A cold but forgettable remake with a firm grasp on tone.
The currently controversial Liam Neeson stars in a Fargo meets Taken dark comedy set in Kehoe, Colorado, Cold Pursuit. A small town who has just awarded the Citizen of the Year Award to Nels Coxman for his dedicated snow-plowing for safe travels. On that early plot beat alone, it’s quite obvious as to the tone that director Hans Petter Molland is looking to tap into. Does it work? Sometimes.
When Coxman’s son, Kyle, is abducted and drugged to death, he seeks out revenge across the snowy mountains between Kehoe and Denver. Along the way he finds himself apart of a drug turf war involving a local crime group led by “Viking” (a scene chewing Tom Bateman). As some of the marketing may have led you to believe, Cold Pursuit hits all the beats of this late surge of Neeson led crime films. From the obnoxious editing straight out of the infamous “Fence” scene from Taken 3, right down to the cold-blooded cheesy quotes from something like Non-Stop, Cold Pursuit kind of has it all.
Where Cold Pursuit lacks is an enticing dramatic aspect of it. The story is relatively simple, but the characters leave a lot left to be desired. Although this may sound unfair, the previous comparison to the 1996 dark comedy Fargo also applies here. Overall, both Fargo and Cold Pursuit are generally trying to achieve the same goal. To make the audience laugh and be engaged with the world and story. This film fails to do so because it spends too much time in areas it didn’t need to, and then the film ends up dragging into a so-so finale. Whereas something like Fargo has a confined cast of quirky characters that compliments the wacky world. Thankfully the world they created here is believable in how silly it is, so it at least makes up for mediocre storytelling and bad editing.
Overall, Cold Pursuit isn’t really a stone cold thriller that we’re used to seeing Neeson in as of late (and probably won’t anymore depending on how Hollywood responds to his comments), but it’s a silly romp that manages to capitalize on it’s dark comedy approach. None of the performances here are a revelation, the story isn’t as profound as a David Fincher flick, and it’s already quite forgettable, but most of the time it’s an enjoyable experience. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend the theater experience here as it could end up playing better at home and make for a great (and I mean GREAT) drinking game right alongside it. Take a shot everytime Viking rages about unhealthy foods.
Cold Pursuit gets a 55/100