Since the days of “Vanishing Point” and Steven Spielberg’s “The Sugarland Express,” Hollywood has been making films about fugitives in fast cars who become media-sensation folk heroes. Companies like American International Pictures and Roger Corman’s 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 “Rolling Thunder” and “First Blood” later, there’s “The Mongoose,” a film conceived in the spirit of those twin subgenres, but without a single deeper thought in its script than “honoring the troops” and showcasing the capabilities of a Shelby Super Snake.
Starring Liam Neeson as a war hero on the run from the cops, the directorial debut of stunt coordinator Mark Vanselow delivers lots of vehicular action, some of it quite fun. But despite a stacked supporting cast (including Marisa Tomei, Ving Rhames 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’s never a moment to question the outcome of the story that the filmmakers are telling.
Neeson plays Ryan “Fang” 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’s (Ryan Morgan) life. Still suffering from PTSD two decades later, Fang’s 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.
Tara makes him promise not to exact retribution on Todd, whom she insists won’t 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’s 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’s initially cautioned with sensitivity to surrender to the authorities by James Tilton (Maurice Marvel Meredith), a former Marine leading his pursuit, Fang learns he’ll face a less sympathetic adversary once the chase takes him into Texas: Major Walter Pope (Chiklis) waits to apprehend him at any cost.
Carrying only a firearm that Todd left in the car’s glove compartment, Fang enlists the help of Tanker and Munch, as well as the Shelby’s 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’s 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.
“The Mongoose” begins in medias res with Fang escaping a roadblock, and then works its way back to the character’s wartime trauma, the deterioration of his marriage and the circumstances that placed him in that Shelby’s driver’s seat. The flashback structure doesn’t serve much of a purpose except to delay the audience’s 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, “racial harmony” 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.
Despite 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’t 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 “I will never be captured again,” that complicated past just doesn’t jibe well enough with the character’s disposition to justify this cross-country pursuit. Fang isn’t a character you find yourself sympathizing with, he’s one the movie demands you like, which robs the story of emotional weight.
Rhames gets less to do here than in the final “Mission: Impossible” 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’s opportunity to use excessive force in the line of duty, though as the only person in the film (aside from Fang’s unintentional victim) who isn’t blindly reverent of his suspect’s military service there’s something appealing about him playing an out-and-out villain. Yet it’s Tomei who overdelivers in a role that, like too many she’s 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.
Vanselow, who previously worked with Neeson on multiple projects including “The Naked Gun,” 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’s happening, and then interjecting details about Fang’s background, his victim’s dubious business practices and Walter Pope’s past professional malfeasance that, again, ensure we care about no one but him. In fact, the movie doesn’t even bother revealing Fang’s ultimate fate; but then again, he’s been fully vindicated in the court of public opinion, so who cares? “The Mongoose” has plenty of muscle, but what it lacks under the hood is heart. Honoring the sacrifices of America’s military men and women is noble, but there are better ways to thank them for their service than a bland tribute like this.
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