Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Mark Vanselow
Starring: Liam Neeson, Marisa Tomei, Ving Rhames, Michael Chiklis
Car chase fans have been ill-served in recent decades. And no, the Fast and Furious series, with its ridiculous gravity defying antics, doesn't count. Nor does One Battle After Another's innovative climax, which gave a clever new spin on the concept of a car chase. I'm talking traditional meat and potatoes car chase cinema, with cars actually slamming into one another. The sort of movies that ruled cinema in the period between Bullitt and To Live and Die in LA.
Liam Neeson's latest geri-action movie The Mongoose promises a return to such simple fare. And it delivers in brief bursts. But too much of its run time gets away from the high octane pursuit at its centre, focussing instead on pointless flashbacks.
The movie opens in media res with Neeson's Ryan "Fang" Flanagan behind the wheel of a muscle car as he speeds through Arkansas with the highway patrol in pursuit. Through flashbacks we learn that Fang is the chief suspect in the murder of his ex-wife Tara's (Marisa Tomei) new husband. Another series of flashbacks take us back to Fang's time leading a special forces unit in Afghanistan in the 2000s. Still tortured by the death of a young man under his command during an incident in which they were captured by the Taliban, Fang has vowed he will never allow himself to be captured again, hence his insistence on evading the police.
The Mongoose can't quite decide what type of movie it wants to be. On the one hand it tries to present itself as a sort of Falling Down on the road, with a broken man on a seemingly fatalistic mission. There is much highlighting of the struggles of military veterans and their lack of support, but it's all done in clunky fashion, the lowest point coming when real life CNN host Laura Coates butchers an on-air monologue on the subject. Considering Neeson is old enough to have served in Nam, the idea of him fighting on the frontlines of Afghanistan is a tough sell, and the bad wig he's lumbered with in the flashbacks doesn't help. Watching Neeson and Ving Rhames, with their combined age of 140, wheezing their way through these flashbacks provides unintended laughs.
On the other hand The Mongoose wants to be the sort of knockabout rednecks on the road movie Burt Reynolds made a living from in the '70s. Neeson's Fang is a wise-cracking smartass, meeting the threats of the various authorities with a series of snarky comebacks. Michael Chiklis is fun but underused as the closest thing the movie has to an actual villain, a Boss Hog type determined to take Fang dead or alive.
There are are a couple of mildly amusing if not exactly original action set-pieces that might give car chase devotees their money's worth (no matter how many times you see the stunt of a car driving past an oncoming train, it always provides a lizard brain thrill), but director Mark Vanselow doesn't seem to have much flair for this type of action. His directing of his actors is even worse. There is a scene between Neeson and Tomei that will have you questioning how both actors ever managed to snag Oscar wins and nominations. But when he's behind the wheel, Neeson gives good grimace, and I'm glad at his age he got to remain seated for a change.
The Mongoose is on Prime Video from November 4th.
