Marked Man (1996) User Reviews

Cheap action flick

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 15 March 2016]

A short and simple slice of action hokum starring wrestler-turned-actor Roddy Piper (THEY LIVE). MARKED MAN is an entirely predictable slice of B-movie nonsense in which Piper is sent to prison through no fault of his own, only to uncover a sinister conspiracy which leads to his escape. From that point on, he finds himself a marked man, pursued by both the authorities and a murderous gang.

This cheap Canadian production doesn't have much to offer even the seasoned veteran of action fare. Piper gives a standard (read: wooden) performance with little of the natural charisma he displayed in THEY LIVE (which I assume must be his finest hour). The supporting cast are undistinguished, aside from a welcome role for former star Miles O'Keeffe (ATOR, THE FIGHTING EAGLE) as the chief villain.

The fight scenes occur with a relentless inevitability, but none of them are particularly exciting, although to be fair it's hard to go wrong with a fast-paced storyline like this film has, so it's not too difficult a watch...just not a very satisfying one either.

1/2 hour plot padded into a 2 hour movie

[cine-11 · 4/10 · 25 July 2000]

SPOILER ALERT Roddy Piper's fiancee killed by drunk driver, whom he then accidentally kills. Goes to prison, where he's framed for the murder of an inmate by corrupt guards. Escapes and proves his innocence not by brains and logic, but by an exceedingly lucky and typically Hollywood happenstance. There- I've saved you the bother of seeing this, because, I swear, that synopsis is the entire plot. Thank goodness I saw this on tape, where I was able to speed through the loooong chase scenes and multiple fight scenes that were indistinguishable from each other.

Grade B Action Film

[lavatch · 6/10 · 15 January 2016]

Roddy Piper is good in a standard man-on-the-run film. Piper's beleaguered character Frank Gibson has been falsely accused of murdering a prison inmate, makes a daring escape from prison, then solves the crime on his own.

The film provides non-stop action and a set of unscrupulous characters, as well as an incompetent police force. There is one fairly knowledgeable FBI official, who finally begins to uncover the truth, due to the efforts of Frank to provide her with clues.

Apart from Frank and his brother, the characters are painted in melodramatic colors. The prison guards are corrupt. The police are inept. The widow of the deceased convict is a schemer. Everything is left in the hands of poor Frank Gibson to prove his innocence. Despite the clichés of a Grade B film, "Marked Man" serves its purpose as suspenseful and entertaining trifle.

Good Low Budget Action Thriller

[thescreamindevilles · 7/10 · 25 March 2007]

The Marked Man Review

*Some Spoiler action* Marked Man is about a man (Roddy Piper) who accidentally kills the drunk driver who hit and killed his fiancé! While in a low security prison, He sees something he shouldn't have seen and is framed for murder. He must escape the prison & go on the run to find evidence to prove his innocence. So, Perhaps the plot wasn't the most original, but I felt that this was a Good "No Frills" Action Suspense Thriller. There were no huge explosions or incredible effects, Just a solid story with good story telling. The pacing of the movie was brisk and it moved along well. It featured primarily an unknown cast, at least to me, that did a decent acting job, for the most part. Sure there were some moments that were rough, but the movie smoothly moved past these instances and they were quickly forgotten. The 2 standouts of the movie were Roddy Piper, and Miles O'Keefe.

*Spoiler Follows* Miles played Vince Mallick, the head of a security firm, and the brains behind the whole murder conspiracy. He is the fearless, calculating mastermind who is always in control of the situation, quick to come up with an alternate plan when things changed.He was similar, in this respect, to Roddy's character who was constantly on the run and forced to react "Quick on His Feet" to new, usually dangerous, situations. Being the lead on the run, Roddy carried this movie and did a good job of it. He got a chance to show a bit of his range, from content to heartbroken, from crazed and menacing to fearful, from angry to thoughtful. He may not quite be up to Hoffman or De Niro here, but he did a fine job playing an honest, honorable man thrown into a horrible situation and fighting thru it. I do have say though, that Rod's running style during the prison escape will never be mistaken for Carl Lewis'. Similarly in another scene, he is running down the sidewalk to escape a barrage of bullets from behind, and it looks like he's running in cement shoes. As for fight scenes, there were several, both believable & enjoyable, serving the the plot as needed. I liked them all, but perhaps liked the prison "fight scene" the best. In this one, Rod is on the short end of some shots by a kick boxer, and then seems to acknowledge "OK, you're good" and ups his game, taking out his competitor, ...ending with a wrestling move, of course. On the other side of the coin, Here are some things from the movie that make you go, hmmm?.... Why do people in movies insist on shooting "Head On" at someone driving a fork lift? Just wait until it passes or shoot it from the side. Yes, there was a scene that reminded me of the Austin Powers fork lift scene. Also, According to this movie, Can you guess what the "Easiest" place to break into is? Well, that would be the offices of a Security company, ......yes, a company that makes it's living off of providing security. Roddy did it in a couple seconds, I guess you just need to know exactly where to do it. And another thing, Why during fight scenes, Do the bad guys always let the good guys get back up when they have them beaten down to the ground instead of just finishing them while they're down? Hmmmm. So, as far as this film goes, Would I see it again? Absolutely! I actually watched it twice in preparing this review, and enjoyed it both times. I'd have to rate this movie a 7 out of 10. It was on the low budget side, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of it. Would I recommend it to Roddy Piper fans out there? Positively. Once again, he carries the movie, and fans of his work will enjoy it. This flick also appears to be the source of one of Roddy's popular catch phrases, "Ever Forward"! The question is, was it originally in the script, or did RP bring it to the movie? Hmmm.... Oh Well, Ever Forward!

A Well-Made Piper Video Release

[track100 · 7 September 2021]

The plot is very familiar, but Piper makes it fun. The budget is low but no one is phoning in their performance. Great camera work, well choreographed fights, interesting Canadian locations and rowdy charm all make this B-flick click.

Rowdy Roddy Ran....

[FlashCallahan · 6/10 · 9 March 2022]

Boston mechanic Frank and his fiancée Janet are planning to get married - until Janet is killed by a drunk driver, and Frank retaliates by killing the drunk driver.

As a result, Frank is sentenced to spend 3 years in a minimum security prison.

While in prison, Frank witnesses two corrupt guards, Pappas and Watters, murdering inmate Harvey Elkins.

When Frank escapes from prison, Pappas and Watters tell the warden, Jackson, that it was Frank who killed Harvey.

Faced with having to prove his innocence, Frank sneaks a ride to Albany, New York, where as he tries to prove his innocence, he makes some shocking discoveries...........Like the script.

The studio must have had a field day when they were pitching this to the big boys........'remember that Harrison Ford film where he was running everywhere after a one armed man? Well lets take that film and the lose the lost limbs, and make it more violent..........with Roddy Piper'

And that's more or less the movie, Piper running around every now and again, while being pursued by some people who want to frame him for something.

He stops every now and again to try and reason with someone or fight someone, and that is the film, right up until the inevitable ending you can see coming down the track.

But its all in good fun, it rarely gets boring and despite the ludicrousness of it all, it never out stays its welcome.

Much better than the ratings

[rockingjerry · 8/10 · 5 December 2021]

All around decent film. The action is pretty much non-stop. Roddy Piper (RIP) is in fine form.. his character is flawed and he doesn't automatically take out the bad guys with one punch. Rest assured he does kick some ass.

Good story line, production is decent. Not a lot of glitz and special effects, but they're not necessary. Typical of Canadian production.

Roddy had a gift.. and is much more believable than the Rock or Steve Austin in the acting realm.

It's a straight to video thing here...give it some credit

[nesluver2 · 6/10 · 20 December 2005]

This movie's straight to video characteristics certainly show. But it stands above a lot of those movies. The fight scenes were rather impressive, even if they were obnoxiously long. Good Martial Arts and Street Fighting. The plot was indeed overused, but hey, the makers were obviously amateurs. So basically an auto mechanic (Roddy Piper) watches his wife get ran over by a drunk driver, gets upset, and knocks the guy in his face. He falls back and cracks his head, sending Roddy to prison for 2nd degree murder. There, he is set up for the murder of one of his inmates. It's all linked to the big bad mobs of Albany... LOL I happen to live near Albany and got a kick out of this movie. Albany's worst crime is being dinky. In some parts, you may believe it was Albany, but for some reason they staged a lot of it, probably because where they filmed wouldn't stand up as a major city so they used to next best thing, a state capital. The movie refers to West Albany as rich...all it really is is the western extension of this crappy city. :) So yeah...those of you who live in NY near the Capital Region, take a look at this movie just for the location laughs (they didn't even know Albany's zip code). For the rest of you, don't go too far out of your way to see this, though the fights are pretty cool.