DIRECTOR: Hans Petter Moland
LEAD CAST: Liam Neeson, Tom Bateman,
Tom Jackson, Emmy Rossum, Julia Jones
PRODUCER: Finn Gjerdrum, Stein B.
Kvae, Michael Shamberg
SCREENWRITER: Frank Baldwin
BASED ON: “In Order of Disappearance”
by Kim Fupz Aakeson
MUSIC: George Fenton
GENRE: Dark Comedy-Action
DISTRIBUTOR: Summit Entertainment
COUNTRY: United States
LANGUAGE: English
RUNNING TIME: 118 minutes
Technical
assessment: 3
Moral
assessment: 2
CINEMA
rating: V16
MTRCB
rating: R16
Nels
Coxman (Neeson) is a gentle family man
who receives the Citizen of the Year award. But when he learns that Viking
Calcote’s (Bateman) drug cartel murdered his son, he becomes an ice-cold
vigilante wanting to exact revenge on them. He kills three of Viking’s men and
dumps their bodies in the river. Viking, believing the deaths are caused by
White Bull (Jackson), a Native American drug lord, abducts and kills the
latter’s son. This begins the endless
violence and killings from the opposing gangs while Nels plots to dismantle the
cartel.
Cold Pursuit is the remake of Moland’s
own Norwegian film In Order of
Disappearance. While you can praise its ambition deliver high powered
action and dark humor. The exchanges are amusing –although not always clever –
and entertaining breather to the body count and blood coated snow. There is a
subtle wit in the cinematography and design which emphasize the stark yet
imposing landscape. Cold Pursuit
offers humor, a quality never seen in Neeson’s Taken franchise. This immediately endears the audience and makes
them overlook shortcomings. The plot is still the same father-seeking-justice,
Neeson does the same angry tough calculating dad routine, some characters are underwritten
and serve no purpose to the film. But the biggest issue we have with the movie
is that it is several minutes longer than it needs to be.
Justice taken into
one’s own hands creates an endless cycle of violence. While we understand that
criminals need to face the consequences of their actions, we emphasize that
these should be done within the boundaries of the law. When revenge, brutal
death, and violence are funny and audiences laugh at these scenes, danger signs
should be flashing. The movie has all
the ingredients for it not to be suitable for young viewers—drugs, revenge,
language, gore, and violence. But these are not what makes the film strictly
for mature audiences. It is the comedic tone used in presenting them. Cold Pursuit plays with the audiences’
reaction to death and violence. This treatment is appropriate for older and
mature viewers.—PMF
