User Reviews

"Kraftidioten", a.k.a. "In order of Disappearance", is a brilliant 2014 black comedy/vigilante thriller from Norway. Since a lot of people in this world object to reading subtitles (and simply because it's an easy and profitable business), Hollywood is always eager to produce remakes of successful foreign movies. For once, however, I didn't immediately feel like boycotting the US remake; and this for two reasons. Number one: native Norwegian Hans Petter Moland directs the American remake himself and, number two, none other than the awesome Liam Neeson reprises the role of the grieving but vengeful father. Apart from different people in the cast, obviously, "Cold Pursuit" is practically a shot-by-shot remake of "In order of Disappearance. The setting has moved from snowy Norway to snowy Colorado, and the drug wars are fought with Native American tribes instead of with Albanian mafia families, but the plot of the quiet and introvert plow driver seeking retaliation for the murder of his innocent son is identical. This basically means that "Cold Pursuit" is still an awesomely entertaining action movie with sublime dry humor, but the freshness and the surprise elements are gone (unless if you haven't seen the Norwegian original, duh).

In a snow drenched ski town in Colorado. Nels Coxman (Liam Neeson) a snow plough driver's world is disintegrating after his son dies of a suspected drug overdose.

When Nels discovers that his son was murdered, he goes after revenge against the drug gang who were involved in his son's death. Nels manages to orchestrate a gang war.

Cold Pursuit is a remake of the Norwegian film, In Order Of Disappearance. It is better than Neeson's recent action fare since he hit unexpected bullseye in Taken.

The movie has hard action in a bleak snowy landscape. It also has a lot of black humour making it rather quirky and offbeat.

Some thought has gone into the movie and the characters. As if the makers were deconstructing Neeson's other revenge thrillers and playing around with the tropes.

I was expecting a movie similar to Neeson's "Taken". "Cold Pursuit" was much better. In fact, Neeson was really one of the ensemble actors in the movie. Anyway, Cold Pursuit was really a dark comedy more than a thriller. The film reminded me in a good way of Fargo. It wasn't quite as good as Fargo but it had a similar feel to it. I'm sure this is not the first review to make that observation.

So I am recommending Cold Pursuit with the warning that if you are expecting a recycled "Taken" or "Non-Stop" you will be surprised. Hopefully pleasantly surprised.

I would suggest before you watch this or think about watching it: go and watch the original! Way better, way funnier (darker) and feels generally better in tone. Now obviously some may think this is Taken or like Taken - it is not. Which makes some of the people watching this already mad. Especially because they don't know the movie this is based on.

I can only urge you so much to watch the other movie. Which doesn't mean this is bad. The movie this takes its cues from was too good for them to mess the remake up. The actors here try their best though and if you don't care for subtitles (which many will need since it is not in English, the Original that is), you could do far worse.

Loved this film for what it was...pure action with a side of dark humor. Highly recommend for genuine entertainment. (On a side note: For those boycotting film for something Liam said in interviews please remember the old saying.."people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.")

Blood, Vengeance, and Brutal deaths, love it! This is an exemplar of a good action movie to watch. Liam Neeson at his best work.

Cole Pursuit is a competent but inferior facsimile of a Scandinavian film In Order of Disappearance.

Like most copies of original works, something is lost in the translation. For me its much of the dark, often ironic humour, found in the original film that's conveyed with a very matter of fact quality. A cultural nuance I've found in other Nordic productions.

Suffice to say Cold Pursuit is not bad as such, its simply not as well rendered as the original.

My advice watch Cold Pursuit by all means, it is entertaining but then take a look at In Order of Disappearance too and see if you don't agree with me. 6/10.

Starts out really good, with Neeson as the usual man on a mission and exacting brutal vengeance on a few men. But after that it shifts attention to too many needless people, mainly for comedic effect, but apparently to advance the story by inches to avoid Neeson's character from appearing to be too powerful to get things done alone. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work here since these side events don't feel parallel to the main story or interesting. For example, a female cop, portrayed as eager and hard-nosed, is constantly discovering bits of info related Neeson's son death, even confronting him out of the blue about it, appearing suspicious of him for some reason, but nothing ever happens after that. What was the point? Then the 2nd half really gets dragged on by too much forced attention on the Native Americans and the same old "white men took everything" story (I don't want to sound insensitive but it was too out of place), and a kid that would've been better off staying on the sidelines.

I had relatively high hopes for this movie, and was left disappointed.

Simply see original, 2014 Norwegian film 'In Order of Disappearance'. See it, then watch this one right after and maybe you get why I give this 1 star review.

Maybe I just saw Liam in too many movies that are too similar to each other and predictable, but I did not enjoy this one. As an actor he is so much better than this sort of role. And what really made it much worse is that I saw original very recently, it was still fresh in my mind, so I could not ignore just how much this one is inferior.

It is actually worse remake than one they did for Oldboy, and that is saying a lot.

Plus, do keep in mind I actually wanted to give this film higher rating just because I read that many either boycotted it or gave it low rating without having seen it solely over some comments Liam made years ago, and I strongly disagree with judging persons work based on what they do in their personal life, but this film taken at its own value deserves a zero, regardless who got to play main role in it.It is awful, predictable, boring snoozer.

This film was not what I was expecting but once I understood and came to grips with the fact it was a dark comedy, in a Fargo-esque sort of way, and a parody of revenge killing films, rather than meant to be taken seriously other than for its beautiful absurdity, I started to really enjoy it.

The whole movie was fun escapism with gratuitous violence, and hyper-exaggerated cliché portrayals of Native Americans, crime bosses and average men being local heroes, etc. Not to mention an exponentially growing kill tally. What is not to love?

It was a special treat for those of us that live in Denver, as although much of the movie was supposed to take place here, none of the neighborhoods, architecture, streets, buildings, trees, landscaping, mountain ranges, etc. matched anything close to what really exists in Denver. I spent the entire movie looking for something I could place as actually being in Denver, but I came up empty. Instead, a totally fictitious version thereof was portrayed (too surreal to match any actual city I am aware of, but closer to a blend of the more affluent parts of Los Angeles and Vancouver than Denver, with world class architecture and night clubs) which fit in perfectly with the artfully crafted alternative universe intended to be created. Like the bizarre relationships between the characters, I slowly began to realize that what first appeared to be a sloppy annoyance was in fact an intentional critique of the genre and actually a quite clever game with the audience.

Many will undoubtedly knock this film for being unrealistic, absurd, over the top, culturally insensitive, and with settings that did not match named cities (at least those such as Denver that actually exist). Those people just failed to see that was the entire point. You shouldn't go in expecting to see realism, complex character development, suspense and drama, or something akin to Taken. Instead, go in expecting to see a dark comedy parody film. Think Fargo meets Peppermint, with a wink to Quentin Tarantino in honor of his impact on modern cinema.

It's the January/February season, which also means it's time for a certain gravely-voiced actor to make another action movie we've been seeing around this time for a while. Yep, it's Liam Neeson time. Some people might see him as a one-note actor who plays similar characters in most of his movies. You'd be right if you were just referring to his recent revenge movies like Taken or "thriller on a mode of transportation" movie like Non Stop or The Commuter. You could even make that argument with his comedic roles like The Lego Movie or dramas like Schindler's List.

While I won't go as far to claim that Liam Neeson is one of the greatest actors, I do put him in the same category of similar actors to John Wayne or Jimmy Stewart who are more or less playing variations of their personas. You don't see them to slip into characters, but more for them in a different situation. No actor should be ashamed about this and should even be thankful they have fans that come for this. Even in a bad movie, I still like Liam Neeson and what he does in his movies. That's why it's nice to see him make fun of himself and his movies in Cold Pursuit.

Snowplower Nelson Cox (played by Liam Neeson) has just been awarded citizen of the year while enjoying his happy life, happy wife, and happy son. But then his son is found dead of a heroin overdose. Despite Nelson's pleas that his son wasn't a drug user, the police find no evidence of foul play and rule it a suicide. Still, Nelson feels that something fishy is going on and discovers from a friend that his son was the target of a mafia hit. Once he figures out who it was, be becomes a vigilante and kills off several people to get to the leader.

Mafia head "Viking" (played by Tom Bateman) becomes angry (and this is a hotheaded villain) and mistakes the killer coming from another Native-American mafia within the same town. They eventually instigate conflict and a mafia war, while Nelson continues to axe off more people. It eventually leads him to a point where he kidnaps Viking's son in order to draw him out...and the gang...and the other gang...and the local police as a war of confused sides come together just to figure out whose angry at who.

I'll say right away that while this has the plot of a standard thriller that seems tailor made for Liam Neeson; that because it is and is proud of it. In fact, this is more of a parody of those Liam Neeson movies that come out around this time. Cold Pursuit takes a lot of those elements, like the tough leading man with a combat background, an eccentric villain, a family member he's avenging, and even the use of a transport machine as a plot device (in this case, a snowplow), and put it into a movie that made me laugh at the dark elements that are typically easier to write in dramas.

What helps Cold Pursuit is two things. First is the tone, which seems like a mix of Coen brothers cinematography and Tarantino-style editing and storytelling. This brings up a lot of side characters that are usually sidelined in a lot of Liam Neeson movies. The main villain is delightfully over-the-top as an angry, yelling hothead, the Native Americans play off as wise while seemingly insane, and even some of the mafia goons get their little personality quirks that make them more then just throw away bad guys. There isn't much to Liam Neeson himself, who is basically the straight man to all the chaos.

