Ice Angel

Am I a girl? I am a 31 year old male, but just recently films with a strong emotional base seem to have my British stiff upper lip trembling all over the place.

Has (in a strange parody with this film) a girlie girl figure skater possessed my body with the sole intention of applying the water works to my eyelids? It appears so, because this film really had me choked up with emotion, it was great.

Make no mistake, this film is a bit of a turkey, and when I say a bit I mean a Christmas dinner that can feed a small nation, but none the less there was something about it that made it impossible to switch over.

Matt Clark the strapping captain of the U.S.A. Olympic ice hockey team, meets a premature demise but is returned to earth in the body of Sarah Bryan, a U.S.A. Olympic figure skater.

We start out with the usual gender bender clichés as the bewildered Matt tries to adapt to the body of a young and beautiful woman, but it is when this former 6 footer starts to take figure skating seriously the film starts to come into it's own.

Nicolle Tom I feel plays her part so well, even adapting her walk to be consistent with that of a male hockey player, which of course is in direct contrast to the thing of beauty she undoubtedly is.

I was really surprised with myself when in the final scene, I found myself cheering at my TV with the rest of the Olympic crowd with layers of built up tears in my eyes. It was fantastic though. A real feel-good moment.

When I think of how soft I seem to be getting lately.....I could blush really.

The biggest problem with this film however was the ending. There was no fanfares or fade outs, not even those silly little captions explaining what happened next. There was nothing. It just stopped dead. As dead as Matt Clark himself.

There was so many lose ends the audience was so desperate to see tied, like any further interaction between Matt's 'widowed' pregnant girlfriend and his best friend, who had both figured out that their former comrade and pal was locked inside Sarah's body.

Maybe just one outward reference to it would have put the icing on the cake. But sadly we are left hungry.

Well to recap, the film is enjoyable although it's not that good, the ending will excite you and then disappoint you in the same minute and I'm a big sissy girl, who can't keep his emotions in check.

And I'm going to end this review in the same style as the film where by I am going to......

No this movie isn't the best I've ever seen, but it is cute and has a unique story line.. The tie ins and ending of the movie are great even if slightly predictable. I would recommend this movie as a sit at home no date Saturday night movie, just for the fun of it.

I went into this film expecting pure schlock... and it delivered in that area. From chasing the angel around the table to the "guy walk" all the way through the movie, from the oogie-oogie to the oy-oy (you just have to see the flick to understand) there was no schlock opportunity missed.

But that's okay. Because in addition to that this film presented some very unexpected emotional moments as well as being a good lesson in ethics and figuring out what matters and what doesn't. There were heart-clencher and tear-jerker moments and even once (just once) when they got an actual laugh out of me. That was more than I expected.

Unfortunately, if I'm going to be honest I can only rate it 6 stars. That is admirably above my 5-star "just mediocre" score... which gives it credit for delivering more than expected. But there were three major flaws: 1) corny 2) highly predictable and 3) sloppy no-effort ending. I can forgive the corn and predictability, but not a sloppy ending. It's like the writers and director got lazy and decided to just drop the story in the audiences lap. Without spoilers, the final plot concept has no sensible reason nor any forecasting throughout the film. The director drops it on us like a bomb... and that's how it hits. It is writer and director stupidity at its worst-- sheer laziness. "Okay folks, we hit our 90 minute mark. That's a wrap!"

This was like a Disney after-school movie with a little more heart thrown in and for a more adult audience. If it had a better, more sensible ending I'd have no problem giving it a good, solid 7 stars. But the ending stunk and cost them in this review. Had the rest of the film been less enjoyable it could have cost them a lot more, but I actually enjoyed the film. In the end game, that's about as good as one can say about any kind of entertainment.

I saw this movie on Channel 5 while flicking through to see what was on, and normally, if a program is absolutly terrible I'll get up and leave to do something more productive rather than sit there and suffer.

This film kept me seated though. I found it slightly hilarious and it had a pretty funny plotline which kept me captivated for the length of the film.

A little bit cheesy, yes, but it was entertaining. I gave it a 9 out of ten for a nice afternoon movie that didn't make me cringe with boredom or cheesed off with rubbish jokes.

A nice little film with good acting by Nicholle Tom.

I myself thought that this film was great and witty too, its one of a few movies that Tara Lipinski (an Olympic Gold medalist) has appeared in but hopefully more to come because she is a rare talent and i think that this movie was really good. see ye Carol