Liam Neeson shocked movie fans when he became one of Hollywood’s top action stars later in his career. After playing a significant role in the Star Wars prequel movies, he leveraged his newfound popularity to begin starring in several action movies. It all exploded when he starred in the 2008 action flick Taken, his major action franchise.

However, this wasn’t his first experience in action movies, as he had several action roles in the late 1980s and early 1990s. While everyone talks about Taken, Neeson has also starred in several action movies over the last 20 years, not all of which achieved critical and commercial success. However, some of his lesser films deserve more acclaim.

10

Next Of Kin (1989)

Liam Neeson Played Briar Gates

Next of Kin is a 1989 film starring Patrick Swayze, about a man who left his home in Appalachia to join the U.S. Army and relocated to Chicago to become a police officer. However, when he convinces his younger brother Gerald (Bill Paxton) to move to Chicago, he ends up murdered by mobsters during a truck hijacking.

When Truman returns home for his brother’s funeral, his brother, Briar (Liam Neeson), wants to deal with Gerald’s murderers in a blood feud. While Truman tries to bring them to justice through the law, his brother soon arrives seeking vengeance. Briar tears through the underworld, but unlike later Liam Neeson movies, he doesn’t come out on top.

However, his death leads to the rest of the Appalachian family arriving, and that is when the real fun begins. The movie received a 50% Rotten Tomatoes score, and although Neeson was only in half of the film, it is one that his fans should check out to see him in action before he became a leading action star.

9

Darkman (1990)

Liam Neeson Played Peyton Westlake/Darkman

Darkman might be Liam Neeson’s most beloved action movie for a select group, as it’s a huge cult classic. However, for general audiences, the film might be less notable, as it was a Sam Raimi superhero movie before comic book adaptations were popular. It is also an original superhero movie, though it has since spawned its own comics and spinoffs.

Darkman is a horror superhero movie starring Liam Neeson as Dr. Peyton Westlake, a scientist who creates synthetic skin to aid burn victims. However, when a vicious crime boss raids his lab and brutally tortures Westlake, they then blow up the lab and leave the doctor horribly disfigured. Westlake undergoes a nerve procedure to eliminate pain.

This turns him into a hero who can withstand severe damage and not stop, and he uses the synthetic skin to disguise himself as he seeks revenge on the mafia boss. Critics at the time praised the humor and action, and Neeson was fantastic as Darkman. There were also sequels, although neither Raimi nor Neeson were involved.

8

The A-Team (2010)

Liam Neeson Played John “Hannibal” Smith

The A-Team movie is much more entertaining than critics made it seem when it was released. The remake of the classic TV show, known for turning Mr. T into a household name, starred Liam Neeson as Hannibal Smith, the character played by George Peppard in the TV series. Joining him were Bradley Cooper, Rampage Jackson, and Sharlto Copley.

Joe Carnahan has a deft touch when directing action, as proven by films like Smokin’ Aces and Liam Neeson’s critically acclaimed The Grey. With Tony Scott and Ridley Scott as co-producers, The A-Team had a great cast and creative team, but it failed to impress critics, who mostly panned it for what they called a silly story.

Fans loved the movie more than critics, although it ranks below many of Liam Neeson’s solo action movies, mainly because it is hard not to compare the film to the beloved classic TV show about elite military operatives helping people who can’t help themselves.

7

Unknown (2011)

Liam Neeson Played Dr. Martin Harris

When Unknown came out in 2011, critics dismissed the film, claiming it seemed implausible, despite it being extremely entertaining. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who also directed Liam Neeson in several of his action movie outings, Unknown follows a professor who wakes up from a coma to find that no one recognizes him, not even his wife.

This is one of Neeson’s most complicated films, as his character has no idea what is going on thanks to the brain damage suffered in the car crash. When he realizes the truth, he realizes he might not be the good guy in this story. However, he isn’t the worst villain and has a chance to redeem himself.

This was one movie that saw critics and audiences both lukewarm, but it is also a film that has received more praise over time. It doesn’t always make sense, but seeing Liam Neeson as a man with a dark past beating terrorists is always a treat. There was even a TV series in the works based on the film.

6

Non-Stop (2014)

Liam Neeson Played Bill Marks

One of Liam Neeson’s most underrated and underappreciated action thrillers is the 2014 release, Non-Stop. This was easily the best choice for a new Neeson franchise after Taken, but he never followed it up, despite there being plenty of ways this could have been his Die Hard franchise.

In Non-Stop, Neeson stars as a U.S. Air Marshal and former NYPD officer named Bill Marks who is on a transatlantic flight to London when a terrorist sends him a text message that says they will kill someone every 20 minutes until $150 million is transferred to them. When the authorities believe Marks is the terrorist, he has to stop the killer before it’s too late.