I think that Liam Neeson would have to know at this point that his characters have gone through the same scenario so many times, that playing it up as a parody would only make sense from this point. Cold Pursuit is an example of how that can take up that idea and make a parody without it becoming too silly. This is a dark comedy and because of that, I can see this as being an acquired taste. Some may want an action with a more engaging story and some may want a comedy with more jokes. I say this is a happy marriage that isn't great, but rather simply remains a fun ride.

I'll give this seven snowplows out of ten. Other then those wanting a more unconventional comedy, this is also for those that like Liam Neeson and the movies he makes around this time. Even the title Cold Pursuit should tell you right away what your getting into. Go see it and get angry enough to take this ride.

Hard to follow, rediculously absurd plot points. Lit and shot very well, some interesting performances. Buzz are editing and style can't find its footing. Tonally all over the map. It's dramatic, serious then slapstick and goofy, then violent and shocking, then kooky. Way too many characters with no background and you just don't care about anyone.

Cold Pursuit is an action thriller film starring Liam Neeson. Based on the Norwegian movie "In Order of Disappearance", it is an entertaining vigilante film with most of the usual enjoyment that can be had with Neeson in the lead.

In the snowy Colorado town of Kehoe, Nels Coxman (Liam Neeson) works as a snowplow driver clearing the roads for passing motorists. One day, Nels' son Kyle suddenly dies from an apparent heroin overdose, despite him not having any history with drugs. Suspecting foul play, Nels decides to take matters into his own hands to find out what was really responsible for killing his son, and inadvertently becomes involved in a bloody feud between two violent gangs.

With Liam Neeson as his typical one-man-army self, Cold Pursuit is a fast paced action fare with an interesting enough story to move things along nicely. Although Neeson is the film's lead actor, it is Tom Bateman as the film's main antagonist who steals the show in every scene he is in. His sleazy, unhinged performance was so unpredictable that it was always intriguing to see what he would do next. The one main problem with the film is that it does not balance its comedy and drama that well. Normally with black comedies like Fargo or In Bruges, there would always be solid comic relief to counteract any scenes of brutal violence or emotional severity. Unfortunately, this film is only sporadically funny, and this lack of humour makes the serious moments feel harsh and unpleasant. This may come down to the way the story has been adapted from its Norwegian source material to suit American audiences, as some of the film's Scandinavian quirkiness would have likely been lost in translation. With that said, Cold Pursuit is still worth seeing for fans of Liam Neeson effortlessly plowing through his enemies by himself (pun intended).

I rate it 7/10

The thing with most Liam Neeson actioners these days is that their screenplays solely depend on his tough guy demeanor to keep the proceedings engaging. Cold Pursuit, another Liam Neeson actioner on the onset, is entertaining but for reasons not pertaining to the set pieces alone. Don't get me wrong, the set pieces are very much there but this film doesn't go the typical Hollywood remake route.

While I haven't watched the Norwegian original (In The Order of Disappearance; the name choice a lot more suitable for the film), it sure seems like the material writer Kim Fupz Aakeson and director Hans Petter Molland (who has directed the remake as well) had in hand was worthy of a re-telling. While there are some sly remarks made by baddie characters in the film that are sure to turn some sections of the viewers off (in fact, in-your-face offensive at times), everyone who does so eventually gets the 'treatment' they deserve, which was satisfying as hell.

The crude humor takes a while to arrive, as the incident that sets the storyline in motion is a grim one: the son of a snow-plow operator is found dead during a snowy winter in Kehoe and he decides to find out who's behind it. More characters are unveiled, while some begin to 'disappear'. A title card with the respective character's name shows up every time a 'disappearance' occurs (innovative!). I couldn't help but laugh out loud at instances such as the 'Coxman reference' joke, the whole 'Eskimo' scene, and of course, the 'motel' scene. You'll know when you've watched!

And yet, amid all that, you have a brilliantly written scene featuring Nels (Liam Neeson) bonding with the chief baddie's son in a "Tell me a story so that I can sleep" situation. It does its bit in showing us that even as Nels goes about enacting his vengeance, he still has a heart that yearns for the son that he lost. The climactic showdown is executed well and ends on a rather 'unexpectedly funny' note. I know of Neeson's 'racist' comments and the controversy surrounding it, but I can't deny the fact that his performance was pretty good in this movie, as he always gives a 100% even when the scripts offered to him are mediocre.

It's easy to write off 'Cold Pursuit' as cliched, predictable action-drama, but the clever undercurrent of dark humour does the trick at least for some of us. This film was very much in Tarantino-Coen-Zahler territory (minus the subtlety, of course!). I adore both Emmy Rossum and Laura Dern, and am of the opinion that they should've had better-written roles in the movie. 'Cold Pursuit' meanders a bit in its storytelling and is indeed more fascinating in fragments than as a whole, but you can give it a watch if you're a fan of black comedies.

