‘The Fix’ Bombs With Critics as Liam Neeson and Zachary Levi’s Tehran Thriller Opens Low on Rotten Tomatoes

Liam Neeson has built an entire late-career subgenre out of gruff, globe-trotting action thrillers, churning out one mission-driven vehicle after another for well over a decade now. Audiences have largely kept showing up for these films regardless of critical reception, making Neeson something of a reliable box office presence even when reviews turn sour.

That pattern continued this week with his latest release, a Tehran-set thriller pairing him with ‘Shazam!’ star Zachary Levi. Expectations heading into opening weekend were modest at best, given how mixed reactions have been to Neeson’s recent output, but few could have predicted just how rough the numbers would end up looking.

‘The Fix‘ has debuted with a 19 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 26 reviews, making it one of the lowest-rated films of Neeson’s entire career on the platform. That places it as the sixth-lowest-rated title in his extensive filmography, trailing only a handful of other widely panned entries from recent years.

The film follows a group of former CIA operatives mentored by Neeson’s character Larry and led by Levi’s Tucker, who head into Tehran on a dangerous rescue-and-heist mission after a previous operation in Afghanistan goes disastrously wrong. Directed by Guy Moshe, the movie hit theaters on September 11, a release date that added an extra layer of scrutiny given the story’s setting within the broader context of America’s post-Afghanistan war narratives.

Reviewers wasted little time picking the film apart. The Hollywood Reporter criticized its excessive approach, arguing the movie reduces its effectiveness through overkill of both the literal and figurative kind, in comments reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

The New York Times was similarly unimpressed, describing the film as an unfortunately timed, trivializing movie given its subject matter, a characterization shared in comments reported by The New York Times. Levi’s performance in particular drew scrutiny from multiple outlets, with some critics suggesting the character’s stiffness stemmed more from the script than from any shortcoming in his acting.

Not every reaction to the film has been entirely negative, however. Some reviewers singled out Levi’s portrayal of Tucker as appropriately cold and calculating, and early moviegoer reactions have reportedly been somewhat warmer than the critical consensus, with several praising the film’s action sequences and overall suspense despite complaints about pacing and runtime.

‘The Fix’ joins a growing list of similar action vehicles that have defined this stretch of Neeson’s career, following a well-established formula of grizzled mentors, morally complicated missions, and international settings. That formula has produced everything from genuine box office successes to outright critical disasters, with 2022’s ‘Blacklight’ previously holding the distinction of his lowest-rated film on Rotten Tomatoes.

Whether ‘The Fix’ can find an audience despite its brutal reception remains an open question, particularly given how divorced Neeson’s box office performance has historically been from critical consensus. His films in this genre have shown a consistent ability to draw crowds even when reviews are unkind, making opening weekend numbers a far more telling indicator of the film’s fate than its Rotten Tomatoes score alone.

For now, ‘The Fix’ sits firmly in “rotten” territory, joining a growing pile of lukewarm-to-poor reviews for what was pitched as another entry in Neeson’s dependable action catalog. Whether audiences agree with critics or once again prove willing to overlook the reviews entirely will likely become clear as the film’s opening weekend numbers roll in.

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