The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

By the late 1970s, the disaster film genre was on its last legs, but that didn't stop legendary B movie producer Roger Corman from making a few stabs in the genre, "Avalanche" being one of them. He actually made a profit with this movie, thanks to pre-selling the rights to the movie before it was made. That was a wise movie, because I cannot see that many people would have been interested in getting the rights to the finished movie. It is somewhat slicker than many other Corman movies of the period - it has a notable cast, and generally good production values (except for some weak special effects). But the movie for the most part is a real bore. It takes over half of the movie before the title disaster happens - what happens up to that point is almost all boring padding, with endless chat. And when the title activity does happen, there is a curious lack of suspense, probably because the avalanche is over and the characters are just picking up the pieces. If you must watch the movie, find the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, since it does break the monotony with some good comic jabs.

I gave it a 3 because of Robert Forster's acting. Mia Farrow was horrible and Rock Hudson was annoyingly bad. The director must have given them one take per scene, Forster nailed every one and the stars missed big time. The snow that someone kept throwing across the windows every 2 seconds was hilarious. Do chunks of snow really bounce off you? lol

Roger Corman's cheapo entry in the disaster movie sweepstakes. It has not aged well. Hard headed land developer Rock Hudson builds a ski resort at the foot of not so stable mountain. Environmentalist Robert Forster tries to stop him. When there's an avalanche, shown via some dim special effects, a lot of people are trampled, buried in snow and asphyxiated. Hudson yells nearly every line of dialog in what is perhaps his worst performance. Forster looks tired (or bored) and Mia Farrow (as Hudson's ex-wife) is simply out of place in this type of movie. Jeanette Nolan, who once played opposite Orson Welles in MACBETH, is featured as Hudson's free-spirited mother. Barry Primus is cast as a talk show host! Directed, very blandly, by former actor Corey Allen. Lewis Teague did some of the second unit work.

Dreadful, horrendous, awful and terrible are all words that don't even begin to describe how bad this movie is. Rock and Mia, about as mismatched a pair of costars as could be imagined; he towers over her and they share no chemistry whatsoever, would make more sense as father and daughter than ex-spouses but that is the least of this picture's problems. Some of the cast try to maintain their dignity and soldier on while being faced with stupid words to speak and idiotic situations to react to. Nonsensical happenings, bad special effects and rotten direction all add up to a textbook example of why the disaster epics ran out of steam shortly after the release of this dog.