Ice Road 2: Vengeance

In an overall general way, Ice Road part 2 is entertaining, but it's also a ridiculous movie, with an awful script, horrible acting, and at times so bad it was funny. There is absolutely nothing in it that even slightly resembles reality. There is one sequence in the film that is so preposterous and seemed to signal that they decided to set the movie in fantasyland. Even the CGI is fake looking and on the level of something from the 1950s. Liam is doing his best and at 73 looks incredible. It's a shame he has to make films like this and while at times it is suspenseful it's also embarrassing. Worth a watch just to see how low movies have sunk.

At this point, Liam Neeson's situationship with perilous situations has become a tiresome actioner trope. All the characters, except for Neeson's and Bingbing Fan's, are directly imported from the generic action template guidebook. This could've been tagged a Taken movie, and it wouldn't be any different. And for a film titled "Ice Road," there were hardly any icy roads. I forgot almost everything about the first film except for the name, Neeson's character, and the poster.. so I didn't even realize that the protagonist's brother was dead (lol!). Also, I read that most of this was shot in Australia and not Nepal, which makes it matter even less. Can Liam Neeson do less of these and more of In the Land of Saints and Sinners types with better character depth?

I love Liam Neeson, even his rehular predictable fare after Taken 1 and 2. Here he growls his way through another revenge mission, this time set against the stunning backdrop of the Himalayas. But Ice Road Vengeance barely escapes the avalanche of its own clichés.

The plot: a frozen road, some dodgy mining conspiracies, a dead relative (naturally), and a long drive toward payback. It wants to be Taken on Ice, but ends up somewhere between a forgettable TV movie and a rejected episode of Ice Road Truckers: Nepal Edition.

The real letdown? The glaring lack of authenticity. Nepali politicians speaking English in a speech to the local crowd, not a single notable local actor in the main cast, and cultural details that feel as deep as a Lonely Planet summary. It's Hollywood exoticism on autopilot... all scenery, no substance.

That said, the cinematography deserves credit. The icy roads and mountain vistas are easily the film's best performers. But even Neeson's stoic charm can't steer this one out of the ditch.

Verdict: A missed opportunity: half-hearted action, surface-level storytelling, and a setting wasted on stereotypes. Watch only if you're stuck indoors with bad Wi-Fi and no popcorn left.

5/10.

This is the type of stuff that made all the rounds of Cinemax, HBO, Showtime... and the second tier movie theaters back in the 80's. The early to mid 80's really... and I absloutely ate them up. Yes they were terrible... you don't realize just how bad until you try and rewatch them as an adult.

Bad plots, some mediocre acting and dialogue... completely unreal situations. It has it all! And just like back then, I enjoyed it for the most part.

I would never bother to watch it again, it really doesn't have anything that would get me to do that. Back when I was a teen, they just showed the same movies multiple times a week... you watched out of sheer boredom at nothing else being available.

They really pushed the "bad " French woman... all 5'1" of her! She reminded me of "Grumpy Cat" on the internet! I have no problem believing a woman can be dangerous, but not weighing 90 lbs and fighting a 6'4" 220lb guy...even if he is ancient.

So, let's not talk about the story - you already know what you're getting. "He will hunt them down" is back in business.

The plot is solid but offers no surprises. And that's a shame, because surprise is often what separates a good movie from a mediocre one.

The CGI, however, feels like it's from another planet - and not in a good way.

That planet is cheap and artificial. Take the CGI bus, for example: it's empty, even though it should be full of passengers. The scenes with falling cars look low-budget, and at times it seems like they didn't even film in Nepal - just in front of green or blue screens. The lighting was also off in several scenes.

In the end, the film didn't entertain me. It mostly screamed "bad CGI" again and again.

What a shame.