What’s It About

Mike goes to Nepal to sprinkle his brother ashes on Mount Everest. When Mike and his mountain guide come upon a bunch of mercenaries while travelling on a tour bus they are forced to fight to save themselves, the passengers and the country.

MOVIESinMO REVIEW

When you see a movie called “Ice Road: Vengeance,” you expect ice roads, right? Well, this sequel to 2021’s “The Ice Road” doesn’t deliver what its title promises. Instead of frozen highways and slippery chase scenes, we get one quick mountain drive, and that’s about it. The vengeance part? Yeah, there’s plenty of that, but it makes you wonder why they even bothered calling this an “Ice Road” movie. Liam Neeson returns as Mike McCann, a tough truck driver who’s dealing with his brother’s death. His brother, Gurty, always dreamed of climbing Mount Everest, so Mike decides to honor him by taking his ashes to the mountain’s summit. Sounds simple enough, but this is a Liam Neeson movie, so nothing goes smoothly. Mike flies to Nepal and meets Dhani, played by Fan Bingbing, who becomes his guide. They hop on a tour bus heading to Everest’s base camp, but mercenaries attack the bus. Suddenly, Mike finds himself caught up in a fight between local villagers and corrupt politicians who want to build a dam that will destroy the area’s ecosystem. The movie isn’t completely terrible. Neeson displays more emotion than usual, particularly when discussing grief and the process of coping with loss. Fan Bingbing does a great job as Dhani, mixing kindness with serious fighting skills. The mountain setting looks scary and dangerous, which works better than the cold, empty roads from the first movie. Some of the action scenes are pretty exciting, especially when Mike has to drive the bus down steep mountain roads with sharp turns. There’s one wild scene where they use a crane to cross a deep canyon, and it’s actually fun to watch even though you can tell some of it is fake. The biggest issue is that this doesn’t feel like a sequel at all. Besides Mike’s grief over his brother, there’s almost nothing connecting it to the first movie. The filmmakers basically took a random action script and slapped the “Ice Road” name on it to sell tickets. The movie drags on for nearly two hours, which is way too long for what it offers. Most of the action feels generic and bland. People fight bad guys one-on-one while the bus becomes a convenient fighting ring. There are car chases through dry deserts that make you wonder why they kept “Ice Road” in the title when there’s barely any ice or snow. Neeson sleepwalks through another gruff action role, though he does perk up when someone calls him American instead of Irish. Fan Bingbing and Neeson work well together, but their jokes feel out of place when people are dying violently around them. This movie represents everything wrong with modern action sequels. Nobody asked for a follow-up to “The Ice Road,” but here we are anyway. It’s like the filmmakers thought, “Hey, Liam Neeson can drive vehicles and punch people, so let’s make another one.” The plot attempts to address serious issues, such as environmental destruction and political corruption, but it does so in the most basic manner possible. Mike becomes the typical white hero who saves the day for the local people, which feels outdated and lazy. The special effects range from okay to obviously fake. The mountain roads look dangerous enough to keep you interested, but when the bus starts doing impossible things, it breaks the illusion. The crane sequence works because it’s so ridiculous that it becomes entertaining; however, most of the other action sequences look cheap. The pacing is all over the place. The movie takes forever to get going, rushes through important character moments, and then drags during fight scenes that should be exciting. If you’re a huge Liam Neeson fan who just wants to see him punch bad guys for two hours, you might enjoy this. People who liked the first movie for its simple action and don’t care about the ice road angle might also find something to enjoy here. Fans of Fan Bingbing will appreciate seeing her in an action role, and she brings more personality to the screen than most of the other actors. “Ice Road: Vengeance” feels like a missed opportunity. The Nepal setting could have made for an interesting adventure, but instead, we get another forgettable action movie that happens to star Liam Neeson. It’s better than some of his recent efforts, but that’s not saying much. The movie succeeds at being mediocre, which might be enough for some viewers. But anyone hoping for a bigger, better version of the first film should probably stop wasting their wishes. At least the first movie delivered on its promise of ice roads and truck driving action. This sequel abandons what made its predecessor memorable. It replaces it with generic mountain action that you’ve seen a hundred times before. It’s not the worst movie ever made, but it’s challenging to recommend when there are so many better action movies available.

OUR RATING – A SLUSH-FILLED 2

MEDIA

• Genre – Action
• Street date
• Digital –July 1, 2025
• Blu-Ray/DVD – September 9, 2025
• Video – 1080p
• Screen size – 2.39:1
• Sound – English: Dolby Atmos, English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1, Audio descriptive
• Subtitles – English SDH, Spanish

Extras

• Audio commentary with director Lorcan Finnegan
• Through a Wave Darkly – Making The Surfer
• Theatrical Trailer