Cold Pursuit (2019)

Elevator Pitch: When Nels Coxman’s son is murdered by a drug gang he goes on the rampage in revenge for his loss. He is the snowplough operator at Kehoe, a fictional ski resort so has on his side heavy machinery and knowledge of the environment. He begins to eliminate the gang, disposing of the bodies over a waterfall. Meanwhile the head of the gang, Viking, is also on the rampage and is really out of control. He thinks the killers are members of a Native American gang, so kills the son of the leader. Coxman hires a professional assassin, to no effect since Viking kills him. As the villains are eliminated their names appear on a black screen. Eventually Coxman kidnaps Viking’s son causing a showdown in the snow outside his isolated house.

Content:  No sex or nudity. Coxman drives his snowplough about in deep snow at various times. After his son is killed he saws the barrel off a rifle so he has a concealed weapon and goes out shooting people. Viking is a threatening presence, apparently only subdued by his wife. There is almost continuous violence as the various gang members are picked off. Viking makes the error of killing the lover of one of his close associates which results in a betrayal. Nels gets on well with Viking’s son.

A View: The film was quite expensive, but despite relatively positive reviews due to it’s quirky presentation, it lost money. This might in part have been due to Liam Neeson’s inappropriate discussion about being a vigilante on a talk show. So if we ignore Neeson’s inappropriate input he has become a successful action hero, this film he has said, will be his last outing as one. I did have a bit of a problem with his weapon of choice. If you can saw the barrel off a rifle surely you could also remove the telescopic sight, but other than that it rolls long with ironic precision, so a watch if you like that sort of thing.  

Liam Neeson has become something of an action hero. Other films of him in this sort of role which are reviewed on this site include Unknown, The A-Team and Non-Stop.