Liam Neeson's Worst-Reviewed Movie Is Now a Streaming Hit

Liam Neeson just scored another streaming win — this time with Absolution, a 2024 thriller that critics mostly shrugged at but Hulu viewers are suddenly eating up. The film has a 54% Rotten Tomatoes score, barely made a ripple at the box office, and still managed to hit #1 on Hulu's U.S. movie chart as of June 18, according to FlixPatrol.

In Absolution, Neeson plays a mob enforcer literally named "Thug" (subtle!), who's dealing with CTE and trying to reconnect with his family before his brain gives out completely. So yes, it's another chapter in the Neeson Plays a Sad Killer with Health Issues cinematic universe — a spiritual cousin to 2022's Memory, where he played a hitman with Alzheimer's. Different diagnosis, same vibes.

When Absolution hit theaters last November, it grossed just $1.4 million across 1,500 screens, landing at #12 on opening weekend. Critics weren't exactly sold, with reviews mostly landing in the "meh" zone. But now? It's topping the charts on Hulu, because of course it is.

This is kind of Neeson's thing now. Movies like The Land of Saints and Sinners bomb theatrically, then quietly take off once they hit streaming (that one found its audience on Prime Video earlier this year). Even Wrath of the Titans — yes, the totally-forgotten fantasy sequel — popped up on Netflix's streaming charts just last week.

It's not that the movies are secretly brilliant. It's that they're perfect background content. You see Liam Neeson on the thumbnail, he's holding a gun, maybe looking a little sad — you know exactly what you're getting. You hit play. Maybe you finish it. Maybe you pass out and finish it tomorrow. Either way, it's comforting.

And that's really the whole secret: Neeson has become streaming comfort food. His movies blur together, the titles barely register, and somehow that works. For theaters, this kind of sameness is a death sentence. For Hulu? It's gold.