ICE - Parte 1

Effectively two movies masquerading as two episodes of TV, 'Ice' is not terrible and at times close to being good. It has all the right ingredients - big beautiful and well detailed sets, plenty of CGI of various qualities and a brisk energetic pace. At no point was I offended by its stupidity as the director Nick Copus emits an aura that he understands the purpose behind such entertainment.

What lets it down hugely however is its casting. Richard Roxburgh is terrible, and deliveries his lines like he has just stumbled into the studio after a thirty mile run. Frances O'Connor fares better and shows substantial better acting chops. Sam Neil is pathetic and forgettable. Ben Cross is passable and carries the scenes he is in along with the fantastic Brooke Williams and Claire Forlani.

The dialogue overall is the huge let down - overall it's some of the worst I've seen, largely because it is delivered so poorly. There was no talent in communicating with the actors/actress and the whole performance is compromised because of it. However it is difficult to deny that what remains of this is quite good fun if you focus on the eye candy and the visual splendor.

I love disaster movies, and weather catastrophe disaster movies :) This one is just fine. It's intelligent, well-enough paced, good special effects, and enough drama and excitement to keep it moving along. I think maybe people who were expecting something fast-paced with thrills and spills and all that jazz were probably disappointed. In fact, it's a fairly intelligent tv drama. There are kids in it, but they aren't at all annoying, the way most kids in disaster movies seem to be. There's a grandpa, and Ben Cross brings a likeable real-life-person quality to him, rather than being the folksy, taking it on the chin for the women-folk kinda thing. The Brits are good at this kind of movie, and they do it again here. I like the combined UK-NZ collaboration. There are a lot of NZ actors that we don't see enough of (I first saw Taika Waititi on Brokenwood Mysteries, for example!). I liked it. As opposed to other weather disaster movies, this one seems fairly realistic, and I didn't for one moment feel that this was something I could survive. Good enough for that reason alone ;>

This is based on a great idea, and starts quite good. the first half an hours is quite OK, at least for a mediocre grade here, but then it deteriorates fast.

It's full of both bad scripting, silly dialog, awful CGI and laughable ideas. The actors do their best, and there are quite a few great actors here, which is left with a ridiculous script. The longer into the miniseries the worse they struggle in doing their job.

The worst is the extremely bad CGI. Even the ice and snow doesn't look like anything other than styrofoam. Simply laughable.

Stay away, unless you have three hours to kill with less than MacGyver on DVD.

Despite a good set of actors most of the dialogue is laughable. The dialogue almost feels made for radio if you shut your eyes. This is Sharkado meets Day After Tomorrow. I did however sit through both episodes of this mini series. I did actually enjoy it but for all the wrong reasons. Special effect where "special" indeed. The acting was poor adding more humorous moments. A man battered by large hail stones lays unconscious/ dead with blood over his face and one of the main characters shouts " hey you ok?"

It's made for TV so lower any expectations, read the reviews and lower them some more and you may enjoy this. I am a furloughed worked with too much time on my hands so if your bored on a Wednesday afternoon then it will see you through till it's time to eat again.

I really wish I could give this more stars. It does start well but totally loses its way in unrealistic events and actions. Sam Neill is not convincing in this role, he simply grins, smirks and tries to look dastardly but it's classic cardboard cut-out stuff. Stephen Moyer is more convincing.

I'm doubly disappointed because I was an extra in this movie shot in NZ. I wanted it to succeed. For your information this was shot as a movie, but clearly the studio thought it was so bad it could only be released as a TV mini-series in the US and then straight to DVD. Extremely limited release as it doesn't work as a film.

Report for the director: needs to do a lot better and I agree with the previous reviews.