Movie Review: Cold Pursuit

In a post-Taken world, you see Liam Nesson taking on some nefarious individuals and immediately start to brace yourself for a one-man army action fest where he showcases his particular set of skills over the course of two fast-paced hours. Cold Pursuit initially appears like it's going to be another one of these movies until it suddenly veers off into genuinely unexpected territory. What starts off as a pretty straightforward revenge story about a mild-mannered father (Nesson) going after the drug dealer (Tom Bateman) that murdered his son soon turns into a morbid humor-filled crime saga that has more in common with Fargo than Death Wish or any of the other action vehicles Nesson has starred in over the past decade.

By slowly morphing into an offbeat story about the emergence of a turf war between a pair of drug gangs that had previously been allies for roughly 30 years , Cold Pursuit becomes a hilarious farce that pokes fun at the absurdity of these kinds of crime movies while also doubling as an interesting character study about criminals at different stages of their lives. Once Nesson arrives on the scene and starts killing some runners/enforcers in an attempt to draw out the big fish, the two kingpins-one a 30-year old yuppie maniac (Bateman) who revels in the newfound power he has after taking over the operation his late father spent decades building up, the other a 70-year old (Tom Jackson) who has become increasingly fed up with the day-to-day grind of running a criminal enterprise-get put into a slew of unforeseen situations that threaten to strip them of the power they've spent so long building up. Watching the radically different ways (seething rage from the young buck and a calmness that borders on relief from the old man) these men react to this sudden downfall after enjoying such a long period of unimpeded functionality within their respective empires gives the proceedings a surprising level of nuance without ever failing to indulge in any of the many opportunities to deliver gleefully sick jokes that arise along the way. This nicely-executed balancing act helped make Cold Pursuit a different type of super entertaining ride than I expected coming in, which is enough for me to declare it the first truly great film of 2019.  

Grade: B+