Liam Neeson has become typecast ever since the conclusion of the Taken trilogy. However, Cold Pursuit (2019) is possibly the best movie he has starred in since Taken 2. Although, that doesn’t qualify the film as great.
From the get-go, Cold Pursuit feels like a foreign film and I later on found out that it’s a Hollywood remake of a Norwegian film titled In Order of Disappearance. Why did the film not seem sugarcoated with American production values? Because both films have the same director, Hans Peter Moland. Nevertheless, the film’s writing is a letdown due to the screenplay being penned by an American writer (Frank Baldwin) instead of the original writer (Kim Fupz Aakeson) or a foreign screenwriter.
The biggest problem with Cold Pursuit is how by-the-numbers it is. The dark humor and well-choreographed action sequences only serve as a distraction from the amateurishly-written screenplay. There are also good performances especially by the supporting cast of Tom Bateman and Tom Jackson. But these do not make up for the flick’s lack of originality.
In the end, you’re better off not watching Cold Pursuit unless you do so to pass the time. Neeson really needs to re-evaluate his movie choices or he might end up like Nicolas Cage.
