Cold Pursuit

Starring: Liam Neeson, Laura Dern, Michael Richardson, Michael Eklund, Bradley Stryker, Wesley MacInnes, Tom Bateman, Emmy Rossum, William Forsythe
Directed by: Hans Petter Moland
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Drama
2019

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A snowplow driver (Liam Neeson) is devastated when his son dies. He soon discovers he was killed by drug dealers and he embarks on a quest for vengeance.

Review:

Tim: I remember when Liam Neeson was in his heyday of being an action hero. It was so cool to see such an accomplished actor embracing a new career direction. Those days feel long, long past. He's churned out so many of these that they have more than lost their novelty. They barely raise an eyebrow and the general sentiment is "huh, another one?" That's a shame, especially when a movie like Cold Pursuit proves better than many of the films he's made. There's a few too many flaws for me to consider this a good movie, but it did surpass both my (admittedly lowered) expectations and many of the very similar movies Neeson's made in recent years.

The story itself does hurt the film. It's a pretty straightforward parental revenge film. I remember when this idea seemed cool, but the days of Man on Fire and Taken are long past. We've seen so many of these kinds of movies, many of them starring Neeson himself. That made this movie feel more than redundant- it felt played out. It doesn't help that this is a remake of a Norwegian movie. I didn't see the original, but everything pointed to this being another generic film. And yes, unfortunately, the basic outline of the movie follows the expected path. A guy seeks revenge, stars killing lower level criminals and works his way up the food chain. That hurts the movie. That's unfortunate, because Hans Petter Moland actually does some really cool things with this film that give it an interesting twist. They aren't enough to overcome the tedium of the plot, but they do help things.

One of the coolest things this film does is show a black screen with whenever someone dies in the film with their name and their nickname. This seems like a very small thing and it might be, but it has an outsized impact on the film. As the movie progressed, I looked forward to these small moments more and more. The idea of eulogizing the deceased in a film, even for a moment, is a cool one. It also serves as a reminder of just how many people die in this film. It was really fun at the end to see all the names together- the body count is quite large for this small movie.

The cast was a bit hit-or-miss. Neeson is good in the lead role. He almost always is. He brings a level of respect and gravitas to the role. Roles like this play to his strengths and he has an amazing amount of experience. It's hard to say much more because while good, this feels like many of the others he's played. I did wonder how this snowplow driver was able to kill so many more accomplished killers, but I suppose that plot hole remains a mystery. I liked seeing Laura Dern here, but was troubled that she had nearly nothing interesting to do. Her talent wasn't leveraged at all. The same thing can be said for Emmy Rossum- I was so excited to see her cast in this supporting role and they besides a few nice character development moments, she doesn't get to do much. This was a major flaw of the film. If the script involved her character more and brought her into the main plot more, the film would have benefited greatly. This was a big mistake. I loved seeing William Forsthye in his small role. He gets a chance to really act and is fantastic in the film. It was much harder to pinpoint Tom Bateman. He did some interesting things with the villainous role, but far too often, he lets his character become one-dimensional and over-the-top. As a whole, his character felt too cartoonish to be any good. There were so many moments when his poor acting hurt the film. Contrast this with Neeson, who makes even ridiculous things seem believable when he says or does them. I just disliked Bateman's performance quite a bit.

The film is predictable, but there's always some level of excitement in these revenge flicks. You care about the protagonist and it's fun watching him mow through a bunch of bad guys. The subplots here were interesting and even though they weren't fully developed, they added an interesting layer to the film. As a whole, I found myself enjoying this movie significantly more than I otherwise would have. The strengths don't even begin to outweigh the flaws, so I couldn't consider this a good movie. However, I want to be clear that Cold Pursuit is a decent movie and probably much better than it should have been. This was the Hollywood debut of Hans Petter Moland and while a bit creaky, there's enough here to suggest he could have a long career ahead of him.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: In Order of Disappearance, Man on Fire, Taken, Nonstop, Unknown