Chicago Sun-Times by Richard Roeper

Nobody’s ever going to match Bogart’s iconic work opposite Lauren Bacall in Howard Hawks’ 1946 classic, but Neeson delivers a reliably powerful, world-weary, “I’m too old for this s---!” performance in Neil Jordan’s exquisitely photographed and sometimes convoluted but thoroughly enjoyable period piece.

RogerEbert.com by Glenn Kenny

Revisionist this may be, but it’s done with smarts and, sure ... perceptiveness and sensitivity.

The Film Stage by Ethan Vestby

This picture, somewhat of a beguiling genre experiment that seemingly nobody asked for, initially seems like a bad throwback, but in its game of telephone through adaptation ends up, actually, something of a moderately funny joke.

Collider by Erick Massoto

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.

Movie Nation by Roger Moore

The mystery isn’t all that engrossing, and the picture devolves into some CYA third act over-explaining to compensate for that. It can be a bit much, and more often than not. So OK, maybe it is a bad picture that’s still fun.

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

The movie doesn’t exactly do Philip Marlowe a disservice but neither does it successfully re-invent the character for a new era and its attendant audience.

The Irish Times by Donald Clarke

Neeson is, of course, perfectly capable of chewing through the quips while carrying the city’s sins on his broad shoulders. But he needs more help from a rigid script to make sense of a character that seems defined by archetype alone.

TheWrap by Alonso Duralde

There are few surprises or misdirects or red herrings involved with this all-too-solvable mystery, let alone subtext or commentary. With Marlowe, a very talented cast of actors and a legendary filmmaker have assembled to make a Philip Marlowe movie you can fold laundry to.

The Associated Press by Jake Coyle

As much as Neeson might seem to have the special set of skills required to play Marlowe, his detective feels hollow and maybe a little too tired.

Original-Cin by Liam Lacey

There’s nothing here that sparks surprise. The film remains mechanical and stilted, like some grim combination of taxidermy and ventriloquism.

The Daily Beast by Nick Schager

While the star adequately acquits himself, Neil Jordan’s throwback noir is a cover song that knows all the notes but can’t capture its predecessor’s spirit.

The New York Times by A.O. Scott

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 Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck

For all the authentic genre tropes on display, Marlowe never comes to life on its own, lacking the verve or wit to make it feel anything other than a great pop song played by a mediocre cover band.

Screen Daily

Short on both charm and Chandlerian complexity, this version coasts on Liam Neeson’s engagingly haggard lead, and some spicy character playing from the likes of Danny Huston, Alan Cumming and Jessica Lange.

Variety by Guy Lodge

A phony, flimsy attempt at vintage noir.

San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle

With the exception of Jessica Lange, who tears into her fairly brief role as a wealthy and wicked former movie star, everyone in Marlowe is directed as if to seem groggy with depression. It’s as if they’re all bored with the story before they tell it, and then they tell it while trying not to fall asleep.

Slant Magazine by Chuck Bowen

Neil Jordan’s Marlowe is an homage so riddled with noir clichés that one may initially take it for a genre parody, except that the jokes never arrive.