Cold Pursuit (2019)

[AimingforYoko]

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A snowplow driver seeks revenge against the drug dealers he thinks killed his son. Based on the 2014 Norwegian film 'In Order of Disappearance'.

For a Liam Neeson action flick, the focus on Neeson was far less than expected. This was a good thing, all the supporting players were pretty fleshed out (except, disappointingly, Laura Dern as his wife). As the description said, it's based on a Norwegian flick with Stellan Skarsgard in the lead role. Darkly funny, it might be the best of Neeson's post-Taken career.

[krankydoodle]

I hadn't read a lot about this one so my expectations were low, but I really enjoyed it. It's too bad it didn't do better at the box office.

The original's on Netflix and is about 20 minutes longer. I'm curious to see how it's different.

[Robert Lynch]

I think it was his comments that sealed the faith of this movie. Liam opened his mouth about what would happened if his friend was attacked by a black man when promoting this film and he turned it all racist all of a sudden. You could read this interview, too. It was really something.

[Joimiaroxeu]

So I'm watching the original of this movie and am amazed at how faithful the remake was. A lot of it seems to be shot-by-shot which stands to reason I guess since the same guy (Hans Petter Moland) directed both films. Anyway, the funniest comparison I've made so far (about 25 minutes in) is that the Stellan Skarsgård character's last name is Dickman while the Liam Neeson version's was Coxman. I see what you did there, Moland. 😉

Anyway, I'm noticing some interesting cultural changes made in Cold Pursuit, presumably for US audiences. I probably can't really go into detail without violating forum policy but I would guess Neeson's ill-considered PR remarks were related to those changes. Someone may have feared Cold Pursuit wouldn't appeal so much to the fans of his previous action movies--in particular the Taken ones--so they tried to target a certain type of audience.