The Mongoose

by Mike McGranaghan

Between all the generic post-Taken action flicks, this year’s The Fix, and now The Mongoose, it’s starting to seem as though Liam Neeson just doesn’t care anymore. He’s a fine actor who has nevertheless devoted a huge chunk of his career to making forgettable low-rent junk. In his latest unmemorable effort, Neeson once again plays – you guessed it – an ex-Special Forces soldier. There’s more driving than fighting here, but the movie is still a compendium of lazy cliches.

Ryan “Fang” Flanagan was traumatized during his time in Afghanistan. After discovering that his ex-wife Tara (Marisa Tomei) was beaten by her fiancée, he goes to her house to collect her belongings. That’s when the fiancée confronts him, leading to a scuffle that leaves one of them dead. You know which one survives. Now accused of murder, Fang steals the fiancée’s Shelby Cobra and goes on the lam. Two fellow soldiers (Ving Rhames and Marcus Thomas) try to assist him in the escape, while Texas lawman Major Walter Pope (Michael Chiklis) leads an effort to bring him to justice. And in case you’re wondering, Chiklis plays the lawman in an apparent ode to Jackie Gleason in Smokey and the Bandit. He even gets to yell lines like, “I’ve got you now, you sumbitch!”

Chase sequences in The Mongoose are not particularly exciting. The cars rarely look like they’re going more than 40 MPH. Director Mark Vanselow relies on stunts that we’ve seen before, such as the moment when Fang races his car in front of a passing train to lose the cops. I saw that in To Live and Die in L.A. way back in 1985 and countless times since. Films like Mad Max: Fury Road and Baby Driver put this one to shame, so any itch you may have for vehicular mayhem will remain unscratched.

In between the driving scenes, the story provides a lot of lip service about veterans. But it doesn’t really care about the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, it merely uses the diagnosis as an excuse for why it’s okay that Fang repeatedly breaks the law and puts the lives of police officers in danger. (For a movie obviously shooting for red-state appeal, the whole “cops are the bad guys” angle is strange.) Once CNN awkwardly broadcasts that the fugitive is a PTSD sufferer, Fang instantly becomes a folk hero, with people across the country cheering him on. In the movie’s worldview, being a veteran means you should be allowed to get away with anything you want.

The most maddening flaw is the utter waste of Marisa Tomei. As is typical in this kind of fare, Tara is present solely to spur the male hero into action. Is there any concern given to the fact that her fiancée badly beat her? Of course not. She sports a few bruises that do nothing to impact her beauty, so she’ll be fine. The plot promises a final scene between Tomei and Neeson, then completely doesn’t bother including it. The resolution of the woman’s arc means nothing compared to the resolution of the man’s.

Taking its name from a location that holds meaning to Fang, The Mongoose is pure claptrap from front to back. No drama, no thrills, no fun. Get in your car and drive around town for an hour and a half. You’ll have way more fun than you will watching this nonsense.