By Geno McGahee
I am a big fan of Liam Neeson. TAKEN is one of the best action films in recent memory and his other films including NON STOP, A-TEAM, THE COMMUTER and RUN ALL NIGHT were great films and it made one thing clear to me. When I buy a Liam Neeson film, I’m getting a good one. Well, that assurance changed when I put down my 20 dollars and purchased COLD PURSUIT, a mediocre at best dark comedy/action film.
Nels Coxman (Neeson) is a snowplow driver and has a good life where he is respected by the community and loved by his wife, Grace (Laura Dern). It all changes when their son, Kyle (Micheal Richardson) overdoses on heroin and Nels goes on a killing spree, tracking down the drug dealers in his journey to kill the drug lord, Viking (Tom Bateman).
Tracking down the first dealer, the beating is brutal and that is the tone of the film. The approach is very dark and gory and that fits into the Neeson wheelhouse. We saw this in a much better film that he starred in, A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES. So, there was hope that this film would be dark but find some of the magic that that film was able to have. The brutality continues with the other drug dealers as he kills one by one and dumps their bodies into the river.
Each of the drug dealers have code names like Limbo, Santa and Speedo, but there is no character development here, and that goes for Nels as well. This film has this repetitive nature and you never really learn anything about the characters, really, outside of some being good guys and some being bad guys. The talent was here to make this an amazing film, but the screenplay and direction killed it.
Nels meets up with his brother, Brock (William Forsythe), and asks for his assistance. At one time, Brock was a mob goon and had ties to the underworld and found out the score and that Viking was the drug lord that Nels was looking for. One of the best parts of this film was the scenes with Neeson and Forsythe. These two great action actors worked so well off each other, but they didn’t have much to work with.
Viking thinks that the Native American tribe is killing his crew and decides to take out one of them, killing the son of the leader, which starts a war. In the meantime, Neeson kidnaps Viking’s young son, leading to a final showdown with the Native Americans, Neeson, Viking, and even the gay goon that is upset at Viking for beheading his boyfriend.
There were elements of this film that showcased the greatness of Neeson. When he is reading a snow plow manual to Viking’s son, it was such a great moment showing the kindness and warmth of the action hero. Neeson, when he plays an action star, comes off as a tough and likable guy and he finds it here and there in this film, but the screenplay just couldn’t give him the material to show his best.
COLD PURSUIT is a big disappointment and a waste of the talent of Neeson and Forsythe for the matter. The story of a man going after drug dealers after his son overdoses with Neeson sounds awesome, but it just didn’t deliver. It just wasn’t there. This is the first film from Neeson in the action genre that I cannot recommend. It was beneath the great Neeson.
