Liam Neeson: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

5 Awesome Performances

5. Peyton Westlake - Darkman (1990)

Not just an underrated film that the average moviegoer forgot, but an underrated performance from Neeson that we all should have remembered when we wondered whether or not he could play the hard core action hero. Darkman is an incredible film from Sam Raimi's heyday, an homage to pulp comic heroes, especially The Shadow, a character Raimi had been desperate to adapt. Darkman finds scientist Peyton Westlake hideously scarred by a group of thugs, destroying all that was right in his life. Luckily for Westlake, he'd created a synthetic skin giving him the capability to disguise himself as anyone he chose, allowing him the chance to get his revenge on the thugs who ruined him. Neeson gets to have a lot of fun in this role and it's his character that creates such a perfect film. He's got rage issues and love issues and strength and science and a great score from Danny Elfman to accompany all of his gloriously Pulpy antics. It was clear that Neeson was the pillar holding the story together as the two sequels to follow were nothing more than mere garbage. Some fifteen years before he co-starred in Batman Begins, Neeson got a chance to play his own unique version of a dark, troubled character. He does it to perfection.