The Ice Road

Nerves-of-steel truck driver Liam Neeson risks life and limb on a rescue mission in this lacklustre thriller. In order to reach a group of Canadian miners trapped after a collapse, Neeson faces a perilous journey across ice roads that are already beginning to thaw - and other sinister forces also stand in his way. Jonathan Hensleigh wrote the screenplays for Jumanji, Armageddon and Die Hard with a Vengeance but, as director, he struggles here to recapture the inherent tension and excitement of those films. Shots of vehicles spinning on ice and close-ups of drivers' hands changing gear are hardly edge-of-the-seat stuff. Meanwhile, a subplot involving Neeson's relationship with a brother suffering from PTSD comes across as rather hackneyed, and Laurence Fishburne and Amber Midthunder have little to do as fellow truckers. The result is a disappointingly by-the-book movie that offers few thrills or surprises.