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Acting
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Directing
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Story
Starring: Liam Neeson, Benjamin Walker, Amber Midthunder
Director: Jonathan Hensleigh
Running Time: 108 mins
The Ice Road is an American film about a team of truck drivers who brave danger as they cross an expansive frozen lake in order to reach a group of miners trapped underground.
After all these years, some people say that ‘all Liam Neeson movies are the same’. That’s of course not exactly true, but if there were one to showcase a bog-standard Liam Neeson action movie, then it would definitely be The Ice Road, and not for a good reason.
As painfully generic an action thriller as you’re likely to find, this movie has ‘straight-to-DVD’ written all over it, with a tedious premise, ugly visuals and underwhelming characters that aren’t even saved by Neeson’s seemingly eternal ability to make action movie characters entertaining.
Neeson is without doubt the bright spark here, but much like his other frozen-road action thriller, Cold Pursuit, his character is downbeat, poorly-developed, and not exactly given the chance to get down and dirty with the main action of the story.
The rest of the cast aren’t able to bring much more to the fold, with a collection of less-than-spectacular performances that just don’t capture any intensity or emotional drama that the screenplay might be trying to deliver. As far as I can tell, there really isn’t that much to this movie beneath the surface, effectively slogging its way to the climactic moments that the title promises.
The Ice Road doesn’t have the spectacle of Taken, the heart of Honest Thief, or even the mystery of The Commuter. In short, it’s a boring, forgettable and generic action thriller that stands as one of Neeson’s poorest starring roles, even though he is probably the best part of the movie. So, that’s why I’m giving The Ice Road a 4.4 overall.
