Stream it on Netflix.
Let me ask you a strange question: what makes a good "brainless" movie? Most of the time, the term "brainless" describes movies that focus on action and simplistic narrative choices for pure entertainment value. This term is often attributed to things like Michael Bay's Transformers series. However, I have never believed that quality and entertainment value are mutually exclusive. The only thing that separates good "brainless" from bad "brainless" is putting it plainly, effort.
Compare Michael Bay's Transformers to Sylvester Stallone's 1993 action classic Demolition Man: The former is bad "brainless" because it is laser-focused on awesome visuals and various styles of explosions and completely ignores essential narrative elements for proper audience engagement, like sympathetic characters and emotionally resonating situations. On the other hand, Demolition Man has just as many action scenes and macho-man testosterone. And yet, it also has a clever narrative with three-dimensional characters and a witty commentary on society. All without compromising the "brainless" entertainment value.
Based on this comparison, good "brainless" movies retain a sense of visceral emotional truth that resonates with the viewer. In contrast, bad "brainless" movies don't care and arrogantly expect you to merely admire the spectacle. Regardless of what Michael Bay would have you believe, explosions don't mean anything unless we, the audience, care about what's exploding and why.
As you may have surmised, today's subject, The Ice Road, is a good kind of "brainless" movie. A film that provides simple yet visceral entertainment with sympathetic characters and decent commentary on corporate greed. What else could we really ask for?
The story follows a truck driver named Mike (Liam Neeson) and his disabled brother Gurty (Marcus Thomas). Gurty is an Iraq war vet who suffered severe head trauma resulting in a bad case of aphasia: a condition causing the inability to properly express or understand speech due to brain damage. Mike has struggled to hold down a job for himself and his brother while acting as his primary caregiver. Things seem to be taking a turn for the worse until they learn about a rare but dangerous job opportunity. A mine up in Canada has suffered an unexpected methane gas explosion, causing a cave-in trapping over twenty miners. A special and incredibly massive item must evacuate the methane before any effort to rescue the miners can be made. The best way to deliver the item before the miner's oxygen runs out is to take the Ice Road: miles of frozen ocean used only for qualified big-rig drivers willing to take the risk. Little do our heroes know that there's a saboteur among them who will stop at nothing to ensure they never make it to the mines. Why? You'll just have to watch to find out.
There's plenty of stuff here to hook and maintain our attention and interest right off the bat: a brother duo struggling to make ends meet and understand each other, high-stakes in the form of relatable blue-color workers trapped in a life or death predicament, and brave people willing to take the risk (and the pay) to partake in the rescue effort. All the while providing engaging chase scenes, decent special effects, and enough macho machismo to put Chuck Norris memes to shame (more so than usual). Everything you could want out of a good "brainless" movie.
All of this awesome and engaging action comes to us courtesy of writer & director Jonathan Hensleigh, whose previous writing works include Die Hard: With a Vengence and 2004's The Punisher. While I would not put him on par with Taylor Sheridon, writer & director of Wind River (my best film of 2017), I can say that they both seem to share a talent for telling clever and engaging stories that feel grand and macho without feeling overbearing. I hope these two guys get to collaborate on something in the future.
The Ice Road is the kind of good "brainless" entertainment we need more of! Anyone can film a scene with a car wreck, but it takes effort to make you care about it. If you need something to give you a nice little jolt of energy, check this one out. It won't change your life, but it will make you feel alive.
Ladies & gentlemen, I am TheNorm; thank you all for reading.
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