Ice Quake DVD Blu-ray Movie Review
Ice Quake DVD Blu-ray Movie Review
Directed by Paul Ziller. Starring Brendan Fehr, Holly Elissa Lamaro, and Jodelle Ferland.
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The two leads in this movie, Brendan Fehr and Holly Elissa Lamaro stand out mainly due to their names — him, I think of as an amalgam of Mummy movie vets Brendan Fraser and Oded Fehr; her, can't help but want to remove the "r" from her last name — and that's not necessarily a good thing. Fortunately, the cast is sprinkled with a few recognizable faces (Jodelle Ferland, famous as the "little girl" from a slew of big screen horror movies; and Victor Garber, who's been in a million things, but perhaps best-known as Jack Bristow on TV's Alias).
I don't recall having seen anything by director Paul Ziller before, but judging by his body of work with the SyFy Channel (with awesome titles like Stonehenge Apocalypse) I am sure I must have at least channel-surfed to a few of them.
Ice Quake isn't one of the SyFy Channel's classic mutant monster movies, but it squeaks by and into the genre with its "nature strikes back" themes and a few bone-cracking death scenes. It starts off promisingly, showing a snowboarding Santa Claus in Alaska very nearly falling into an impromptu chimney tunnel of ice. We start to see the ripples of destruction from there, knowing that pretty soon the ice-laden mountain is going to give.
Cut to our Nuclear Family soon-to-be in peril: The Websters (Fehr, Lamaro, Ferland, Ryan Grantham). When Michael (our skiing St. Nick, and a high-ranking military geologist) is called in to work on Christmas Eve, he's met with a winter of discontent from his wife Emily and their kids, teen Tia and little Shane. The work call turns out to be critical, as it's regarding investigation of fatal explosion… Michael's friend and co-worker was killed in a freak accident, and so he takes his family into the fray with him, where they wind up in big trouble. The action switches back and forth between the evil elements, and indoors in labs and secret government conference rooms.
The special effects are impressive, given that this is a SyFy Original (and, that it's not a monster movie in which creatures must be created). The Blu-ray makes a difference, showing even the ice crystal off in their best light. The moments of suspense are fine; certainly nothing here setting Ice Quake apart from its permafrosted brethren of natural disaster TV movies, but it's worth a look if you're in the mood for a new, fast-paced outdoorsy thriller. (Victor Garber, in a small role, clinches it.)
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reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson