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via Lionsgate
The action-packed heist thriller has been done to death at least 100 times over, making it very difficult to try and spin a very familiar setup into a fresh story. Doing the exact opposite, director Steven C. Miller leaned firmly into formula with 2016’s Marauders, which ticks virtually every single uninspired and unimaginative box you can think of.
And yet, that appears to be precisely what Netflix subscribers are in the mood for this weekend, looking at how the widely-panned genre flick has been faring on the platform’s global charts. As per FlixPatrol, Marauders has landed a Top 10 spot in a mighty 21 countries (and topped the rankings in 12 of them) to reach the dizzying heights of being the streamer’s sixth top-viewed title globally.
As a B-tier crime caper featuring Bruce Willis in a supporting role, though, it’s not as if anyone went into Marauders with particularly high expectations. A 24 percent Rotten Tomatoes score is about par for the course for the aforementioned star’s 2010s-era back catalogue, but it’s the 19 percent user rating that sticks out like a sore thumb. Fans tend to give films like these a lot more leeway than critics, but that didn’t apply in this instance, which says it all.
It’s action filmmaking by numbers, with a series of bank heists stretching the FBI’s resources increasingly thin, which ultimately turns out to be part of the plan as a high-ranking conspiracy begins to reveal itself. If it’s cliches you’re after, then join the huge club of Netflix customers to have been checking out Marauders. If not, then stay away.