The Ice Road (2021)

The Ice Road (2021)

5/10

Starring

Liam Neeson

Benjamin Walker

Amber Midthunder

Marcus Thomas

Holt McCallany

Directed by Jonathan Hensleigh

Note: This review contains mild spoilers

Ice Age is another Neeson action flick that puts our hero up against a company who are willing to do anything to cover up their crooked dealings. The movie is as cold as the terrain to which it is filmed. The main challenge like all other Neeson films nowadays is that Neeson seems to be a fit for the role and puts his all into it. But the writing all seems to fall by the way side. This movie lacks the needed thrill, yes there is the action which it has in its own subtle way, but the thrill not that much.

This film is highly predictable, the moment the clouds clear. This happens one third of the way, the moment you discover where the company stands when it comes to the rescue and where all the characters fit in. From here on, you can pretty much guess everything that will happen.

The thrilling aspect of the movie is of the deaths on the way of this rescue. The movie then ends the way movies like these does, with nothing to hold on to that you have seen an action/thriller.

The main twist in the movie is that the rescue takes a background to the main plot at hand.

In a mine in Canada an explosion happens trapping twenty-six miners underground. In order to save these miners they need to cap the methane line that was bridged which caused the explosion. The main challenge is that, there was never meant to be an explosion, but it so happens the methane sensors were all turned off in the mine.

The company in charge of the mine and their insurance decided to hire a team to go deliver three wellheads so as to save the miners. Neeson’s character Mike, was one of the people set to drive a rig through the ice road to save the miners, this expedition is lead by Jim (Laurence Fishburne). So on this journey we had five people Mike, Jim and Tantoo driving three trucks. Mike’s brother in Mike’s rig as their mechanic and someone from the insurance company. Things looked legit when the journey started, until tragedy struck plus they lost one of the trucks. They started to accuse one another, when the script flips and we discover that the company was not clean and not ready to do all it takes to save the people trapped in the mine.

You can catch this movie on Netflix (U.S.) and Amazon (U.K.). Don’t expect much from Laurence Fishburne here, his character lost significant less than half way into the movie.