At the age of 66, Liam Neeson still manages to come across as an action hero. Although he did say in the past that he would no longer do those roles, he eventually said he changed his mind. He wants to keep doing them until he is no longer there (or of course the audience watching these films). Since Taken he has starred in one or more action films each year. The quality is generally quite the same: entertaining films to satisfy the hunger for action, but often nothing more than that. Is Cold Pursuit the same?
Nels Coxman (Neeson) is a snow plow driver who ensures that a small winter sports village remains accessible. His son works at the airport and is killed when he is there at the wrong time. When Nels is informed by the police about his death and that the cause is a drug overdose, he does not believe them and decides to take the law into his own hands. He finds out who was responsible and decides to go after a drugs gang. Without compassion he clears everyone out of the way to find the main person responsible.
With Cold Pursuit, director Hans Petter Moland delivers a remake of his own In Order of Disappearance (Kraftidioten) from 2014, in which Stellan Skarsgård plays the role of the father who wants to take revenge. I didn’t see that original movie, but if you compare it to the trailer you will notice how many shots exactly look the same. If I had known that this was a remake, I would rather have watched the original. But of course you read this review to read my opinion about Cold Pursuit. Liam Neeson is rapidly changing from snow plow driver to ruthless and extremely efficient “killing machine”. If you can look past that, then the film contains enough action, fun bad characters and dark humor (eg separate title cards for each character that dies). Yet Neeson does not deliver a memorable movie with this title. As a viewer you will not get bored quickly, but keep your expectations low.
[score6]