Not a great movie but surprisingly funny. The repetitive gags are sometimes effective: we look forward to the next synthetic tomb stone message. Kraftidioten (2014) is now a must seee!

Worthy of a couple of hours. Quirky, dark and Liam!!

Terrible film, I'm appalled how so many reviewers find it great, when the story is inexistant, apart form the obvious desire for revenge of a father... why does the mother leave and never come back ? Why was the son actually killed... It's just killing for killing, no plot is really developed. It's almost comical, apart from the fact that the movie isn't really a comedy. It's incredible that such movies find an investor and... an audience, when really nothing's been worked through on the script... can't anyone write a story anymore ?

Neeson has had quite the action adventure since Taken, and from what I hear this is the last. This has an unusual style, but the dark comedy angle doesn't work as planned. The plot was interesting if a little cliche. Neeson does most of the heavy lifting and most of the support are only there for namesake purposes, not great characters. As an ending to the genre for Neeson this is just okay.

This wasn't garbage. i was enjoying it for a while. but it went nowhere and got worse as it went on. some of the acting was bad. the villain was awful. the story was kind of nothing. so much in this movie is completely useless. so many side-plots should be removed. (1 viewing)

One of the best times at the movies in quite a while. Had no idea this movie had been released, and went to the theatre today to catch "Glass" before it left. However, I was a bit too late for that one and noticed the new Neeson movie.

Theatre was surprisingly quite full and the crowd obviously had a good time. "Cold Pursuit" is a semi-serious thriller that is in a way a sort of spoof of past Neeson flicks and the genre. A lot of dark humor here, and the movie almost goes off the rails with it by the end. One movie that comes to mind is "In Bruge", where the violence is very much a part of the humor. Smart, funny, and dark..with a touch of class to boot. A slight nod to past Coen Brothers' films I think as well - at least in feel and atmosphere.

Many deaths here, not always on camera, and the movie even does you a favor of tallying it up for you in a funny way. (note the religious symbols with each death card)

Liam is billed as the star, of course, and events surrounding him obviously serve as a catalyst to what unfolds along the way. However, this movie is not all about him being front and center as his typical past thrillers have been. Really great cast here and the scenery is cast member in its own right.

The two flaws in the movie, in my opinion, was not fully realizing the story of the two cops played by Emmy Rossum and John Dorman, especially Rossum. Also, the movie ultimately seems to lose track a bit on the event that set everything in motion - Coxman's (Neeson) murdered son.

Still, the movie's end was pretty satisfying nonetheless. Definitely as must see for fans of Neeson and dark humor.

The movie is funny The blood is good But I think it's not worth it as a Rated R movie Liam Neeson is excellent as always

IT IS TRULY BAFFLING THAT THIS MOVIE IS GETTING POSITIVE REVIEWS... I'm a huge fan of quirky/violent movies, but this dysfunctional version of a Tarantino or Ritchie film falls short of even providing 2 hours of entertainment. The characters were not at all convincing, even as caricatures. The dialogue was entirely devoid of wit, & was so bad it was painful.

Humor was jr high level at best, HOW MANY TIMES can you use a character's response to girly or out of place music to get a laugh??? It's a travesty that Neeson spent his time on this, of whom I have been a long time fan.

LET ME CONCLUDE WITH THIS: More than several people walked out of the theater in the first half hour, & those who stayed were using words like "awful", "terrible", & "waste of time."

SAVE YOUR MONEY, YOU DESERVE BETTER.

Excusing the horrible screenplay by amateur Frank Baldwin as 'dark comedy' is an insult to dark comedy.

I am shocked that such a great production went and hired an amateur (this is his first ever screenplay) writer. It should have at lease been proofread by a seasoned writer before final draft. The wannabe Tarantino vibe is a huge fail. They should have stuck with the formula that works every time with Liam Neeson - keep it fast paced and action packed - and ok with some comedy thrown in. But having an overboard character that Tom Bateman played, is just annoying. Then there was the ridiculous plot issues - e.g. why did they even go to the resort? The entire parasailing scene just for the lame ending? Oh there's much more. The (dark?) humor was so cheesy, a 5th grader could have written this better.

The 2 hour length felt like 3 hours with the long dragged out (and a lot unnecessary) scenes and slow pacing. It's too bad as this film had huge potential. The directing and cinematography were excellent. The casting was ok with Neeson being great (but a little bland in this one) as usual. The score was decent, but the out of place native music stuck out like a sore thumb. It should have been the same genre throughout the film. Editing also needed some work.

The stunning landscape visuals were the best part of the film. Ignore the fake/paid reviews... this film is an honest 6/10 from me. Would I see it again? Nope. Would I recommend it? Only if you have nothing better to watch and are a fan of Neeson. Otherwise, this was disappointing for a Neeson film.