Icebreaker

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.

Terrorists take over a ski resort in search of some "plutonium stolen from the Russians" that went down in the woods. Sean Astin, looking just as he did in "The Goonies", scampers earnestly around the mountain as a member of the Ski Patrol, spending most of his actual time running away from the machine gun-wielding intruders as they blindly shoot at him. His biggest concern is not the radioactive material which could incinerate the entire mountain, but the fact that he is late to a lunch date with his fiancee and her father, played by Stacy Keach. Chrome dome Bruce Campbell is the haughty leader of the terrorists, dying from some unspecified disease. Nice scenery, and a fairly exciting chase scene on skis, snowboards, and snowmobile, but what's the point?

This film is made by the same guy who made the infamous film, Time Chasers which was a great episode of MST3K. It is nice to see he continued to make films and to see that he has significantly improved since his time traveling film. I think he also did a large spider film that also was much better than Time Chasers. That being said, it is still pretty much a bad film, but it was a rather fun bad movie to watch as the film that is being copied in this one is Die Hard and maybe through in a dash of Cliffhanger.

The story has two dudes flying a plane with some sort of stuff on it that is radioactive. For some reason, the pilot decides to auger the plane down into the countryside; however, the other person who likes mango jam is still alive, that is until bald Bruce Campbell kills him! Soon, he and his super group of terrorist take over a ski lodge while Sean Astin finds the package the guy wants and he somehow has to save the day by not doing a very good job. Then again, the FBI guys do an even more terrible job trying to stop the terrorist and Sean is just a guy who finds people on the mountain and they are actual cops.

The film could have been better with more action, but the action scenes with the exception of the last one are short lived. Something you would expect from a movie that probably does not have a very big budget. Then again, who would expect them to be able to procure the talents of Sean Astin, Bruce Campbell and Stacy Keach? They are not just cameo roles either, they are all in this film a significant amount of time.

So, not that great, but still an entertaining film nonetheless. Still not sure what Bruce Campbell's ultimate goal was or if he was really as close to death as they made him out to be or if it was really his birthday. Also, not sure how they got power back on as they blew up one power station, sawed through wires and ripped wires out of a pole. I mean, a tree falls on the lines where I am and the crap can be out for seven or eight hours!

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.

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).