Disagreement is an important part of life, love and film criticism. It’s come to my attention that the latest film from Liam Neeson, The Ice Road, a high-end purchase for Netflix streaming services in the US, yet Amazon Prime in the UK, is getting some pretty uncharitable reviews. Perhaps this is to do with the kind of obloquy that Neeson unleashed by confessing that he might, as a younger man, have been influenced by racism. Some are keen to make him out to be a fallen hero for admitting weakness. Or perhaps it’s because even a pandemic doesn’t seem to stop Neeson; even during a worldwide lockdown, we saw his late career action-hero everyman still a hardy perennial with the releases of Honest Thief, Made in Italy and The Marksman.
So The Ice Road may suffer from market saturation, and maybe the cool kids don’t see the irony anymore, but for stranded couch potatoes, Liam Neeson still kicks ass. A distinguished actor of enormous power, range and sensitivity, 2008’s Taken advanced Neeson into a select group of aging action heroes like Charles Bronson, who transcended genre and budget to be beloved by a public thirsty for a decent man to empathise with as he revenged himself of miscreants.
The Ice Road fuses man-on-a-mission elements of The Wages of Fear and Sorcerer, with Neeson as Mike McCann, a blue-collar truck driver who takes on a dangerous assignment; he joins a team of truckers heading up The Ice Road with three vital well-heads which might just save some trapped miners. It’s a race against time, but the trucks are dispensable, and so are their drivers. So it’s no big surprise that Laurence Fishburne, spoiler alert, doesn’t last long, but there’s also a double-agent who turns McCann’s mission on its head…
With simplistic anti-corporate sentiment, a half-brother with PTSD to care for and a Native American gal-pal (Amber Midthunder), McCann has been fashioned in the modern, diverse sense of heroism, but his actions are straight up Neeson. Never giving up, never defeated, always trying to do the right thing; it’s no wonder that Neeson is a brand. Jonathan Hensleigh’s film has some weird geography and some hokey effects, sure, but when you’ve got a happy centre like Neeson, who would want to complain? We all need a hero right now, and while The Ice Road isn’t up there with Neeson’s best, it’s good enough to be going on with.
Not my cup of tea. And shame Fishburne is killed off so early – I may have watched it for him.
What if I remake the film as Larry Fishburne’s Ice Truckers?
Now *that* I would watch. You write the script, I’ll give it a read, give you the job of director, and we can get Alex to fund the whole project. Sounds like a plan.
Alex wants a shark in it.
Could we shoe horn one in? And maybe a Charlie Chan line too, just to keep him happy.
I guess so. Larry Fishburne’s Sharknado Ice Trucker Mystery.
I know, I know, we’re straying from the original concept, but without the fat cats, where would we be? Still stuck Blanefield, most likely. It’s a depressing thought.
Charlie Chan’s Amity Ice Truck Larry Fishbone’s Investigations…
Should do the trick. He’ll be pouring money in now. If you want, I’ll let you pop in some miniature animals…
What use are they to the world’s hunger problems?
Perhaps, Charlie Chan may have to investigate just that…
I loved this movie. I was in the mood for shutting off the brain and just enjoying something that is crazy fun. I just felt bad for Morpheus.
I enjoyed this far more than expected, pleased you feel the same.
Distributors are idiots. Who in their right mind would not put a Neeson picture out into the cinema? Even his duds – and they are few post-Taken – are well worth a look. I will seek this one out. You are right – Neeson belongs to a select band of actors whose marketability increased rather than decreased with age.
This would have been a good time in the cinema, a less gritty, more truck-based variation on the survivalism of The Grey. Worth seeing.
If you wanna survive get Neeson. Will track this one down.
Loved Taken. Found myself literally sitting on the edge of my seat. Always up for one of it’s derivatives…
Well, if it’s free, then this should fill any Neeson-shaped gap in our lives. he’s a great star, and this movie, while hokey in places, runs through the gears. Better than the Taken sequels.
My last Neeson watch was MIB: International. He was looking his age in that.
I watched the first Taken but barely made it through. Sex trafficking is not a plot device I can just sit through and enjoy. So I never bothered with the others.
Skip Taken for sure. Actually, the deep blue hero stuff in Ice Road would be a better fit for you.
I will take that under advisement 🙂
I’ll get the paperwork sent over by lunchtime.
Your lunchtime or my lunchtime?
Whichever comes first.
Then I declare it Lunchtime right now.
Where’s my sandwich? !?!?!
Goodness, the help have appeared to all left. I wonder why? I know. That Neeson probably scared them all off so he could scarf all the sandwiches himself.
I’m in no position to take the high ground, having been unmasked as Jack Nicholson.
What kind of bread? Mustard? Mayo?
We unmasked you as yourself. That was the worst disguise that I or Otsy had seen in years. We were almost ashamed to even be seen trying to chase you down. Thankfully, a good game of marbles set our minds at ease.
I prefer a potato hamburger roll, lightly toasted, then mayo on one slice, then 3 slices of turkey bacon, then a slice of pepperjack cheese, then a slice of raw onion, then dill relish, then some black forest smoked turkey, then a slice of provolone cheese and then you slather the other bun with mustard and slap it on top and voila, a real sandwich! Takes both hands just to eat it.
What in Gordon Ramsey’s name is turkey bacon?? Bacon is a pig thing, not a bird thing.
Turkey that is chopped and formed to look like bacon and flavored as such.
Here’s a link:
https://www.oscarmayer.com/our-products/bacon/00071871548601#:~:text=Oscar%20Mayer%20Turkey%20Bacon%20has,Calories%20From%20Fat%202.5%20G
This is very much what I feared.
looks nice!
For those of us who eat kosher, it’s a real blessing 😀
I can see how that would work…
Since I’ve probably eaten less than a pound of real pork in my entire life, it tastes “good enough” for me 😀
I understand that sex trafficking is kind of a rough subject for most. But he kind of as a character kills those people.
It’s not whether the scum get rough justice served to them or not, it’s about the very subject matter being used for entertainment purposes.
There are so many others way to get the daughter kidnapped….
Better than Taken 2 or 3 IMHO…
Glad I wasn’t the only one to enjoy this, fab review.
Thanks! You got there first. Not sure what people expected of this, but I was a satisfied customer.
I think people expect him to be all ‘Taken’ and kicking butt the whole time, but that wasn’t needed.