Treat for fans of gory and absurd romps
LIAM Neeson’s most recurrent role – that of a dad whose outrage fuels a violent vigilante campaign – has always been preposterous.
But it has never been nuttier than in Cold Pursuit, an action thriller in which the Irish actor plays Nels Coxman, a snowplow operator at a Colorado ski resort with the death-dealing skills of a special-ops commando. This time, the absurdity is intentional.
Adapting his own 2014 film, In Order of Disappearance, Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland retells the story with bloody zest.
Nels’s son Kyle tangles with drug thugs, and is eliminated with a overdose of heroin. The cops assume he overdosed. It’s left to Nels to beat, choke and shoot his way to the truth.
His ultimate target will be Viking (Tom Bateman), a prissy Denver crime boss.
Writer Frank Baldwin, who transplants Kim Fupz Aakeson’s original screenplay from the mountains of rural Norway to the Western US, multiplies the mayhem by introducing a rival drug gang.
Led by a man (Tom Jackson) who’s also mourning a son, this Native American criminal operation, which is presented as defending tribal land, replaces the interloping Serbians of the earlier movie.
Cold Pursuit is a treat for fans of gory, Tarantino-style romps. Yet the movie is never more than a minor entertainment with a taste for major havoc.