Ice Road: Vengeance

At this point in his career, Liam Neeson seems determined to keep his reputation as the relentless action hero intact even if the snow is thicker than the plot. Ice Road Vengeance rides on the same old tires: a few gunshots, a rugged truck, and Neeson doing what he does best growling lines and outrunning death despite looking visibly exhausted. The film tries to channel Taken-style grit into a frozen landscape, but unfortunately, what it delivers is mostly cold air. There's minimal emotional depth, barely-there suspense, and a plot that feels recycled from every other Neeson thriller of the past decade. It's not entirely unwatchable-Neeson's fans might still find some icy charm-but it's hard to shake the feeling that this road should've been left untrodden. A generous 4/10 feels fair, mainly out of respect for Neeson's enduring commitment to grit.

This film had all the ingredients to be something remarkable, a gripping premise, the raw and treacherous beauty of Nepal's unforgiving roads, and the presence of Liam Neeson, whose performance rarely disappoints. And yet, what could've been a visually stunning and emotionally compelling survival thriller fell flat, entirely due to a poorly written story that disrespected both geography and authenticity.

Instead of leveraging the naturally dangerous terrain of Nepal to drive a more grounded and believable plot, the filmmakers seemed more interested in rushing through implausible sequences. The most jarring offense? Presenting a CGI version of Everest that looked painfully out of place, especially when we know the real mountains are right there, majestic, harsh, and more cinematic than any computer-generated replica.

Even worse, the portrayal of Nepali culture and language was laughable. Random gibberish passed off as "Nepali" only served to insult rather than represent. For those of us who know and love the country, this felt careless, even offensive.

And let's address the elephant in the room: you simply cannot take a bus from Kathmandu and reach Everest in a few hours. The film treats this like a casual weekend trip. It's not just misleading; it's disrespectful to the very people whose land and struggle the movie pretends to showcase.

The only reason I gave this movie 5 stars was because of Liam Neeson. Strip him away, and this wouldn't deserve more than a 2. A spectacular setting wasted on a lazy script and cheap execution.

Well, to start positively: This movie offers nice action with buses, the scenery of Nepal is beautiful, and it has a well-picked and capable cast with Liam Neeson as the lead, and I like Liam Neeson; always did.

But that is not enough to call this a good movie. Everything is just a vehicle for action. That may have worked twenty years ago, but nowadays that's not enough. It's just too superficial and predictable. The character development and their relationships have too little space to allow me to build up any attachment whatsoever. There are some interesting side characters with potential, but they all get killed way too soon. And I'm not talking about the antagonists, which have no depth at all.

So all that remains is the action. It's solid but not overwhelming. There are quite some logic issues that spoil the fun, and the editing is way too fast-paced, sometimes confusing.

This is a routinely staged action movie with superficial characters, with questionable editing and without any surprises.

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.

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.