A light-hearted action movie. Liam Neeson stars as Nils Cosman, a snowplow driver. The location is near Denver in the American Midwest. The time is winter. The continuous snow peaks, a white field, dripping with bright red blood, the contrast is strong, the contrast is interesting, and it is shining. In addition to the boring and dull plot, it is a beautiful scenery film in a pile of bad films.
The film's narrative is divided into four lines, like a lantern, starting with the killing of Nils' son and unfolding separately. Nils fights alone, the collective confrontation of the "Viking" gang, the dissatisfaction of the Indian gang, and the exhaustion of the police, which finally boils down to one point. It's usually always the police who come last.
Liam Neeson's performance in the film is mediocre, always contemplative. Of course, it was because the director did not give the character more room to play, and for the sake of the salary, he had no choice but to do it. Nils' brother is a very calm retired gangster who married a Chinese wife with a weird temper and speaks Esperanto that no one can understand. The characters under the "Viking" are even more different. There are gay brothers, plastic fans who focus on gambling after killing people, and partners who exchange their experience of picking up girls. There are also unscrupulous drivers who cause trouble and kill themselves. And the professional killer "The Eskimo" lost his life because he was torn between keeping his promise and not keeping his promise.
The director deliberately created these dispensable characters with the plot, as if trying to make the film different from the previous action police and gangster films, showing dark humor and battlefield tidbits. It's a pity that all the characters are just like a touch of water, neither in-depth nor related to the theme. From the viewing point of view alone, it does not help the film. Instead, many shots were used to show how to dispose of the corpse. For example, after Nils killed the third person, he pushed the car and the corpse down the hillside, carried the corpse up again, wrapped it layer by layer, and threw it into the sea again. After seeing this kind of useless work, people have to question the director's limited skills although he pays great attention to environmental protection.
Throughout the film, a little concern is the leader of the drug cartel "Viking". As the heir of the family business, on the surface, he looks like a corporate white-collar worker. But from the root, he still continued the style of the older generation of gangsters, but he was more than brutal and lacked in strategy. Misjudgments have occurred several times, and as a result, he has forged a relationship with the Indian drug cartels. He did not despise the way his subordinates used torture to torture his opponents, and directly killed him with one shot. When we need him to make a decision, we can see in his eyes the inner restlessness that hides behind his forced composure. In the final shootout, we can also see his immaturity, directly shooting at the enemy among a group of horses. At this time, the old Indian man was sitting steadily in the luxury car, calmly observing the shootout, and the old man didn't take out his gun until it was time to make a move. "Viking" had already been shot and fell to the ground at this time. It seems that "Viking" is still a little tender.
"Viking" loves his son very much. But he can still see his gangster characteristics in the training of his son. Although his son loves Bach, he is a smart and quiet kind of good student, but he encourages his son to fight against the bully students in the school. It's not that he deliberately wants to train his son to be his successor, but his character dictates it. He told his subordinates: "On the way we send our children to school, don't talk about business." But his son still caught the smell of gangsters from their daily words and deeds. In addition to selling drugs, he studied nutrition knowledge for his son's diet, and learned that hamburgers are "high in fructose, lecithin, baking soda, and rat poison." These doting actions will eventually destroy this cute little guy, and let the opponents of "Viking" understand his weakness and take a series of actions.
Today, the underworld in the United States is also advancing with the times. In addition to the loyalty of buddies, it also pays attention to the spirit of contract, and also cares about civilized behavior, constantly whitewashing itself, and making illegal business gradually legalized. And continue to penetrate into the political and business circles. Former underworld bosses are now celebrities and business leaders. Although the film tells the current story in the context of time, the underworld in the film is still stuck in the past era, obsessed with fighting and killing, and advocating force. It can be seen that the modern life experience of the director is very lacking. And I've said long ago that this type of film is on the verge of a dead end, and nothing new can come out of it. Just look at it, just relieve the boredom.
My rating: 5.0.
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