Non-Stop was a huge box office hit, making $222.8 million on a $50 million budget. Critics also ranked it higher than other Neeson movies, with a score of 62%. However, this was a tense and exciting action thriller that stands as one of the best of the 2010s. Its brilliance is proven whenever it moves to a new streaming service.

5

Run All Night (2015)

Liam Neeson Played Jimmy “The Gravedigger” Conlon

Run All Night is a Liam Neeson action thriller that few people talk about at all. Released in 2015, Neeson stars as an ex-Irish mafia hitman named Jimmy “The Gravedigger” Conlon, a man who goes on the run after he is forced to kill his former boss’s son, Danny (Boyd Holbrook), when the man tries to shoot Jimmy’s son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman).

The cast of Run All Night is amazing, with Ed Harris playing the mob boss, Shawn Maguire, and Vincent D’Onofrio playing a police detective that Jimmy deals with. This is also an interesting film because Neeson plays an ᴀssᴀssin here, one who has never done anything good in his life until he realizes he needs to save his son.

Critics awarded Run All Night a 59% Rotten Tomatoes score, and audience members gave it a 56%. However, this is a good movie with a fantastic cast, delivering excellent performances and solid action.

4

Men In Black: International (2019)

Liam Neeson Played High T

Men in Black: International is a movie that was unfairly criticized thanks to the previous trilogy, which starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as the MiB. In this fourth movie, the action moves from Smith and Jones to Chris Hemsworth as the veteran agent and Tessa Thompson as the new agent, working for Emma Thompson’s Agent O.

Liam Neeson is the head of the London branch, High T, who previously worked with Hemsworth’s Agent H. The two new partners must protect an alien, knowing there might be a traitor within the MIB organization, which turns out to be High T in a surprising twist. Making Neeson the villain was an interesting choice, but he played it perfectly.

Men in Black: International was a box office bomb, despite grossing $253.9 million, largely due to its budget and lower domestic take. Critics also shredded the movie, with a 23% Rotten Tomatoes score, although the audience score was higher at 66%. It remains a fun action movie with great comedy and deserves a better reputation.

3

Honest Thief (2020)

Liam Neeson Played Tom Carter / Tom Dolan

Honest Thief had the unfortunate distinction of being released during the COVID-19 shutdowns, which meant that most people didn’t get a chance to see it in theaters while it was there. Despite this, Neeson was in form as Tom Dolan, a bank robber who wanted to return the money he had stolen in exchange for a lighter sentence.

However, what he didn’t expect was that, when he offered to return all the stolen money, he’d end up dealing with two corrupt FBI agents. After they kill their superior and pin it on Tom, he escapes to clear his name. Neeson is great as the former US Marine on the run, and Courtney is perfect as the main villain.

Critics mainly criticized the movie, awarding it a low 39% Rotten Tomatoes score. However, the movie has a high 87% audience score, which proves that when Neeson is at the top of his game, fans of pulp-style action thrillers should find a lot to like.

2

Memory (2022)

Liam Neeson Played Alex Lewis

Liam Neeson starred in the 2022 action thriller Memory, which offered something distinctly different from his regular revenge- and vengeance-driven action movies. Neeson stars as Alex Lewis, a contract killer who lives in Mexico and begins to suffer from early-onset Alzheimer’s. When he is ᴀssigned to kill a young girl, he refuses because he won’t kill kids.

When he refuses to kill her, his boss sends someone else to do it, and Alex realizes his life is in danger for refusing. After he kills the second ᴀssᴀssin, he forgets his Alzheimer’s pills, and starts to lose track of what’s real and what’s in his head as corrupt cops and mobsters work together to take him down.

As with many of Liam Neeson’s solo action movies, fans loved it, awarding it an 80% score on Rotten Tomatoes, despite critics slamming the film, saying it falls short of other Neeson action thrillers. However, Neeson delivered an excellent performance, and director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) delivered a tense thriller.

1

Blacklight (2022)

Liam Neeson Played Travis Block

Released in 2022, Liam Neeson starred in the political thriller Blacklight. The movie received mostly negative reviews, Neeson’s lowest-rated film on Rotten Tomatoes. However, this was likely due to the overwhelming number of action films the actor has released over the years. One of the biggest complaints was that the films never seemed to differ.

Despite that, this film delivers what Neeson fans want to see — a man willing to do anything to stop the bad guys. In this case, the bad guys are at the top of the US government. Neeson is Travis Block, an off-the-books fixer for the FBI who will do anything necessary to protect his agency, other than kill innocent people.

However, when he learns the FBI Director is ordering the deaths of political activists and other innocent Americans, he tries to stop them, only to find the FBI has put out a hit on him. To understand the film, while critics gave it a 12% RT score, the audience score (82%) shows the truth about this Liam Neeson action movie.