It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
View MoreThe film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
View MoreThis is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
View MoreA clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
During the Cuban missile crisis a plane crashes in the Canadian arctic. Folks from a nearby station arrive and rescue 3 survivors. They are all blonde and tall. The physician there is a girl and she's attracted to the sole conscious survivor. Next, he breaks free and kills everything in sight.50 years later an oil expedition arrive to the area. Part of it is a scientist named Malraux and his Russian sidekick. In charge of the oil exploration is some mean lady called Frazier. Some paramilitary team lead by Col. Trump is also involved and they mostly join Malraux, whose goal is to find the 3 guys from the intro. They could be the result of a Nazi experiment or just Russian soldiers trying to take over NY. He and the paramilitary team set up camp near a mountain. When bad weather threatens to end the operation, Malraux explores a cave and finds the three bodies. They are transported to the station and put on life support. Then their hearth start beating again. When Malraux tries to kill these guys, he's placed in custody. Then the guys wake up and ravage the camp.Malraux survives with an injured leg and starts limping after the three guys. He runs into an Indian who offers to take him to the next town. On the way they stop at a camp where the three guys have just killed everyone. Malraux and the Indian manage to survive and make it to the town where the Russians are enjoying drinks and strippers. That's when Maulraux confronts the guys and we learn some secrets.Ice Soldiers starts out pretty well. The part at the exploration camp is pretty good. Things start going downhill when Malraux goes ofter those guys. Direction is pretty good. Acting is also good. Purcell, Ironside, Beach, Branzea, Sullivan are all solid. The problem is with the dialogue of the script. Very little is said and when something is said it's either confrontational, or unclear. The overall story has some interesting ideas. But it gives up these ideas or doesn't explore them to turn into an ordinary chase/action movie. Several things that happen are completely unbelievable and should have been handled better. Had this movie stayed at the camp for the entire length of it, it would have turned out better. Still, it's different and enjoyable.
View MoreA scientist discovers three blonde Ivan Drago-ish Russian super-soldier mutations buried in a state of cryogenic slumber in the snow of the Canadian north. The Russians are awakened to wreak all sorts of havoc.ICE SOLDIERS seems promising at first, beginning with a very brief back-story, which is actually much better than the front-story, to 1963, immediately after the Cuban Missile Crisis. The filming is expertly done: This is not one of those super-amateurish Indies made on a $500 budget, nor is it--thank God!--another "found footage" affair. Though a little staid, over-rehearsed, and reminiscent of many 80s/90s thrillers, the acting, directions, and script are all pretty decent. The problem is that nothing particularly interesting happens here, mostly just a lot on the Americans/Canadians fighting it out with the renegade Russians, a lot of tromping around in the snow, etc. Boorish and predictable for most of its length, ICE SOLDIERS degenerates to just plain silly and unintentionally (?) funny during its last 20-30 minutes.
View MoreSeems like the Russians were working on their own Captain America-like super soldier program during the 1950s. 3 of these ubermench, looking suspiciously like Hitler's concept of the Aryan blonde haired, white skinned superman, are on a mission to attack sites in America during the pre-occupation with the Cuban missile crises. Their plane crashes, they go into a form of suspended animation, some scientific exploration team stumbles upon them, wakes them up and all suffer the final fate... except the lone female scientist. The Russian superman who rapes her lets her live, no doubt so that he can come back for seconds....The film now jumps 50 years to the present day, in which events seem to repeat themselves.... with a few twists...It's not a terrible movie. I've seen worse acting, worse plot-lines etc. At the same time it is nothing to write home about. If you're bored and want to see some mindless mayhem, a few strippers, and a little Greek tragedy, this will do the job...Or to put it another way, Michael Ironside's SCANNERS was an original masterpiece compared to this latest film.You say: toe-mah-toe; I say toe-may-toe!
View MoreSometimes, I'll watch a movie because of who is playing a main character. And I don't mean I'm looking for any of the "usual suspects." I mean I want to watch an actor I see in movies, but who often seems to have some secondary role. Dominic Purcell's name caught my eye in this one.TV roles are all well and good, but it is often refreshing to see such an actor play the lead or a main role (Bryan Cranston in Cold Comes the Night is another example). Here, Purcell plays a part with little need for drama, and little opportunity to demonstrate acting talent. To be fair, that was his character here, but the movie was still an enjoyable semi-action flick. The plot is tied into the 1962 Cuban Missle Crisis, but only tangentially. The Sci-Fi aspect overwhelms any real historical theme. And the plot-twist has so many clues dropped that it seems like a made-for-TV movie.Regardless, the movie held my attention and Purcell's adequate performance was well supported by Michael Ironside and Adam Beach (who must unfortunately play the native American with an alcohol history stereotype).As an aside, the movie might have been better if Purcell's character had developed more of a romantic interest in Camille Sullivan's character, or if the characters of the super soldiers (especially No. 1) had been fleshed out some more. eg. "bad ass wakes up after 50 years and his mission seems a little stale in a completely changed world." As it is, they come off as new Rap music fans who want to have sex with the first woman they lay eyes on.No academy award winner here, or even high action, but still a fair watch for a story requiring little mental effort.
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