Film Review: Liam Neeson leads the enjoyably dopey fun of The Ice Road
The Ice Road. Picture: Allen Fraser/Netflix
Liam Neeson stars in (12A), playing Mike McCann, an aging trucker with ‘not a lot of tread left on his tires'. But when a methane pocket explodes in a diamond mine in Winnipeg, trapping a host of miners underground, it’s the old dog for the hard road: Mike is hired to transport a 30-ton drill from North Dakota into Canada, across an already melting frozen lake.
What could possibly go wrong?
Pretty much everything you can think of, basically, and more besides.
With his younger brother Gurty (Marcus Thomas), an ex-army serviceman who suffers from dysphasia, tagging along as his mechanic, Mike steers a precarious course through the treacherous terrain, his mission under threat from Nature and man alike.
Written and directed by Jonathan Hensleigh, is a snowbound rollercoaster of a neo-Western ride, with Neeson perfectly cast as the grizzled old survivor who will do whatever it takes to get the stagecoach through. Marcus Thomas aside, the supporting cast doesn’t have an awful lot more to do than serve as bowling pins to be knocked over as Mike powers on through the snow and the ice: all told, it’s a pretty straightforward tale that turns into a demolition derby.
That said, it’s enjoyably dopey fun, and while Neeson has been more convincing than this in the past, he is always good value as a human battering ram.
(streaming release)
