Icebreaker

I'm a sucker for a cast of known faces in a b-movie or such, but there's limits. 'Icebreaker' is an awful Die Hard clone that can't even do the formula justice as the main trio of names appear very little and then only to chew on poor dialog. It doesn't have the right pedigree to be a rewarding "bad" movie too.

Matt Foster (Sean Astin) is a Ski Patrol employee with a fiancée who comes from money whom the dad (Stacy Keach) thinks is not worthy of her. So what a break when a plane crash lands nearby the resort with stolen nuclear material onboard. Terrorist Carl Greig (Bruce Campbell) sends in his men to retrieve it before taking over the place as both the fiancée and her dad become hostages allowing Matt to save the day.

In a project I'd be surprised took longer than a week to shoot the story moves like a snail for the first two thirds. We're talking about needless scenes, characters, poor CGI and bad humor. Campbell in particular looks bored throughout. Rocking a bald head the most interesting thing about his character by far. Keach is playing a generic role and Astin is not believable as an action star. Try to suspend your disbelief especially when his stunt doubles take over later.

'Icebreaker' has a finale that is the best part by far, but not enough to salvage this. It made me think of better action flicks that take place in the snow like the opening to 'True Lies' or 'Die Hard 2' to hit the nail on the head. Largely a bore, people fawning over the cast overvalue how much these guys get paid.

The only way I will watch this movie is on Rifftrax. The comments are hilarious and are the only way this movie is good. Otherwise the movie is overly nonsensical and ridiculous, there's not even a cohesive plot.

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.

Ski patrol officer Sean Astin tries to save the day, his parents and his girl from an evil and deranged madman (Hollywood goof-ball Bruce Campbell) who has a nuclear device at a winter resort. Campbell leads some crazed terrorists in the venture and the only one who can save the group of hostages is the baby-faced Astin. Stupid and unintentionally hilarious venture for all involved as Campbell steals the show (as he usually does in sorry ventures) as a comical and bald-headed villain that will make you think of him as a very poor man's Gene Hackman from "Superman". Nothing really to recommend. Might have camp value for some, but that does not endear it. Turkey (0 stars out of 5).

First off, i cannot believe that ANYONE has recommended this movie and, OH YES, they have indeed. I caught this load of stink on network TV, luckily, not parting with any cash. It is TERRIBLE! The only redeeming feature of this movie is that it lowers the bar so much that Batteries Not Included may be resurrected and released by Criterion. I watch a lot of movies and some are bad, but if there is one thing that makes the viewing of a movie an awful experience it is feeling embarrassed for everyone involved with the making of it. PLEASE, do yourself a favor, if you are tempted to rent this or, God help us, buy this, or if it is on TV...READ A BOOK, GO FOR A WALK, WRITE A SCRIPT! Chances are if you are consulting IMDb for anything, then you could write, direct, and star in a better movie, much better, than this. Many compare this to Die-hard on a small scale, but that is a movie worth watching every few years, this is a movie that brings shame to low budget indie films. I love Bruce Campbell but you can't really do anything all that interesting with a horrible script. The fat hobbit is decent in films with great scripts. Do you see where I am going with this? A bad script is a bad script is a bad script and nothing can really make up for that, certainly not lame special effects and abominable acting. It does take place on a ski resort, and if you like ski movies that teeter on the fine line between trash and cult treasure, then I recommend watching Hot Dog The Movie. At least you'll laugh WITH the cast and enjoy the guilty pleasure of cheap titillation. My official scoring for this movie is 1 out of 10 because one isn't presented the option of 0 out of 10. Ed Wood would've relieved himself on this script before finishing page 10. If you are a filmmaker interested in learning everything you shouldn't do, watch it. Anyone else, including family of those involved, just pretend like it never existed and go outside and look at the sky for a couple of minutes, breathe in the air, and run your hands through the blades of grass at your feet.