Liam Neeson spends most of his new action movie talking to his car — and it’s as strange as it sounds
An AI-enabled sports car joins Liam Neeson, with Marisa Tomei and Ving Rhames, for The Mongoose’s cross-country chase — but do the thrills keep pace?
If you thought Liam Neeson was winding down on the action front, think again—he's back, gears grinding, in The Mongoose. This one leans full throttle into the sort of formula Neeson's adopted lately, but with a daft twist: less hand-to-hand grit, far more automotive carnage, and—brace yourself—a talking AI sports car straight out of a midlife crisis fever dream. Spoiler: the AI is not the weirdest part here.
The Mongoose is out in UK cinemas 30 October, but hit torrent sites nearly two months earlier due to a leak.
The Plot Is the Chase
We're chucked straight into the action with Neeson's Ryan "Fang" Flanagan already pegged as a fugitive, tearing away from the law in a Shelby Super Snake that looks like they've nicked it out of a collector's showroom. Quick-fire flashbacks reveal Fang's had a rough twenty years, with POW trauma and a botched mission still looming large. So naturally, after a messy divorce (Marisa Tomei as the ex, in case you blink and miss it), a crime lands him on the wrong side of the law, and his 'solution' is—what else?—nick the fanciest car he can find and go on the run.
His escape is a zigzag across Kentucky, Arkansas and Texas, but don't actually expect it to look like any of those places—the production was shot in Australia, and frankly, the eucalyptus trees are the least of its problems. Fang's old squadmates, Tanker (Ving Rhames, possibly inebriated, judging by the line delivery) and Munch (Marcus Thomas), join for moral support and the occasional bit of heavy lifting. The enemy? A police major bent on reeling Fang in, played by Michael Chiklis with all the subtlety of a cartoon villain. Along the way, patriotic bystanders and rolling news coverage are somehow all rooting for this battered war hero, even as the plot trips over itself to justify it.
AI Car and Other Odd Choices
This is where things tip from iffy to bizarre: most of the film is essentially Neeson alone in the car, chinwagging with a fictional AI called Helene (voiced by Stella Stocker), which is like Siri crossed with Knight Rider's KITT, but somehow naffer and more overpowered at the same time. Neeson spends more scenes talking to the car than with any other breathing character, including Tomei, who has maybe two brief moments of actual dialogue with him. The rest of his human contact is delivered hands-free over Bluetooth, like an exceptionally grim version of Carpool Karaoke.
The Mongoose leaked onto file-sharing sites almost two months before its official release, and even pirate viewers panned it.
Just when you think things can't get dafter, the script has Fang ducking into a repair shop, where they completely refurb the battered Super Snake and respray it, all faster than you can say 'continuity error'. There's also a memorable bit with a suspicious petrol station attendant—takes Fang's cash, then rings the police like it's standard customer service procedure. Jingoistic 'support the troops' vibes are thick, but never plausible, and don't ask me to unpack why the titular 'Mongoose' moniker only gets explained way past the point anyone cares.
Who's to Blame?
- Director: Mark Vanselow, Neeson's own long-time stunt double, making his directorial debut.
- Writer: Thompson Evans.
- Cast highlights: Liam Neeson, Marisa Tomei, Michael Chiklis, Ving Rhames, Marcus Thomas, and Stella Stocker as the AI voice.
Vanselow knows his way around a fight scene (he's coordinated stunts for The Revenant and HBO's Westworld), but for his first go behind the camera, The Mongoose is heavy on stunts but light on fun. Most of the budget looks to have gone on muscle cars and licensing classic rock for the soundtrack, not on, say, a script that isn't completely mechanical. The dialogue groans under the weight of cliches, with everyone bar Marisa Tomei apparently showing up for a paycheck rather than any actual scenes together, let alone chemistry.
If you're wondering how bad things get, consider this: a bunch of early downloaders were so unimpressed, they tanked it on fan sites months before it even got near a cinema. For a film meant to be a rip-roaring ride, it's got the pacing and energy of a traffic jam, with Neeson quite literally phoning in a performance from behind the wheel for nearly the entire film.