other films Neil Jordan directed, Neeson played in, and books the author has written.
Incidentally that pastiche is a damn good Marlowe novel.
I agree with David. I have no real complaint that Neeson is starring in one of Benjamin Black’s novels of undeserved praise. I’d watch it on AMAZON PRIME Video or some other streaming service. I can eat popcorn, but it’s usually of the microwave variety.
January 20th, 2023 at 2:57 pm
1. I can’t handle marlowe with an Irish accent.
2. Neeson is too big and tough and doesn’t have a sarcastic smirk and a twinkle in his eye. He’s not enough of a smart ass.
January 20th, 2023 at 3:01 pm
I didn’t like it. Liam Neeson’s Marlowe seemed hammy; and, at least in the trailer, the heavy emphasis on action set pieces seemed inauthentically like the book’s Chandler
I hope the movie is better than this trailer.
January 20th, 2023 at 4:24 pm
No…it seems shallow and overlit.
January 20th, 2023 at 4:52 pm
I’ve just about stopped going to movie theaters but I’d buy this on dvd or watch it on cable. I buy anything having to do with Chandler.
Last movie I saw in a theater was Fury, about a tank crew in WW II. The ticket was $12.50 and the popcorn was $8.00 and so salty I couldn’t finish it. Plus several times I was distracted during the film by other viewers checking their phones.
January 20th, 2023 at 8:03 pm
Based on the trailer only, it seems to me like a case of trying too hard. Liam Neeson is also too old (he will be 70 this year).
Nonetheless, like Walker, I’d watch this on Netflix or Amazon Prime. I wouldn’t leave home to see it. I can’t eat popcorn any more.
January 20th, 2023 at 9:14 pm
He’s too old looking,
January 21st, 2023 at 10:16 am
It’s based on one of Benjamin Black/John Banville’s novels, which for some reason garnered undeserved praise, so it’s a long way from the original.
January 21st, 2023 at 11:17 am
And not to be confused with 1969’s MARLOWE with James Garner and Rita Moreno, adapted by Stirling Silliphant from THE LITTLE SISTER. If Chandler’s ideal for the role had ever been cast, it would have been Cary Grant.
January 21st, 2023 at 9:11 pm
This is the older Marlowe in the pastiche it is based on set roughly between PLAYBACK and POODLE SPRINGS (an older James Caan played him in that), as for Marlowe’s size he is described as big every time Chandler describes him, in that only Mitchum, George Montgomery, Phil Carey, Danny Glover, and James Garner got it right. Bogart, one of the best screen Marlowe’s was completely wrong physically for the part so was the fine Powers Boothe.
That doesn’t bother me much.
The accent doesn’t bother me much either. George Sanders basically played him in THE FALCON TAKES OVER and we were supposed to buy the Falcon was an American.
This is not being made to spawn a series of Chandler adaptations. It is Neil Jordan, a British director at the helm of a pastiche of a British Marlowe novel, with a British star. At that at least they didn’t move the plot to England.
Marlowe has been James Caan, former boy singer Dick Powell, Lloyd Nolan (one of the Michael Shayne’s was based on a Marlowe novel), Robert Montgomery, and Van Heflin on radio.
Neeson was superb as Matt Scudder in A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES, despite his age I don’t see why he can’t be a good Marlowe considering some of the other films Neil Jordan directed, Neeson played in, and books the author has written.
Incidentally that pastiche is a damn good Marlowe novel.
January 22nd, 2023 at 9:03 pm
I agree with David. I have no real complaint that Neeson is starring in one of Benjamin Black’s novels of undeserved praise. I’d watch it on AMAZON PRIME Video or some other streaming service. I can eat popcorn, but it’s usually of the microwave variety.