COLD PURSUIT / CERT:15 / DIRECTOR: HANS PETTER MOLAND / SCREENPLAY: FRANK BALDWIN / STARRING: LIAM NEESON, TOM BATEMAN, TOM JACKSON, LAURA DERN, EMILY ROSSUM / RELEASE DATE:  JUNE 17TH (DOWNLOAD),  JUNE 24TH (DVD, BLU RAY)

Possibly due to some ill-judged comments made by Liam Neeson during its press junket Cold Pursuit met a frosty reception at the Box Office as the star (and the film) suffered the brunt of the inevitable hysterical social media overreaction which practically demanded that all evidence of the actor’s very existence be erased from the face of the Earth. Saner heads appear to have prevailed for the moment (or maybe the next media faux outrage quickly took its place) and Neeson seems likely to continue his career as one of cinema’s most unlikely action heroes and perhaps now audiences might be able to sit back and enjoy Cold Pursuit undisturbed by the steam gushing out of their flapping ears.

If you’re expecting another joyless if efficient punch-along-a-Neeson thriller-by-numbers then Cold Pursuit is likely to come as a bit of a surprise.  Here our man plays Nels Coxman, a snowplow operator (Mr Coxman, that’s my name; that name again is Mr Coxman) in a swanky Colorado ski resort. All seems well in Coxman’s world –  he’s just been named ‘Citizen of the Year’ after all –  but his life comes crashing down around him when his son is brutally murdered by members of a ruthless drugs cartel.  Nels does what any sane snow plough operator would do in such dire circumstances; he tools himself up and swiftly kills the three hoods and dumps their bodies – often to the accompaniment of a curiously jaunty musical score – into a nearby river. The leader of the cartel is the psychotic, unhinged Trevor “Viking” Calcote (you’re not alone in thinking that Trevor isn’t perhaps the most terrifying name for a formidable crime lord) and a deadly gang war quickly erupts when Trev mistakenly believes that his men were murdered by a rival gang operated by Native American drug lord White Bull. Trev eventually discovers the truth about Coxman’s involvement; cue an avalanche of bloodshed which threatens to turn the town’s crisp white snow a deeper shade of red.

Cold Pursuit is actually a lot better than it might have been even if it outstays its welcome a little by clocking in at nearly two hours. Neeson eats up stuff like this but is clearly enjoying playing a character with a bit more light and shade than we’re used to and Moland, remaking his original 2014 Norwegian film In Order of Disappearance but with an American sensibility which might evoke the likes of Fargo and Grosse Pointe Blank, has clearly worked hard to make its characters a littler quirkier and a little less predictable than the movie’s over-familiar genre might usually dictate and given the film an edge of surreal black humour. The  narrative over-reaches itself at times and Coxman’s involvement gets sidelined somewhat as the focus shifts to the gang war subplot but the action scenes are well-delivered, the cinematography exploits the starkness of the landscape and Tom Bateman’s manic bad guy Trevor (seriously!) is on a different level to the cootie-cutter gangsters who usually populate Neeson shoot-‘em-ups.  Don’t put this one on ice; it’s worth a look, if you get our drift…