Liam Neeson has perfected playing grizzled old action heroes over the last two decades. It clearly shows in his latest movie, where he supports Stranger Things favorite Joe Keery and Barbarian’s Georgina Campbell in tackling a threat to the world in Cold Storage, and has landed his best Rotten Tomatoes score in almost a decade in the process.
However, this threat does not come in the form of kidnappers, drug dealers, or any kind of criminal that Neeson has tackled before, but a deadly parasitic fungus that escapes from the titular cold storage unit. Keery’s Teacake and Campbell’s Naomi are two young workers who are forced to try and contain the mutating menace, which needs the help of Neeson’s retired bioterror operative, and save the world from extinction.
Set for release on Feb.13, in direct competition with Emerald Fennels’ still to be reviewed Wuthering Heights, Cold Storage has already claimed a strong start with a 91% Tomatometer score, Neeson’s personal highest since 2018, and well above all but a small handful of his any action movies of recent years. Of course, Neeson’s supporting character is just an added extra to the perfect pairing of Keery and Campbell, who have come out with plenty of praise from reviewers.
The film’s short 99-minute runtime has certainly helped the horror-comedy hit the mark, not outstaying its welcome or pushing its limited story potential beyond the point it gets tiresome and boring. Collider’s Nate Richard notes this when calling it a “perfect length” for its genre, while The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney adds that the film “knows better than to take itself too seriously.” What everyone agrees on is that Cold Storage delivers the kind of Shaun of the Dead gore and silliness that it’s premise promises, and manages to be incredibly entertaining throughout.
Cold Storage Is Another Comedy Break for Liam Neeson
Ever since the release of Taken, Liam Neeson has jumped from one action role to the next, usually pleasing audiences much more than critics. However, when he slipped into The Naked Gun last year, it became clear that the world has been missing out on something a little lighter in tone from everyone’s favorite man with skills.
After scoring a big critical hit as Frank Drebin Jr., Neeson’s role in Cold Storage once again combines his grizzly exterior with some killer comic timing to prove that this is the kind of role where he needs to concentrate on in the coming years as he scales back his more serious action outings. His next movie, 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank, will follow a similar tone, but this time swapping horror for crime as he plays a grandpa drawn back into his life as a criminal for one last job. After that, though, Neeson is very much going to be gunning his way through more action-packed thrillers, with no less than seven movies in some level of production, including Hotel Tehran with Zachary Levi, The Mongoose with Marisa Tomei.
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