{"id":672514,"date":"2026-11-02T09:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T09:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/672514\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T09:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T09:14:09","slug":"the-mongoose-review-liam-neeson-in-a-bland-actioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/672514\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Mongoose’ Review: Liam Neeson in a Bland Actioner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSince the days of \u201cVanishing Point\u201d and Steven Spielberg\u2019s \u201cThe Sugarland Express,\u201d Hollywood has been making films about fugitives in fast cars who become media-sensation folk heroes. Companies like American International Pictures and Roger Corman\u2019s New World Pictures would deliver movies like this a few times a year back in the 1970s, while simultaneously introducing a separate strain of exploitation stories about American veterans who return from Vietnam out of step from, or in conflict with, their civilian counterparts. Several decades and countless copycats of \u201cRolling Thunder\u201d and \u201cFirst Blood\u201d later, there\u2019s \u201cThe Mongoose<\/a>,\u201d a film conceived in the spirit of those twin subgenres, but without a single deeper thought in its script than \u201chonoring the troops\u201d and showcasing the capabilities of a Shelby Super Snake.<\/p>\n

\n\tStarring Liam Neeson<\/a> as a war hero on the run from the cops, the directorial debut of stunt coordinator Mark Vanselow<\/a> delivers lots of vehicular action, some of it quite fun. But despite a stacked supporting cast (including Marisa Tomei<\/a>, Ving Rhames<\/a> and Michael Chiklis), the script by Thompson Evans is so committed to ensuring that the audience stays on the right side of the developing conflict that there\u2019s never a moment to question the outcome of the story that the filmmakers are telling.<\/p>\n

\n\tNeeson plays Ryan \u201cFang\u201d Flanagan, a Special Forces commander who was captured in Afghanistan back in 2005. Although he and his soldiers Tanker (Rhames) and Munch (Marcus Thomas) outsmarted their captors, their escape came at the cost of their comrade Wiz\u2019s (Ryan Morgan) life. Still suffering from PTSD two decades later, Fang\u2019s marriage to Tara (Tomei) has ended in divorce, although they remain friendly. But when she calls him to the hospital after being abused by her current boyfriend, high-powered lawyer Todd (Brett Tucker), Fang offers to go to his Arkansas mansion to retrieve her belongings.<\/p>\n

\n\tTara makes him promise not to exact retribution on Todd, whom she insists won\u2019t be home at the time. When he shows up anyway, waving a gun and suggesting he has the right to shoot Fang on the spot, the ensuing scuffle results in Todd\u2019s death. With his tires slashed by Todd and cops en route, Fang selects a glossy red muscle car for his getaway. But even though he\u2019s initially cautioned with sensitivity to surrender to the authorities by James Tilton (Maurice Marvel Meredith), a former Marine leading his pursuit, Fang learns he\u2019ll face a less sympathetic adversary once the chase takes him into Texas: Major Walter Pope (Chiklis) waits to apprehend him at any cost.<\/p>\n

\n\tCarrying only a firearm that Todd left in the car\u2019s glove compartment, Fang enlists the help of Tanker and Munch, as well as the Shelby\u2019s AI assistant Helene (Stella Stocker), in order to locate fuel and supplies and evade the police. But after CNN anchor Laura Coates (playing herself) begins round-the-clock reporting of Fang\u2019s flight from justice, adding context to the circumstances of the crime and the backgrounds of the other individuals involved, the public develops a passionate interest in his plight, offering support and assistance as the cops close in.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Mongoose\u201d begins in medias res with Fang escaping a roadblock, and then works its way back to the character\u2019s wartime trauma, the deterioration of his marriage and the circumstances that placed him in that Shelby\u2019s driver\u2019s seat. The flashback structure doesn\u2019t serve much of a purpose except to delay the audience\u2019s complete endorsement of a character who, though appropriately cantankerous, is unambiguously a hero and nice guy. (When Tilton asks early on in the chase if he has a list of demands, \u201cracial harmony\u201d is among them.) The irony of embarking on his flight from justice is that in the world that Evans creates, virtually everyone this decorated veteran encounters gives him his flowers, and believes in his innocence, really without knowing anything about what happened.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite the lingering emotional reverberations of his service (all shot using desaturated filters and cut together in semi-comprehensible montages), Neeson plays Fang as a mostly even-tempered, almost cheerful fellow, which makes it easy to like and root for his character. (One wouldn\u2019t necessarily expect a scene of the actor gently trying to coax a stubborn tabby out from under a bed, but Neeson contains multitudes.) But aside from a declaration that \u201cI will never be captured again,\u201d that complicated past just doesn\u2019t jibe well enough with the character\u2019s disposition to justify this cross-country pursuit. Fang isn\u2019t a character you find yourself sympathizing with, he\u2019s one the movie demands you like, which robs the story of emotional weight.<\/p>\n

\n\tRhames gets less to do here than in the final \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d chapters as he and Thomas run interference for Fang to keep military helicopters from blasting him off the highway. Chiklis, meanwhile, seems to relish his character\u2019s opportunity to use excessive force in the line of duty, though as the only person in the film (aside from Fang\u2019s unintentional victim) who isn\u2019t blindly reverent of his suspect\u2019s military service there\u2019s something appealing about him playing an out-and-out villain. Yet it\u2019s Tomei who overdelivers in a role that, like too many she\u2019s been given recently, feels unworthy of her talents. Our introduction to Tara is during a flashback to their breakup, and she makes the most of an efficiently written scene. But as she provides a sounding board to Fang as the chase winds on, you understand why he continues to harbor affections for her.<\/p>\n

\n\tVanselow, who previously worked with Neeson on multiple projects including \u201cThe Naked Gun,\u201d understands how to design action sequences, but at some point they all start to run together. During the second half, Coates exists as a direct-to-camera narrator describing what\u2019s happening, and then interjecting details about Fang\u2019s background, his victim\u2019s dubious business practices and Walter Pope\u2019s past professional malfeasance that, again, ensure we care about no one but him. In fact, the movie doesn\u2019t even bother revealing Fang\u2019s ultimate fate; but then again, he\u2019s been fully vindicated in the court of public opinion, so who cares? \u201cThe Mongoose\u201d has plenty of muscle, but what it lacks under the hood is heart. Honoring the sacrifices of America\u2019s military men and women is noble, but there are better ways to thank them for their service than a bland tribute like this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since the days of \u201cVanishing Point\u201d and Steven Spielberg\u2019s \u201cThe Sugarland Express,\u201d Hollywood has been making films about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,7322,93273,284900,270,284901,284902],"class_list":["post-672514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-liam-neeson","tag-marisa-tomei","tag-mark-vanselow","tag-movies","tag-the-mongoose","tag-ving-rhames"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}