It was only a matter of time for the Ice Road Truckers, a series that followed the drivers of massive truck rigs across perilous ice roads, to find its subject matter on the big screen.

Filling the driver’s seat is Liam Neeson, who stars in this Amazon Prime Video film, which finds the star traversing some slippery roads and an even more slippery script.

After an explosion in a diamond mine in Northern Canada, the outcome looks grim for the trapped miners inside of it.

In a bid to rescue them, it’s deemed that a well head could save them. However, they are notoriously heavy, and there is no easy way to get them to the site. It’s decided that the only way would be to transport it by road, but with it being out of season for most of the ice truck drivers who have now made their way home, and the roads themselves in a vulnerable state, it’s no easy ride.

But with Mike (Neeson) and his brother Gurty (Marcus Thomas) being let go of their current job as truck drivers, they could be the last hope of those trapped miners. They’re not long on the road however, before they realise that it’s not only the adverse weather conditions that are the only obstacle in their way.

For anyone who has seen the real-life journeys that ice truck drivers have to take, it is one full of peril; they are, after all, driving heavy rigs on roads that are not even roads, but just relatively thick pieces of ice. It certainly makes for dramatic storylines.

Its curious then that writer and director Jonathan Hensleigh has chosen to put the dangerous nature of the journey on ice, as it were, in favour of a completely absurd story, one than only grows more ridiculous as the film goes on. For Hensleigh, nature just isn’t a big enough adversary, as he buries his film under a huge pile of stupidity involving a devious company cover-up.

You can’t blame Neeson for taking the role, after all it’s a chance for him to sit down for the most part, and not get involved with tracking people who are unfortunate enough to take members of his family; he’s nearly seventy after all, so driving a truck for the most part is a good gig. That’s not to say he doesn’t get physical, but it must have been a less demanding role, after all, with perhaps the only chance of physical harm being a touch of frostbite.

Hensleigh’s script is top heavy as far as story is concerned. It has more layers than necessary, with the film going from a promising start, then quickly going through the gears of the unbelievable, before crashing hard into the downright silly.

Considering that Hensleigh has only directed two other features, with the last being ten years ago, he seems an odd choice for this frosty Neeson vehicle, particularly when you consider how poor the set pieces are and the painfully obvious computer generated imagery.

There is a genuine fascination concerning the drivers of these ice roads, but this film fails to capture it on any level. There really is enough drama involved on these icy roads, without the need to pad it out into a truly woeful story, that slips and slides all over the place like Neeson’s rig in the film. Someone should have had the good sense to hit the brakes, and put it in reverse, to avoid the truck wreck ahead.