The ratio of exposition-heavy dialogue to things-a-real-person-would-say lines is roughly 20 to 1. Any bit of visual wit that manages to slip through feels accidental.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 2, 2021

The setup has potential, with trapped miners needing saving but icy roads making rescue efforts difficult. But it hits the skids and ends up formulaic and cliched.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 1, 2021

Piles cliches atop cliches with an end result of mush - not content to be the story of a dramatic rescue, it's also a conspiracy movie and a revenge thriller.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jul 1, 2021

The film arguably works best prior to this gearshift, when it appears to be primarily about keeping huge vehicles moving steadily and horizontally rather than abruptly and vertically.

| Original Score: C+ | Jun 28, 2021

The Ice Road doesn't share a trucker's discipline, and it speeds up and up and up until it bleeds into a different, more conventional action sub-genre altogether.

| Original Score: C+ | Jun 28, 2021

This is a big, dumb, often gripping action movie.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 28, 2021

Neeson's durability as an action hero seems more remarkable as the years go on. Yes, he's older and brittler and paler here... But, just like Mike, he gets the job done, and he's the reason to watch this.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 28, 2021

[It] has its blunt charms, and offers more than one instance of Neeson punching a guy in the face. And admit it: that's part of what you came here for, isn't it?

| Jun 28, 2021

[Neeson's] action hero schtick... has become so repetitive that one imagines him just shuffling from one set to the other dragging his rifle, wearing the same costume, each role boringly interchangeable.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 25, 2021

As The Ice Road goes on, [its] matter-of-fact approach increasingly feels at odds with what's happening onscreen. Such a smart movie probably shouldn't have been so stupid.

| Jun 25, 2021

Simply put, Neeson has been in a bit of a rut, one that Ice Road exemplifies almost literally, since at several points in the movie the challenge involves extricating big trucks from slushy situations.

| Jun 25, 2021

But while the Irish actor reliably hits both his marks and the bad guys, he's doing so in a film that's leadenly predictable when it's not unintentionally laugh-out-loud funny.

| Jun 25, 2021

The by-the-numbers screenplay feels predictable from first moment to last.

| Jun 25, 2021

The film lacks slam-bang, signature action sequences that would make it more memorable.

| Jun 25, 2021

"The Ice Road" is what we used to call a B-movie, but there's no shame in a B-movie that carries out its mission with such competence and star power.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 25, 2021

An increasingly implausible action movie that will entertain most viewers, but also perhaps make them feel a bit played for fools.

| Jun 25, 2021

Even "The Ice Road's" dumbest turns are stabilized by the presence of Neeson, a real Kenworth of a man if there ever was one. Even when big rigs are dieseling next to him, he commands the screen.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 25, 2021

Despite its many perils, both natural and human, The Ice Road is surprisingly dull. It's definitely not as crazy as it should have been, given the setting and the stakes.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jun 25, 2021

Sadly, Neeson's dander is no match for a hackneyed plot, poorly visualized stunts and characters whose behavior can defy common sense.

| Jun 24, 2021

The film is a muddle of clichés and unremarkable action sequences that bleed together into a cacophony.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Jun 24, 2021