‘Woefully erratic’ Liam Neeson thriller soars up Netflix chart despite 14% Rotten Tomatoes score

An thriller sequel starring Liam Neeson has soared up the global chart on Netflix, after being branded ‘tedious’ and ‘forgettable’.

The Naked Gun icon, 73, led the way in Ice Road: Vengeance earlier this year, serving as a sequel to the 2021 film, The Ice Road.

The king of action movies starred as ice-road trucker Mike, who journeys to Mount Everest to scatter his beloved late brother’s ashes, following his death in the first flick.

However, his journey to Nepal doesn’t go smoothly when he’s forced to fight for his own life against a group of vicious mercenaries.

Jonathan Hensleigh served as writer and director, while Fan Bingbing, Mahesh Jadu, Geoff Morrell, Saksham Sharma and Bernard Curry made up the cast.

Although the movie, which can also be streamed on Amazon Prime Video, was only recently added to the Netflix slate, users have clearly been watching the blockbuster in their droves as it landed in the top 10 chart on the streaming service.

Liam Neeson led the cast in Ice Road: Vengeance (Picture: Shutterstock) The movie recently arrived on Netflix (Picture: Shutterstock)

Ice Road: Vengeance is currently in third place on the list after scoring more than 7.6million views in the last week, with over 14.4m hours watched in total – with only The Wrong Paris and KPop Demon Hunters claiming more viewers.

It beat stiff competition from AKA Charlie Sheen, The Mule, Unknown Catfish, The Thursday Murder Club, Sonic the Hedgehog, War Dogs and Terror Comes Knocking.

Unfortunately for Liam and co, their efforts were met with scathing reviews from critics and fans alike, and has a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 14%.

A review from Flickering Myth said: ‘The film makes no impression and, for nearly two full hours, offers up one question: Where the hell are the ice roads?

The action sequel has soared up the charts on Netflix (Picture: Shutterstock) Critics branded it ‘woefully erratic’ (Picture: Shutterstock)

‘Maybe it’s a 4-D chess distraction from how pointless and bland this all is.’

‘A woefully erratic actioner that squanders its assortment of positive attributes,’ Reel Film Reviews agreed.

Decider quipped: ‘Ice Road: Vengeance is soooo great. What an amazing movie. It should win some Oscars. That’s Irish sarcasm [sic].’

Pop Culture Leftovers said: ‘Ice Road: Vengeance serves far too many bland action sequences for the film to be anything more than a tedious forgettable trip abroad.’

As RogerEbert.com added: ‘For being an ostensible sequel, Ice Road: Vengeance features zero ice roads.

‘In fact, writer-director Jonathan Hensleigh’s follow-up barely stands apart from any of the other baker’s dozen punch-em-ups Neeson has led in the last decade.’

The original movie was released in 2021 (Picture: Shutterstock)

The Ice Road was first released four years ago, and saw Mike leading an ‘impossible rescue mission’ over a frozen ocean to save ‘trapped miners’.

Liam was joined in the cast by Laurence Fishburne, Benjamin Walker, Marcus Thomas and Amber Midthunder – despite a low Rotten Tomatoes score of 43%, the reviews fared much better for the original.

The official synopsis for the sequel reads: ‘Big rig ice road driver Mike McCann (Liam Neeson) travels to Nepal to scatter his late brother’s ashes on Mt. Everest.

‘While on a packed tour bus traversing the deadly 12,000ft terrain of the infamous Road to the Sky, McCann and his mountain guide (Fan Bingbing) encounter a group of ruthless mercenaries and must fight to save not only themselves but the innocent passengers and a local village on the brink of destruction.’

Ice Road: Vengeance is available to stream on Netflix now.

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