Hans Petter Moland
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Fargo (1996)
Directed by Joel Coen
influenced Cold Pursuit (2019), In Order of Disappearance (2014)
Themes Characters Plot
The movie has an odd shape to it, beginning as one thing and then widening into something reminiscent of the Fargo television series.
Cold Pursuit is tonally reminiscent of Fargo; beyond its snowy landscape, it’s also the injection of pitch-black humor into a gritty and violent crime thriller, an element that any future Neeson action flicks could use more of.
Emmy Rossum as a ski-town cop is supposed to remind us of Frances McDormand in “Fargo,” but bases her successful police work on the sexual manipulation of some poor sap in Denver.
Instead, Moland seems to lean closer to absurdity à la In Bruges or Fargo .
That, oddly enough, is a beautiful thing to watch and had me wishing this was a documentary about a guy trying to keep a mountain pass clear in the winter rather than another Fargo rip-off.
Sure, the unrelenting tension mounts into a climactic shootout, but the rest of the picture is more akin to the razor-sharp precision and gallows humor of “Fargo” than the merciless vigilantism of “Taken.”
Dating back to the original Taken more than a decade ago, the actor has been a staple of action fare, almost becoming an entire sub-genre unto himself.
If one were to expect a Taken (2008) from Neeson, the film thankfully dismantles the vengeance genre and infuses it with absurd characters and flavours of an icy town.
Starting a decade ago with “Taken” and continuing with two sequels and stand-alone items like “Non-Stop” and “The Commuter,” Neeson has become today’s berserker of choice.
Those hearing its logline — Neeson goes on a killing spree to find the crime lord who killed his son — will expect something far different from this wry revenge story, which offers ample violence but is not another post-Taken piece of grim vigilante wish-fulfillment.
With robust and sturdy direction from Hans Petter Moland (who helmed the original Stellan Skarsgård flick), this may be the best of the last ten years' worth of "Liam Neeson kicks ass" movies to spring up in the wake of Taken.
Then, in the spirit of “Taken,” someone robs our hero of a loved one.
“In Bruges” and “Fargo,” in particular, leave their fingerprints on this film, but “Cold Pursuit” doesn’t aim as high.
Instead, Moland seems to lean closer to absurdity à la In Bruges or Fargo .
In many ways both films draw heavily on films like Fargo and In Bruges , bringing together a rag-tag collection of odd-ball characters with a propensity for violence.
It hits a healthy midway point between the idiosyncratic quirkiness of a Coen Brothers effort like Fargo , and the cathartic blend of mirth and murder of Martin McDonagh with In Bruges or the more recent Three Billboards .
Or, for prime twenty-first century black comedy, Martin McDonagh’s “In Bruges.”
As a general rule, when European directors do English-language remakes of their home-grown successes, the result is pretty dismal; perhaps the most egregious example is “The Vanishing,” Dutch director George Sluizer’s chilling 1988 tale of a man’s obsessive search for his missing girlfriend that he turned into a laughably inept Hollywood bomb five years later.
This remake of his Norwegian crime-thriller “Kraftidioten” (released stateside as “In Order of Disappearance”) about a father avenging his son allows Moland to join the ranks of directors like Michael Haneke (“Funny Games”), George Sluizer (“The Vanishing”), and Takashi Shimizu (“The Grudge”), all of whom made English-language versions of their own foreign-language features.
(Think True Romance.)
But then the quirky pep of True Romance kicks in, particularly in one car ride which indirectly homages Christopher Walken’s iconic monologuing with Dennis Hopper.
What Neeson tries on here is luckily a lot more becoming than the average Kindergarten Cop or The Pacifier, Neeson matching the dry wit that made him an actor’s actor with the grit and capacity for violence that revived his career with Taken a decade ago.
This seems more desperate to be this year's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri , while at the same time coming across like a throwback to 1990s comedic crime thrillers like Smokin' Aces , Pulp Fiction and Fargo (the film's final coup de grace is straight out of the Coen Brothers' playbook).
The ensemble quality might bring to mind various D-grade post-Tarantino riffs from the '00s like Smokin' Aces or Lucky Number Slevin , but Moland does a more effective job of moving gracefully between the various double-crosses and triple-crosses.
A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
Directed by Sergio Leone
influenced In Order of Disappearance (2014)
Plot
The showdown between the two gangs will remind you of the climax of “Yojimbo” or “A Fistful of Dollars” that was based on Kurosawa’s masterpiece.
Known as Power Idiot in it's native country, writer Kim Fupz Aakeson's unlikely revenge tale felt like a cross between David Cronenberg's A History of Violence and Guy Ritchie movies like Snatch and RocknRolla .
Known as Power Idiot in it's native country, writer Kim Fupz Aakeson's unlikely revenge tale felt like a cross between David Cronenberg's A History of Violence and Guy Ritchie movies like Snatch and RocknRolla .
He is in the middle of a custody battle with his ex-wife (Julia Jones, "Wind River") as he is trying to keep his business in order.
Though not as MAGA-y as Jennifer Garner’s Peppermint from last year, the Neeson flicks that inspired it sure feature an above average helping of the actor mercilessly killing non-whites.
If you like witty, and savagely funny humor, like the humor in The Favourite, Fargo or Seven Psychopaths, it will leave you in stitches.