Aarcflick

 If there's one thing all audiences have a right to demand from a film with "Ice Road" in its title, it's ice roads. That's probably why "The Ice Road" was so successful it warranted a sequel. Jonathan Hensleigh's 2021 film featured Liam Neeson in one of his impressive late-career action performances, as a hardened truck driver who agrees to cross a frozen lake to rescue a group of miners from a collapsing mine. But Hensleigh's new sequel, "Ice Road: Vengeance," doesn't quite live up to the brand image. Except for a brief drive along a mountainside, "Ice Road: Vengeance" doesn't contain enough ice roads to satisfy those who've been craving more slippery chase scenes since 2021. The film offers more than enough revenge, so there's no reason to claim false advertising. But the sequel's divergence from what made its predecessor famous is so stark that it begs the question of why the two needed to be connected ...