The new Liam Neeson movie “Cold Pursuit” achieved some new ideas I have never seen before in any film. First of all, Nels Coxman, played by Neeson has the most unusual job I have ever seen – he clears snow in mountain roads in the surrounding mountains of Denver Colorado. There is a long list of people who die in this movie, all followed by listing their name and religious denomination right after their death. The entire story is played very low key in a way that I found extremely unusual. Neeson’s co-star Laura Dern, who plays Coxman’s wife has an extremely small part in the beginning of the movie and then disappears, never to be seen again. The ending was also very strange with a shocking unexpected death that might have been an attempt at humor or insanity given the large number of people who die in this story.

Cold Pursuit is an effective revenge drama with Neeson, in a role similar to the excellent Taken from 2008 role as a father who would do anything for his child. The story involves a local drug cartel and once again we are reminded of ruthlessness of people like this, who kill like most of us brush our teeth. For most people like this they meet their own end as violently as they killed others.

The story of Cold Pursuit also involves a custody battle between the head of the drug cartel and his wife, and they have a young son who has a likability and niceness that bears no resemblance to his parents. I found this an unlikely reality given the child’s parents and circumstances.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for Cold Pursuit is a very solid 80% and my score would be more in the 70% range due to some of the slow points in the story and an ending involving the young boy in the aftermath of a shootout that made no sense. I give a mild recommendation to Cold Pursuit.

In 1994 Quentin Tarantino introduced a whole new way to tell a story, by starting at the end and then filling in all the blanks with flashbacks in a circular order and then doubling back to where the movie began. Over the years I have seen a number of movies that have tried to tell a story this way and most of them have failed. The new movie “Destroyer” starring Nicole Kidman has successfully used this highly unusual story telling method; not as well as Pulp Fiction but well enough to make the movie both engrossing and understandable.

As far as the acting, you have to admire Nicole Kidman for taking this role because not only does she not wear any makeup, but she is made to look like she is a disaster of a person who has not slept in weeks and might be close to suicide. As the story unfolds her appearance becomes more and more understandable due to an undercover assignment with a fellow police officer that goes in a very bad direction. Kidman probably took this role to enhance her acting ability and perhaps hoped for an Academy Award nomination, but unfortunately the film itself is not strong enough for the highest movie awards.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Destroyer are an average 72% and due to some of the flaws in the story that is slow in some areas, I would give this movie around a 75% rating and give it a solid recommendation.

I give the new film “Miss Bala” some credit, with the idea that a beauty pageant has never been combined with a story about a drug cartel before. There is nothing possible or plausible in this story about a friend of a beauty pageant contestant who for some reason gets spared during a bar shooting and before she knows it is being used as a mule to smuggle drugs into Mexico. The story from this point on, barely makes any sense and from about the half way point, I was hoping the movie would end soon.

The Rotten Tomatoes for this mostly bad movie are a very low 27% and I agree with this rating. The title Miss Bala also makes no sense because the beauty pageant is for “Miss Baja California”. For her first big starring role in a mainstream movie, the actress Gina Rodriguez sure picked the wrong starter film. Miss Bala is a must miss.