And now in “The Ice Road,” this durable action hero improbably pushing 70 is at the wheel of a big ol’ truck — not your normal truck, but a 65,000-pound rig.
Luckily, Neeson has a way of lending his rough-hewn dignity to even the most perfunctory of plots — because this one, it must be said, is perfunctory.
Mike can’t manage to hold onto a job very long — he’s had 11 jobs in eight years, and we watch him get fired from his latest after he decks a guy making fun of his brother’s war-induced aphasia.
A methane accident causes a diamond mine to explode up in remote Manitoba, Canada, killing eight miners and trapping 26.
As for the ice, well, there’s lots, and it gets thinner and thinner — which one could say of the plot if one wanted to grab low-hanging fruit off the tree of potential puns.
More low-hanging fruit is offered in the lyrics of the Johnny Cash song on the country-infused soundtrack: “All I do is drive, drive, drive,” it goes .
Yes, he’s older and brittler and paler here, and there’s not even a hint of a love interest — unless you count Mike’s believable love for his brother, the only developed relationship in the script.