Four years ago Mike McCann and his brother helped save some trapped miners in northern Canada by traveling the treacherous “Ice Road” and fighting corporate saboteurs along the way.  Now, they return in a sequel story that no one expected or particularly wanted, in a completely different setting.  In fact the “Ice Road” title is a ridiculous misnomer, only made to connect the brother characters with their earlier adventure together, seen in flashback.  This could have been a whole new story without the flashback angle and no one would have ever known the difference.

Jonathan Hensleigh’s adventure finds Mike (Liam Neeson) grieving the death of his brother, needing to travel to Nepal to deposit his ashes on Mount Everest to fulfill his brother’s wishes.  Mike gets caught in a robbery/kidnapping aboard a tour bus in Nepal, rescues the victim, and then means to be on his way.  But the villains have other ideas and follow Mike and five others across Nepal in a slow-motion chase.  It takes every ounce of resourcefulness and ingenuity for the group to evade capture or death in the wilderness — but with Liam in charge we can be fairly confident that most of them will make it.

As with so many of these action pieces I have quibbles with the logic of their situations and the quotient of their violence.  That is certainly true here because there are certainly times characters don’t do what they ought to be doing, such as stopping the bus while the big fight is taking place.  It is also preposterous to believe that this crew of could repair this old bus at a pace that would put any professional body shop to absolute shame.  But the film also has merits, chief among them the locations.  There are very scenic views along their route and one incredibly scary road declination.  If I had been there I would have insisted on walking, or sliding, down that slope rather than trusting that bus.

Give the filmmakers credit for using what the environment provides for them.  The sloping road and the crane across the gorge are inspired set-pieces and very effective both thematically and visually.  That said, while most of the city scenes were on location in Kathmandu, most of the road sequences were shot in Australia.  Movie magic indeed.  Welcome moments of humor punctuate the proceedings but what we mostly witness is brutal hand-to-hand fighting, a slow-motion car/bus chase and, somehow, a bus that never has its side windows broken, even when it is flipped onto one side.  The lack of details derails the narrative.  ☆ ☆.  21 November 2025.