Liam Neeson worked almost non-stop in the 13 years since “Taken,” including two sequels. It’s easy to imagine that the talented actor would slow down when he sees his new action movie “The Ice Road”, which is a chase movie about Neeson who transforms into an ice road warrior.
Netflix premieres the movie, which may speak to its value because the pandemic has made the streaming service a little more of a dumping ground for the theatrical fare with limited commercial prospects.
This could be partly because the film is similar to a string of Neeson movies with indistinct title titles such as “Honest Thief”, “The Marksman,” and “Cold Pursuit.” “
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“Ice Road” is the latest in a series that throws Neeson into a snowy setting. Here, Neeson is a down-on luck driver who was asked to transport equipment to rescue trapped miners. It’s no surprise that there is a darker side to the story. Neeson says, “It’s about money now.” He’s not alone in this, even though he doesn’t have the “special set” of skills associated with “Taken”.
To be fair, Neeson has been in many movies during this stretch. He played the long-shrouded “Deep Throat”, in the Watergate-themed “Mark Felt, The Man Who Brought down the White House,”, as well as supporting roles in “Widows” and “Men in Black International.”
Despite his constant stream of tough-guy parts, including several others already in the works, he has managed to exploit his steely personality while offering little else that would reflect the breadth and depth of his career. These include the biographical drama Kinsey, the period piece Rob Roy, and his role in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
Simply put, Neeson is in a bit rut. “Ice Road” almost literally exemplifies this because, at many points, the challenge involves removing large trucks from slushy conditions.
Neeson’s ability to keep such convincing characters onscreen is a plus. This is despite Hollywood’s tendency to ageism. He has managed to defy Hollywood’s trend of ageism, just like Harrison Ford.
Neeson made a joke about his 2017 work after “Taken”, claiming that his transition into thrillers was an accident and that studios were “throwing serious cash at me to do that” but that at 65, “Audiences will eventually go: “Come on.”
Later, Neeson rebutted those comments and discussed what he called his “retirement from action movies” in an Entertainment Tonight interview. Despite Neeson trying to escape, they seem to keep him in.
It almost feels as though the only thing that could stop an actor from performing is him — not necessarily by giving up material but by being more selective and choosier about choosing it.
Bottom line, Neeson does have a wide range of skills. However, he only uses a handful of them in these types of movies. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it is not a bad thing.
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