Let me preface this by saying that I was trying something
new with the Sunday “Bad” Movies, and it never really gelled with me in the way
that I was hoping it would. I’ve taken
what I had done and moved some stuff around to make this writing. For that reason, this writing might feel a
little bit choppy or segmented. I admit
it because I can see that. I am sorry if
you feel like you are reading complete and utter crap this time around. It’s just how it is.
Ice Soldiers is a 2013 Canadian film directed by Sturla
Gunnarsson and starring Dominic Purcell, Michael Ironside, Adam Beach, and
Gabriel Hogan. It tells the story of a
scientist who seeks out Russian mercenaries in the Canadian north, fifty years
after the murder of a research team. He
discovers a deadly force that he must put a stop to before the world is in
danger.
This is not a bad movie.
It is well made, though limited by the constraints of Canadian
cinema. Canada simply doesn’t have the
resources of the Hollywood or Bollywood systems. Canada doesn’t even have the same amount of
quality of many British films. There are
standouts though. Ice Soldiers may not
be one of the standout Canadian films, but it holds its own.
The acting is good.
It doesn’t add anything to the material, but it also doesn’t take away
from the movie. The same could be said
for the direction. It doesn’t stand out
as bringing anything unique to Ice Soldiers.
There is no original vision or anything like that. It holds the movie together well enough,
though. And the action is
entertaining. Once again, it’s not
new. But there are fun little action
moments sprinkled throughout the movie that make the watch worth it.
When you look at the story of Ice Soldiers, it’s a story
that is very reminiscent of other movies.
The fact that it’s a Cold War threat in the modern day is a reminder of
all of the Cold War action movies from when the Cold War was occurring. The mercenaries look like they are part of
the Aryan race, which brings in the thought of Nazis, even though they are
Russian. And really, the entire story is
one man seeking answers for a crime that these Aryan Russians committed during
the Cold War. It feels like a modern
science fiction throwback that doesn’t capitalize upon the tropes and clichés
of those older films. It’s still
entertaining, but seems like a missed opportunity.
The reason that I decided to add Ice Soldiers to the list of
movies to watch was the name. The name
Ice Soldiers feels like a movie that would not be all that good. It sounds like some sort of B-movie schlock,
if there were still B-movies that ran after the big tentpole movies. The actual film is not all that bad, but the
name would make you think it could be.
The other big theme that it has with many bad movies is the
use of the Cold War and the Nazi-like bad guys.
Like many video games, people making lesser movies like to use Nazis as
a bad guy because they are the most universally hated group of people in
history. It’s easy to hate Nazis after
everything that they did during World War II.
The Cold War is an easy way to provide a sense of fear and
paranoia. That’s not to say that these
two elements are only used in lower quality films. Raiders of the Lost Ark uses Nazis as the
primary antagonist, and X-Men: First Class uses the Cold War as a setting. But there are many bad movies who use these
elements to create an easy antagonist.
A recommendation of Ice Soldiers would depend upon the
person I am talking to. Ice Soldiers
does not redefine the science fiction or action genres in any way
whatsoever. There are many derivative
moments throughout the movie. So I
definitely wouldn’t recommend it to people who are looking for their movies to
be completely original and unique. But
it is a fun little movie if you want a movie that will keep you busy for an
hour and a half. I would recommend it to
anybody that’s not expecting or needing a high intelligence action/thriller
that moves the science fiction genre forward.
There are, of course, some notes before we finish up here:
- Benz Antoine, an actor in Ice Soldiers, was in a movie covered in the Sunday “Bad” Movies called Death Race.
- Ice Soldiers actor Camille Sullivan was also in The Marine 3: Homefront, a movie featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies.
- Another Canadian movie that probably didn’t deserve to be in the Sunday “Bad” Movies is Repeaters.
- If you have any recommendations for future movies to be featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies, feel free to suggest them in the comments or tell me on Twitter.
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