I was expecting this to be a revenge thriller in the vein of Neeson's other recent movies. The trailers certainly suggested this would be the case. So the opening ten minutes of the movie felt very weird to me. Why are they showing white text on snow? Why is it taking 3 minutes for the coroner to lift his son's body to be identified? Why is the villain so over the top? Once it clicked that it was actually a dark comedy I was able to appreciate and highly enjoy Cold Pursuit's twisted sense of humor. The plot is pretty similar to The Foreigner, but it plays more like Kingsman: The Golden Circle mixed with the HBO show Barry. It probably started as a project you could pitch to the Coens' in the 90s but I'm glad they showed no restraint and went all in on the ridiculous.

It's an entertaining flick, but I had the same problems with this that I had with Widows in that because their are so many characters the focus is not nearly enough on Neeson as it should be and that definitely hurt the film for me. Not that I actually minded most of them like William Forsythe, Domenick Lombardozzi, and some of the members of the Indian gang like Tom Jackson and Raol Trujillo, but did we really need to spend so much time with Emmy Rossum's character and her partner and what was up with Laura Dern being in this for like 5 minutes and just completely dissapearing to never be heard from again lol. I don't know maybe I missed something and the director was going for something else, but I just found it weird. Also, the dude who played the villain in this was such a joke, but even I have to admit that he had some pretty funny lines and I loved his kid in this who almost stole the whole movie IMO. It's well directed and I really liked the use of the Canadian location, and while I get that its supposed to be more of a dark comedy I wanted to see way more of Neeson fucking up bad guys than what I got.

B-

Totally not as advertised. Much better. One of the best of the year, in fact. It has an amazing quality to it where it actually feels original. Not many films I can say that about. Everything is great. From the kills to the ridiculous gang member names (reminiscent of native American ones) to the dark dialogue to the cast and the pace, and just the overall story. It's so unique. Those two cops are superb. The boy is adorable and fresh. The native Americans are a bit funny too. Everything seems to click with this film. Well, maybe not everything. "The Viking" is a lame big bad guy. But there's so much else to enjoy here. The gay henchmen, the nervousness of white folk around native Americans (mustn't say "reservation"!), a man from India working for Indians (lol), White Bull displeased at the 'Made in China' tag, the chicken mesh wrapping, the clever kid and his comments, the list goes on. All these small quirks make Cold Pursuit a fucking gem.

The cinematography also excels, capturing the beauty and stillness of snowy Denver. Oh, and the opening quote by Oscar Wilde is sublime. Attractive in its wordplay and black in its humour. Loved it. Probably the best opening quote ever used. Most are shit but this one really struck me.

Algren likes his boys adorable and fresh.

Fresh, as in not like other portrayals of young boys in movies. And adorable, yes. As adorable as a boy that age can be! lol

I guess he wasn't quite young enough?

Teenagers generally are not as cute or adorable as toddlers.