Thursday, January 6, 2011

Movie Review: FROZEN

FROZEN
2010
R

You can watch the trailer here

If you watch the trailer, you'll see a review from Brad Miska from Bloody-Disgusting that says that Frozen "will do for skiing what Jaws did for swimming." I bring this up for two reasons. The first is that there's a number of references to that iconic film - a couple mentions in the actual movie, and then the production company is called "A Bigger Boat." The second reason, however, is that although I think Miska may be over-stepping it just a tad, he's definitely got the right idea about this movie.

The first scene of the film, which was directed by Adam Green, shows us Dan (Kevin Zegers), his best friend Joe (Shawn Ashmore) and Dan's girlfriend Parker (Emma Bell) as they're trying to con their way onto a ski lift. They eventually get on and spend most of the day riding the bunny hills because Parker isn't all that experienced of a snowboarder. As the day is coming to a close, the three are sitting in the lodge and Joe tells his friends that he wants to go for one last run on a "real" slope instead of the bunny hills, so the group makes their way to the lift. Through a number of errors from the grounds crew, the lift is shut down leaving our three leads stranded at night in the midst of an oncoming storm. As they try to decide what they should do, Dan decides to take matters into his own hands... I won't say any more because I'm anti-spoiler, so if you want more, you'll just have to watch.

Now, the screenplay isn't anything amazing, but to be fair, there's not a lot that can be done when your leads (and basically only actors on-screen) are stuck on a ski lift for seventy-five percent of the film, so you have to cut them a little bit of slack. However, it did just enough to keep me utterly fascinated with the goings-on of the movie. There's even a rather haunting scene where Parker describes her utter terror about her dog back at home (if you've got a dog or love dogs, that bit is going to make you think and be utterly terrified with your mortality). So they do a good job with the limitations they give themselves.

The acting is also good considering the type of movie we're getting. I wasn't entirely impressed with Zegers, but Ashmore and Bell are both very good in their respective roles. Considering we're relying on three people to carry us through the film, they have to bring at least a B-game or high C-game to keep us interested, and they do that at least. So kudos to them.

It's by no means a perfect movie, but Frozen kept me captivated for its entire 93-minute run-time. I couldn't take my eyes away from the screen, and that's saying a lot for a movie on a ski lift in some random mountain I've never heard of.


Movie Review Summary:
Grade: C+
1.5 Thumbs Up

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