It is sad that Liam Neeson had a brain cramp during the press tour of Cold Pursuit, it really gave the movie a lot of negative press which helped it bomb at the box office. Don’t get me wrong, this was by far one of the worse action movies of his late career, but his comments didn’t help matters.
He set the bar for his acting career way too high with Taken. He then continued to miss the mark with the rest of the Taken franchise (although I love them all), and he tried his best to continue the trend with films like The Commuter and NonStop. I thought Cold Pursuit was going to be his best work in years because in the trailer he kicks a lot of ass and does it with a snow plow! Instead, the story lacked all the proper indigents for an action thriller that I expected.
Besides the awesome way Neeson’s character kills and deposes of the bodies, the only good aspect of the entire story is the bad guy Trevor “Viking” Calcote played by Tom Bateman. He was the perfect antagonist because his wealthy and angry personality made him think he was untouchable when in reality a local snow plow guy took down his whole empire.
The final showdown of good guys and bad guys was pretty good, but it could have been so much better. There could have been more bloodshed, but everyone who needed to die came to their demise through creative ways that fit the snowy mountain setting. The ending wraps up the story with a nice big bow though they picked a really bad colour for the bow.
Maybe my dislike for the film stems from my expectations or maybe this wasn’t as good as it was billed. Like I often say, I can’t tell if you are going to like it unless you give it a chance. I can only tell you what I liked and didn’t like leaving the rest up to you. 4/10
Ten Stars or Less 