Being a huge movie buff, weekends are reserved strictly for binge-watching whatever new stuff drops on streaming. This weekend was all about action flicks—and it started off strong:
Sinners — damn good.
Ballerina — solid spin-off, no idea why it flopped.
Warfare — yes, chef! Loved it.

And then came Ice Road: Vengeance.

Now, I’m not a huge Liam Neeson fan—he basically plays the same guy in every film—but I never skip a movie set in Nepal, whether it was actually filmed there or not.

This one, directed by Jonathan Hensleigh, is almost entirely set in Nepal, although it was filmed in Australia where they built a replica of a Nepali village. And this isn’t like a character randomly mentioning Everest Base Camp once—the entire story unfolds in Nepal.

First question that comes to mind: “Why didn’t they just shoot it in Nepal, like other Hollywood movies have?”

Fair. But logistically, shooting in a remote part of Nepal is tough. In contrast, filming in Australia comes with smoother infrastructure and juicy perks—like federal and state incentives such as Location Incentive, Victorian Screen Incentive and Regional Location Assistance Fund. So, yeah… fake Nepal it is.

Still, fingers crossed that someday Nepal’s infrastructure and government-level policies will be strong enough to actually pull big international studios to shoot here.

Anyway, after three bangers back-to-back, I started this movie with decent energy. But somewhere between Liam Neeson walking through CGI Kathmandu and the Aussie driving a bus to Everest (yes, an actual bus to Mount Everest straight from Kathmandu), my excitement level started coming down. It was like watching Amitabh Bachchan’s scenes in Nepal in Bollywood film ‘Uunchai’ in 2022, knowing he hadn’t shot those scenes in Nepal.

Here’s the plot:
Neeson’s character Mike travels to Nepal to scatter his brother’s ashes at Everest. So naturally, he boards a bus from Kathmandu to Mount Everest, driven by an Aussie guy. Two French assassins hop on, and then it’s all classic Neeson—growling, punching, gunning, surviving.

And don’t worry—none of this is a spoiler. It’s all in the trailer. You literally can’t spoil a Liam Neeson movie. They’re all pretty much the same.

Watching it from a Nepali POV? Harey!

So the Rai family in the Himalayas… speaks Hindi. Like full-blown Hindi TV serial Hindi. Look—I get that there are Hindi-speaking communities in Nepal, but a Rai family in a mountain village? That should’ve been either their native language or Nepali. Or heck, just let them speak English like in all of the other scenes.

And then there are a few moments where locals and cops speak Nepali. Well… try to speak Nepali. I couldn’t understand 80% of what they said. It gave serious flashbacks to that time in Jaane Jaan when Kareena Kapoor tried to speak Nepali and ended up creating a whole new dialect. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this.)

And the Nepali text on signs and posters? Chef’s kiss… if the chef was a chatbot. They look like someone translated English to Nepali using Google Translate and just rolled with it—no proofreading, no native speaker in sight. Just raw, unedited, machine-translated chaos.

Let’s put the Nepali POV aside. Even if you don’t care about Nepal, languages, or accuracy—this movie is still bad. The plot is painfully predictable, and the action isn’t even that exciting.

Listen, I’m not saying every movie set in Nepal has to get everything right. But if you’re going to use our country as your entire backdrop, at least Google us first. Language, people, locations, road types—anything. Give us something.

It’s disappointing because the concept actually had potential: an action-thriller on deadly Himalayan roads? I was sold. But Ice Road: Vengeance delivers none of the thrills and all of the cringe.

If you’re in the mood for a hate-watch, go for it. It’s available to rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
Otherwise, well… you know where to find it anyway.