A Idade do Gelo

Well, after the relative fail of a marketing bluff such as The Day After Tomorrow, I think it is time to concede some merit to this cheap, earlier movie that, in my humble opinion, developed a much more convincing story about a new Ice Age. Just wonder what could have be done with THIS script and The Day After Tomorrow resources? I simply must say that I felt much colder watching at this movie. The loneliness of the characters, some believable fights for the survival... all of this made the characters convincing and the whole story acceptable. Besides, this movie just was interested in COLD, and not in POLITICS. Quite entertaining. I rated it a 7

I saw Ice on June 12, 2004. Shortly after that I started seeing ads for DAT. I thought maybe DAT was a remake. Was I ever wrong! 'Ice' is much more like a rough draft, and DAT the finished product. I had the pleasure of seeing DAT August 4, 2004. 'Ice' reminds me of the good old days of disaster films, like Poseidon Adventure. Very hokey and extremely low budget! Was PA actually low budget? Who knows? Who cares? It also seemed like 'Ice' had a mixed language cast, so some people were dubbed and some people spoke English. There seems to be some made for SciFi channel/ German connection. Maybe their actors don't charge as much?

Enjoyable to watch if you have really NOTHING better to do! 'Ice' should absolutely be included in any list of disaster movies if you are a disaster fan.

The movie was decent. We've seen these end of days, ice age flix before. This one was even better than some of those. Sunday afternoon with nothing pressing, it's a good watch.

I recently saw ICE on the Sci-Fi channel and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. The writing is superb. The characters are unique and believable within the science-fiction disaster context of the rapid cooling of the atmosphere.

Several scenes are extremely similar to scenes in THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, in particular the final scene with the president, and using books to fuel the fire. Tiny details are what make a script work, and this one is chock full of them, the interplay between Officer Drake and his ex-wife and current girlfriend, the ex-wife's new husband, Greg, an intellectual who cannot accept the loss of civilization, the various people met along the way as established order breaks down and as the characters fight for one last hope of survival. The scene in which Officer Drake convinces his girlfriend to join the others rather than stay with him (and presumably die) is extremely moving. This film is one of the best character studies in a disaster context I have seen. All the characters are vivid, three-dimensional portrayals, bickering, arguing, conniving, negotiating, being courageous and self-sacrificing, and ultimately depending upon one another for their survival.

My only disappointment with the film is that the producer decided to dub Udo Kier's voice to give his character a more American accent. This is a deep flaw in an otherwise tremendously satisfying film. Udo Kier is a cult-film hero, and his voice, as sibilant and Germanic as it is, is a pleasure to the ear. "Kistler" sounds German enough to justify a German accent, so why the dubbing?

The big surprise? This is the very first "made-for-cable" movie I have ever watched start-to-finish. Granted, there wasn't much else on the other 130 channels this particular evening, but these SciFi Channel productions are generally so tedious that I'm gone before the first commercial break. This turkey DID have a few redeeming features: an attractive (physically) cast; acceptable computer effects; and spritely pacing (for a Cable feature). Yes, I know the plot holes were far too frequent and there were far too many uncalled-for characters, but I'm a sucker for "end of the world" genre and this one was only marginally worse than Armageddon. 2 1/2 stars out of 5 (5 out of 5 stars for a SciFi Potboiler).