Ice Road: Vengeance

Directed by Jonathan Hensleigh, Ice Road: Vengeance follows Liam Neeson’s Mike McCann as he encounters nefarious figures during a trip to Kathmandu. Filmmaker Hensleigh, armed with his own script, delivers a fairly low-rent endeavor that’s been saddled with a whole host of lackluster attributes, including Tom Stern’s shot-on-the-cheap visuals and an egregiously padded-out midsection, which is a shame, ultimately, given that the movie does feature a typically engaging Neeson turn and a third act rife with better-than-expected action sequences – with the latter particularly true of a terrific set-piece involving a crane and a perilous gorge. It’s nevertheless impossible to overlook a recurring emphasis on scenes and digressions of a palpably pointless nature (eg the protagonists’ attempt to fix their bus), and there’s little doubt, certainly, that the picture should’ve been streamlined and pared down from its bloated 112 minute runtime. And while the whole thing concludes on a relatively decent note, Ice Road: Vengeance has long-since cemented its place as a woefully erratic actioner that squanders its assortment of positive attributes.

** out of ****