OT: Liam Neeson Geezer Revenge Swan Song: "Cold Pursuit"

Though it is a given that Liam Neeson has spent the years since "Taken" hit big in 2009 making his name in "geezer revenge movies," I must say that I've been kinda discriminating about them.

I saw "Taken" -- and I was impressed by its single-mindedness and how Neeson overcame the odds to locate and save his daughter in record time. But I skipped Taken 2. Was there a Taken 3? If so, I skipped that, too.

And I skipped the one on the plane. And I skipped the one on the train. And I skipped the one with the wolves.

But I read a review for "Cold Pursuit" and found the idea intriguing. I saw the trailer and found the setting(a world of snow and ice) compelling. So I went.

I liked the movie. For a few reasons.

One is that while the film starts -- very quickly -- as a standard revenge tale (Drug gang kills Neeson's son and makes it look like a heroin overdose; Neeson kills them one by one), about 40 minutes in, it takes a big swerve into different territory. Not particularly unique territory, but entertaining territory.

The guys who killed Neeson's son are an all-white group of gangsters based out of Denver. That's kind of original right there(I figure these WASP gangsters are all derivatives of the Irish mobs of Kansas City and Chicago.) So you have white guys photographed against snow white, icy backgrounds. But they take Neeson's kills of their gang members as the work of a local Native American tribal gang -- and so soon, its a Gang War between the WASPS and the Native Americans, and Neeson just quietly sidesteps everything (I'm reminded a bit of the first Eastwood spaghetti Westerns based on Japanese samarai films.)

The Snowy Colorado Gang Wars actually reminded me strongly of Season Two of the Fargo TV Series...a stand alone tale of gang wars in Minnesota. And I say, if I can get the same satisfaction in under two hours at the movies, why commit ten weeks to it?

"Cold Pursuit" is one of those movies where the magic is in the little details, given that everything else is "standard." For instance, in the grief-filled scene where Neeson and wife Laura Dern go to see their dead son in the morgue, the director has the morgue attendant crank and crank and crank and CRANK the platform with the dead son on it so that it takes FOREVER for the kid's head to clear the bottom of the frame into the shot. And then the attendant says "Your son." You have to laugh. And you know you shouldn't.

In another scene, a Native American gang member inexplicably hang glides around the Rockies...and this pays off in a grim joke at the end of the film.

And: Neeson turns out to have a brother who was a gangster himself. Its the weird-faced William Forsythe, as a retired gangster who puts himself at risk to help his brother. (His wife is an Asian woman of whom Forsythe says: "She was skimming off a massage parlor and I was sent to beat the s-- out of her, but this happened:" (points to wedding ring.) These brothers are both named "Coxsman" which figures as a joke, yes? And the bad brother has his own gangster nickname "Wingman"(taken, he notes, from "Top Gun.") Funny stuff. Offbeat.

And(most of all): the film has a motif whereby when any character dies, his or her name appears on screen along with a religious artifact and a nickname, like:

(Cross)
William Nickerson
"Speedo"

Until these little memorials have stacked up by the score as the bodies pile up. This is because this movie is based on a Norwegian film called "In Order of Disappearance" and this is how the characters disappear.

Funny lines. Hateable gangsters killing each other off, while Liam kills the rest. And that great setting -- snowbound country where its hard to believe humans could live. (Snowplows, snow blowers and logging equipment feature well in the climax)

Liam says that Cold Pursuit will be his last movie of this type. What type? Geezer revenge? Action? He gave a bad racially-tinged interview that evidently hurt the film's chances, but I don't think they were that good to begin with. I showed up, liked it...gave it a bit more of a thumbs up than usual...because of where the movie DIDN'T go, because of the great snowy settings, because of the wit of the thing.

But that's about all I got on this one. Though I suppose the Ghost of Hitchcock haunts it. There are gorgeous night scenes of Neeson disposing of bodies into the churning waters of a high waterfall -- for the fish to eat(really!). Body disposal, black comedy, a rather "monumental" setting(the waterfall.) Felt like Hitch to me.