L'aventurier du grand nord

If you're after a Nielsen comedy, don't bother. His role is a mundane supporting one and lacks his usual comedy genius. Unfortunately, the performances and plot he supports is lifeless and average. The dogs don't even contribute.

Chilly Dogs AKA: Kevin Of The North is about a young travel agent named Kevin Manley (Skeet Ulrich) in Canoga Park who receives an inheritance in Alaska. He promptly quits his job and heads up north to to collect on what, no doubt, will be a large sum and he will no longer have to worry about finances again.

Upon getting to Alaska, he learns of a clause his grandfather put in his will (tired cliché anyone?) and has to participate in the Iditarod Dog Race to prove his is man enough to accept his grandfathers inheritance.

There he meets Clive Thornton (Leslie Nielsen), a beautiful young blond (Natasha Henstridge) and the town bully (Lochlyn Munro). All three have their own reasons for wanting Kevin to fail and, thus, he must overcome many obstacles just to make it to the race itself. I'm not sure why I'm spending so much time on the plot, itself, it's merely there for the jokes but that's the surprise. Lately, Lesley Nielsen movies have been pretty darn unfunny and while this movie is not that good, it is pretty funny. Leslie's character Clive was the funniest with his snide comments that you have to be paying attention to to catch. Easily the funniest character in this movie and much better than his next movie Men With Brooms, which was horrible no matter how you look at it. But don't get me wrong, it's no Naked Gun either- far from it, but it gets the job done.

Natasha Henstridge plays Bonnie Livengood, whom they later find out their grandfathers had a horrible history with one another, which hurts their relationship as well. Natasha plays the lead female here very well and I enjoyed her performance in it.

Skeet Ulrich, as Kevin Manley, reminded me so much of Matthew Broderick with his voice, it was amazing, albeit unintentional I'm positive. However, I have never seen him in the clown role before and I think he did fine, considering Will Ferrell or Jim Carrey probably were not in the budget for this one (It's always been a dream of mine for Carrey and Nielsen to make a movie together).

Lochlyn Munro played Ned Parker, the town jerk. He was all right here but could probably be cast better. He didn't seem like a real threat to Kevin at any point and every time I saw him on screen I couldn't get his scene with Julian (John C. McGinley) taking a bath with him in Wagon's East out of my head.

Given the circumstances and what I was expecting to see (explains why it sat on my DVD rack for almost a year) I was pleasantly surprised. 7/10

This is a rip-off of Snow Dogs minus the charm and the charisma. Everyone involved seems to be going through the motions. This is another throw away movie. Don't waste your time! TRUST ME!

This comedy arrived during a recent snow storm. Right off the bat, we realized this movie was not going to break any new ground, or that it's nothing more than a funny attempt to let us spend almost two hours watching the shenanigans of this unlikely hero. Once that is out of the way, this film, directed by Bob Spiers, hit the spot.

Not only that, the famous dog race was happening at the same time Kevin, Bonnie, Carter, Clive Thornton were also going up North to Nome in the movie! There are some good moments in the film that make the viewer laugh.

Skeet Ulrich, as Kevin, makes the best he can with the material he was given to play. Natasha Henstridge, is Bonnie, a girl from a rival family that was an enemy of Kevin's pioneer grandfather. Leslie Nielsen is not as effective because his villain is not fully realized. On the other hand, Rik Mayall is a mean and ruthless Carter.

The best of the film, the Iditarod race. Kevin put together an assortment of cute dogs that turned out to be the winning team in the movie.

In the Canadian film industry, it's rare to come across a Canadian movie made for theaters that wasn't funded by the government, KEVIN OF THE NORTH being one of those. Actually, in this case the movie was *intended* for theaters, but it doesn't seem to have received a theatrical release. And that is the only smart decision made with the making of this movie. It certainly does not look theatrical-quality, with many scenes looking pretty cheap, due to a number of obvious short-cuts on screen. Skeet Ulrich manages to make an utterly obnoxious and stupid character even *more* obnoxious and stupid as it was written in the screenplay. Leslie Nielsen just goes through the motions, and Henstridge doesn't try at all. But the biggest fault of the movie is that it is remarkably unfunny. Oh, there are a couple of gags that made me (slightly) smile, but the rest of the attempts of humor consist of gross gags, people falling and slipping up, and punchlines you'll see coming long before the director reveals them. Not recommended, unless you want to see an example as to why most Canadians wouldn't be caught dead watching a Canadian film.