Cold Pursuit Movie Review

The following is a movie review “Cold Pursuit” by Marc Primo.

Release date: February 8, 2019 (United States)

Director: Hans Petter Moland

Language: English

Production companies: Summit Entertainment

Producers: Finn Gjerdrum, Stein B. Kvae, Michael Shamberg, Ameet Shukla

Cold Pursuit (2019), Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland’s Hollywood iteration of his 2014 film Kraftidioten, remains true to the elements which made the original a hit.

It’s easy for the common action fan to dismiss the film as just another recycled tale of vengeance filled with the usual tropes. Liam Neeson’s performance gives audiences a taste of the actor’s versatility and certain appeal that’s yet to be seen from his previous films, giving Cold Pursuit’s rather dark yet comical nature its own exceptionality.

Setting its darkly woven scenes against the snowy white backdrop of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, Neeson plays Nels Coxman, a respected snow plow operator in the rather quiet town of Kehoe whose son’s murder leads him into a rabbit hole of violence and a ‘son-for-son’ rollercoaster with the drug cartel. The film’s many eccentric characters led by Tom Bateman’s Viking and Tom Jackson’s White Bull succeed in keeping you glued to the screen, while its irreverent humor gives the bloody ride the ample gasps of air at the precise moments when audiences need it.

Cold Pursuit may possess the already exhausted action-comedy formula, yet it still seeks attention for its own merits. The writing presents worthy sketches that will keep you interested, the action scenes that blends cinematic aesthetics with disturbing imagery are abreast with today’s standards of onscreen violence, and the actors fill the characters’ shoes quite effectively.

However, the true protagonists of the film truly know what they are doing: Moland marks his Hollywood debut with his trademark tonality, and Neeson returns to a household role that he is most comfortable with. However you take this experimental action-comedy mashup, you’re sure to find moments that will keep you on the edge of your seats, especially if you are keen on getting a good amount of comical quirks out of a rising body count.

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