The Ice Road – Action-Neeson Takes A Detour

The actions films of Liam Neeson over the past decade and a half have essentially become their own subgenre and are essentially the same film, give or take a few interchangeable details. Though they all consist of Neeson doing his thing the only way he can time after time, in the end, these films still work in the end despite their overly-derivative nature. While Neeson may be getting up there in age, that charisma and screen presence are undeniable. When it comes to his latest film, The Ice Road, it tries to stand out and offers a different yet still compelling experience, delivering on its premise, before devolving into pure silliness more akin to something more familiar to fans of the Neeson action subgenre. Nevertheless, a better overall story that saw characters trek through the beautiful Manitoba, Canada wilderness, some quality action sequences (in spite of some not so quality ones), and some decent performances across the board from Neeson and others still make the film more than worth the watch or stream (depending on where you are watching this from).

The Ice Road follows a ‘big-rig’ ice road driver named Mike (Neeson) who found himself and his brother Gurty (Thomas) called into duty once a remote diamond mine collapse saw him part of a team of ice road drivers taking part on a rescue mission over frozen lakes and oceans in order to save the trapped minors. Suffice it to say that these drivers did not only have to face the elements, they also had to face each other because driving across treacherous terrain was obviously not going to be enough. Driving bi-rigs over ice was clearly a recipe for disaster if not smartly and there were certainly close calls which were cause for tension as the camerawork did a great job at reminding viewers of the stakes. This tension did an admirable job at filling the void left by the lack of interesting characters and original backstories even though the end result was a predictable one.

Though it won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone watching, once the real stakes beyond the truckers’ journey was revealed, The Ice Road got more entertaining albeit increasingly silly as the film became something different as a way to seemingly wrap everything together seeing that the actual premise probably couldn’t sustain an entire film on its own anyway. The problem with that was the film’s failure to develop that subplot beyond what was blatantly obvious, never straying beyond tropes. While there were still stakes, they weren’t nearly as compelling as the battle against the elements but watching Neeson (the character’s name doesn’t matter) dispatch all of the insignificant bad guys was still satisfying to watch as the various fights seemed a little more even this time around. The other side of that was that many took place within cabs of big-rigs so the camerawork within those confined spaces was often hit or miss. Meanwhile, the few special effects were also spotty at best as the lower budget showed. However, they weren’t too distracting.

At the end of the day, most viewers are watching The Ice Road for Neeson and he definitely did not disappoint here as Mike. With a character that’s just different enough from his countless other action movie characters, this made him more compelling to watch as his motivations came from a different angle than usual. As mentioned, his charisma and screen presence were still here as his so called special set of skills were still entertaining to watch, adding big-rig driving to that equation. The only others that remotely made an impression were Thomas who held his own with Neeson as Gurty though it was disappointing to see the film not tap into that dynamic enough here. Midthunder also held her own against Neeson as a spunky big-rig driver named Tantoo. Finally, Benjamin Walker was entertaining to watch in spite of his cringeyness as the film’s sort of villain Varnay.

For those looking for something to cool off with this summer, The Ice Road isn’t the worst choice.

still courtesy of VVS Films

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.