Nels Coxman (Liam Neeson) has just been awarded citizen of the year in the small skiing town of Kehoe outside of Denver. He has manned their snowplough keeping the roads open for many years, lives with his wife Grace (Laura Dern) and has a grown son who works at the local airport. But when his son is killed by drug dealers for stealing, Nels decides to kill them one by one in an attempt to get to their leader, Viking (Tom Bateman).

Cold Pursuit is not your average Liam Neeson revenge thriller. Making his American film debut, Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland is remaking his Norwegian film In Order of Disappearance (Kraftidioten). And his tactic is to make the murder spree a jet black comic affair with every death followed by a title graphic giving us the name and nickname of the victim. That’s not to say it veers from violence either with some pretty brutal deaths mixed in.

The issue is that it doesn’t really work. There are some very funny moments, especially when Tom Bateman’s Viking is involved. But there are far more moments that fall flat than make you laugh. Coxman’s mission also seems to stall after a few deaths as well with the focus switching to the rival drug gangs in fighting, resulting in there not being much to root for. And oddly, Laura Dern is completely wasted with her disappearing from the film very early on.

Its quirks do make it interesting enough. But I think I will check out the original on Amazon Prime next to see if it works better in its original form.