La Fureur du Yeti

Upon arriving at an Arctic research station looking for the reason for the previous' crews disappearance, a team of hunters find the few survivors claiming a legendary creature is responsible and try to stop them from getting loose in order to get away from the base alive.

This one was overall pretty enjoyable. One of the better features is it's rather interesting take on a Sasquatch film, as this one decides to incorporate a little-known aspect of the legend about the Chinese variation being to live in the snow allowing this one to really play around with some new environments. The ability to blend into the snow and during the heavy storm going on at the same time makes these pretty threatening creature since this one has them popping out whenever they're not expected, which is definitely a great plus here and makes the film a lot more exciting. There's also some rather fun action scenes later on that that are plenty enjoyable, and the blood and gore are what's to be expected in a Sci-Fi Channel film. The main problem with this one, as mentioned earlier it's a Sci-Fi Channel film so expect the usual level of CGI, is that despite being billed as a Sasquatch film and mentioned within the dialog of the creatures' true identity, the decision to remove the humanoid basis and turn them into more like mutated polar boars is a curious one, as they move and act like so rather than of the more human-like variations that should've populated the film. Otherwise, this one was pretty enjoyable.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.

An expedition team on an Arctic island are terrorised by some sort of legendary Yeti creatures, so a rescue team is sent to locate them while also completing the task of retrieving a valuable artifact. Talk about a snoozer! After watching a Syfy original ("Black Forest"), I decided to watch another; "Rage of the Yeti". Downright lacklustre and plodding. Not much to stare at and a lot repetitive action. Outside the silly combination between the leads David Chokachi and Matthew Kevin Anderson, not much fun occurs. Still I got to hand it credit because the acting (the likes of Yancy Butler) was acceptable and it never took itself seriously, but everything else less so. The underwhelming CGI quality was expected; lazy and terrible with hokey monster designs and poorly staged action. The clichéd plot was inconsistent and uninspired with many stupid and bland inclusions. It was very much a stop and go affair despite its tendency to rush through things with poor explanations. The structure just doesn't come alight and the script is beyond tawdry. Lame, dull Syfy original.

"Can you capture one for a million dollars?"

I do dislike most of SyFy's movies, but I do get some novelty value out of watching them and I also see if they actually do make something worthwhile. Although a vast majority of SyFy's movies range from bad to bottom-of-the-barrel, they have made a small handful that are tolerable if still flawed, with The Lost Future being the best they've done. I do agree to some extent that the previous negative reviewer was too harsh, especially with only judging its quality after just 20 minutes, as it wasn't as diabolical as all that.

However, I didn't think it was a good movie, SyFy have certainly done worse, you're lucky this wasn't another Titanic II, Quantum Apocalypse, Camel Spiders or Alien vs. Hunter, but that is excusing the many flaws I feel this movie has. The photography and such are not as dull or as slipshod as SyFy can be with their production values, but there is nothing exceptional either. I admit I liked the monster, it was an attempt at an original thought and it was interesting with some menace. The special effects are not great, with the yetis more reminiscent of mutant polar bears.

By all means, they(the effects) are not as crude as the ones in Mega Piranha for instance, but they have a tendency to have a rushed look to them in the big set pieces, such as in the helicopter explosion. The script has one too many cheesy lines and ones that flow awkwardly, and the story is structurally thin, ridiculous at times, never really thrilling and feels like snippets of their previous movies strung together going at a very frantic pace. Plus anybody interested in animals and geography will bang their heads on the wall once they hear the film's explanation for the yetis being in the Arctic rather than in China.

Consequently I didn't feel anything for the characters, they felt in general bland and like the typical stereotypes that are frequently in SyFy's movies. The acting has been worse before and since, but it is still not good. Jonas Armstrong is a nice presence and the leads are quite earnest, but Yancy Butler(though she looks beautiful) and David Hewlett can't make up for the fact that they don't have much to work with. In fact, that could be true of the whole cast, it's pretty much running in snow, trying to battle off the yetis and "rescue the chopper" mumbling. All in all, a bad movie in my opinion, but I can think of worse ways to waste my time. 3/10 Bethany Cox

As this is being written it is just over twenty minutes into the movie (including commercials). So far there have been numerous technical errors, an utterly stupefying plot, poor CGI, and a complete lack of acting ability; and those are the high points.

The movie does have three notable things about it.

• First, it is a well advertised SyFy movie feature on Saturday evening, so you know before it starts that it can't be very good, and you can keep your expectations low.

• Second, it took well less than ten minutes to confirm that the previous point was correct.

• Third, David Hewlett did not exactly repeat his Dr. Rodney McKay character from the Stargate series. What he did provide were a few scenes shot in a day or two so that his name could be included in the movie.

The only reason to watch this movie - once - when you have absolutely nothing else to do, is so that you never have to watch it again in your life.

And, for those who think that twenty minutes is not sufficient time to form an opinion about this garbage; the rest of the movie was, if anything, worse.

Another low-budget Syfy feature, better than most due to some humorous interplay between the leads; David Chakochi and Matthew Kevin Anderson. Face it, like most Syfy feature movies, it suffers from a lack of money, so the CGI is primitive, the cast is made up of lesser-known actors, and the story isn't the strongest.

I'm a big fan of low-budget productions, they test and hone the skills of the entire crew. When they manage to overcome the limitations and produce something that is entertaining enough to sit through an hour and half, I consider that a credit to their abilities. This movie passed that test, maybe not with flying colors, but good enough so that nobody associated with this movie should be ashamed to have it on their resume.

Along the way, they managed to pay homage to other, bigger successes in the genre, notably references to the Stargate franchise and Farscape. Good enough!