Truly Dreadful Film

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

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.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The plot in Icebreaker is such a mess that it doesn't merit much discussion. A group of terrorists descend on a Vermont ski resort looking for a downed plane carrying a nuclear device. In the end, however, the nuclear device is all but an afterthought as the head baddie sets his sights on the lesser goal of blowing up a ski gondola with one person on board. Ski patrol member Matt is on the case to stop the terrorists and save his fiancé (who is quite naturally the person on the gondola).How in the name of all that is Holy did the makers of Icebreakers get a cast that includes Sean Astin, Stacy Keach, and Bruce Campbell? Were these guys that hard-up for work? Do they enjoy skiing so much that a free weekend on the slopes of Killington was enough to entice them? Did the producers have compromising photos? I just don't get it. Astin may be a good actor, but he's not my image of an action hero. When I think of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, and Rob Van Dam – Sean Astin is not the next name that comes to mind. Stacy Keach phones in his performance from the State line. It's obvious he has no interest in Icebreakers. As for Campbell, as much as I love him, not even he can save this thing. Bruce's charm, so evident in the Evil Dead Series or Brisco County or even Burn Notice, is not here. Like Keach, he doesn't look overly interested in the project. But the acting's not the problem – it's the muddled plot. I watched the whole thing and still have no idea what was motivating the terrorists. They want the nuclear device simply because that's what a terrorist would do. The take-over of the ski resort seemed so unnecessary. Their plan had not gone so off-track that they still couldn't have secretly gotten their weapon and disappeared. Why bring so much attention to their activities? The answer – it's in the script. The whole thing this is a complete mess. Character motivation in Icebreakers makes absolutely no sense. I'll give Icebreakers a generous 3/10.

Icebreaker had a limited budget. The production company made a heroic effort to make this film look big and for the most part succeeded. The number of extras, the explosions, car chases and wrecks, the fire fights and the entire ski lodge that was used for the set. In the end it was a hard shoot. The day time temps were sometimes 10 below with the wind chill factors. The film is worth a look if for no other reason than to see what dedicated film makers will go through to compete in the market place. It is also a pretty good escape film to just watch and enjoy.

Let me start off by saying I am a huge Bruce Campbell fan. Almost everything he does is great entertainment. Things that come to mind are Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, Brisco County, Xena, and even Jack of All Trades.So when I saw Icebreaker was playing on Showtime, I thought it might be fun. I was disappointed. I am no movie critic, so let me just describe the movie as bad. Now, some Bruce Campbell movies, like Evil Dead II, are so bad that they are hilarious, and that makes them good. Icebreaker is just plain bad. The plot is silly, the dialog is uninspired, and even the action is tedious, that is, unless you really like skiing and machine guns.It is a shame, because it looked like Icebreaker had a decent budget. I got the impression that about halfway through, everyone realized it was a dud, but they had no choice but to finish it. Next time, someone needs to read the script before they start shooting.

This is basically a low-budget version of Die Hard and similar action movies, although the setting this time is a ski resort and the hero is Sean Astin, in a part similar to the one he played in Toy Soldiers. It's very low-budget, so the special f/x aren't the best in the business, but they get the job done. This one would definitely fall under the "guilty pleasures" category, thanks to some entertaining scenes (especially a nice chase scene involving snowboards, machine guns, a gondola, and of course a trigger to a nuclear bomb). The other thing that makes Icebreaker a fun little watch is an entertaining performance by Bruce Campbell, as the Alan Rickman-like villain, although the character seems to have no motivation for his actions other than the fact that he's dying (of what we never find out), and he wants to take a lot of people out with him. Why it is that his henchmen go along with this is unclear, since they clearly value their lives. However, Campbell gets some funny lines and, as always, is fun to watch. The downside: a lot of the supporting characters (Astin's boss, a forest ranger/ sidekick) are supposed to be quirky, but often just get on your nerves. And the movie's damsel in distress (i.e., Astin's fiance) has one of the most annoying smiles I've ever seen. But overall, it's an entertaining, late-night-cable kind of movie, as long as you take everything with a grain of salt.