AWESOME Find Right Here

All right, folks....
No need to beat around the bush. Here's an excellent little movie I found the other day. It's one of those gems that I didn't think would amount to much until I actually sat down to watch it.


Check this out.

Frozen (2010)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1323045/


Netflix description:
Three friends hit the slopes for a weekend of skiing and snowboarding. But when they convince the chairlift operator to let them take one last run before closing, Parker (Emma Bell), Joe (Shawn Ashmore) and Dan (Kevin Zegers) find themselves stranded in midair, alone and freezing. It'll be days before anyone returns to the slopes, and their chances of survival are looking slimmer by the minute. Adam Green directs this taut thriller.


Indeed, I LOVED this movie. Let's get that out of the way right now. This one here is a "buyer" for me -- a flick which I'd be willing to BUY on DVD. I've been encountering an alarmingly low number of such movies in recent years, so Frozen was a welcome surprise.

The concept is simple: three typical college kids (two dudes and one chick) get stuck on a ski lift for two days. See, in the beginning, they're just on a little weekend vacation, dealing with your normal early 20-something issues and looking for a good time. Ho-hum stuff, really. In fact, I found these young fellows to be kind of generic and uninteresting for the first half hour of the film. They're just regular college youngsters -- the kinds to which I (frankly) cannot usually relate, since I spent my own college years alone in the basement at the home of my parents, downloading adult materials and obsessively reading Dostoevsky, instead of getting girlfriends and partying in the company of others. Yes, I consider much of my youth a lost opportunity....


Anyway, things get interesting for our heroes in short order. See, they convince an absent-minded lift operator to let them squeeze in ONE LAST run down the hill after skiing action for the week has closed on one fine Sunday evening. The girl kind of flirts with the guy; he's easily charmed; and he agrees to hang out for a little while longer for the trio to return.

Needless to say, one thing leads to another, and the ski lift operator dude has to leave his post. Things go awry (as they often will in these situations), and soon enough, our three main characters find themselves stuck on the totally deactivated lift. The chair stops moving, the lights go out, and they're left suspended, like, 200 feet in the air.


The severity of this predicament becomes apparent when our heroes realize that the ski lodge will be closed for the next several days. No one is going to come back in the morning to turn the dang lift back on. WHAT DO YOU DO, hot shot???


Well, at first, our heroes bicker and panic. Fighting ensues; the girl cries, the guys yell at each other, and yada yada yada. Of course, the moment eventually comes when one of the dudes freaks out and tries to jump down. Turns out that was a BAD idea, since the area is populated by wolves who promptly devour the dumbass when his legs snap like twigs and leave a bloody mess upon impact with the ground. Youch.

What follows is some highly intense, really QUALITY, drama and suspense. WHAT will our remaining two heroes do???


Now, my main problem with this movie was the issue of the wolves. I've read in the past that wolves will go out of their way to avoid humans and, in fact, there has been NO recorded incidence of a wolf killing a human being in the United States in well over 100 years. Really, there's little or no reason to fear these noble creatures of the forest....

UNLESS, of course, you're a totally incapacitated, bloody wreck of broken bones and exposed innards lying helpless on the ground in the northern wilds. As I have learned from extensive research since seeing this film, there's a chance that the wolves really WOULD kill you in that particular scenario.

So, Frozen clears my main doubter hurdle. What other reservations about the film do I have then?

None, actually. It's just really, really good.


Friends, Frozen is just a really well-made movie. The suspense is expertly handled, the acting is top notch, and the pacing is perfect. I was drawn in for its entire run time, and actually watched the film a second time right away upon completion of the first screening. Heck, I even checked out the special features content that includes interviews with writer-director Adam Green (who is, I think, a real talent that ought to be watched). This is what it's all about -- a simple, but compelling, concept that has been executed with skill. It's the stuff that good movies are made of.

Frozen's characters overcame my initial apathy by the time the third act rolled around, and I found myself caring about their fates. When (what amounts to) the Final Girl eventually winded up attempting to crawl her way through the wilderness to safety, I actually HOPED that she'd make it, and not be ripped to shreds by the blood-thirsty animals lurking in the trees nearby. This is in contrast to how I feel about the victims in most other horror flicks -- usually, I will hoot and slap my knees in amusement when I see a bland film character get brutally killed. And the sicker the method, the more I chuckle.

However, that wasn't the case with Frozen. I LIKED these folks. And, lemme tell you -- Emma Bell, the actress who played the "Final Girl," deserves to go on to great success. She's poignant and likable and believable here. I am now officially a fan.


What a great movie. Frozen reminds me of Open Water, another incredibly simple story of regular people caught up in a nightmare disaster scenario that could conceivably happen to any of us. However, this new entry is much better. Open Water was a little boring at times, whereas Frozen keeps our attention all throughout.

Plus, this film raises awareness of the hazards of skiing, a sport that I have never understood. I mean, skiing ranks right up there with horseback riding as an unnecessary, dangerous elitist athletic activity that murders good people. Friends, STOP SKIING! PLEASE!!!


Anyway, I recommend Frozen highly. While most viewers might not QUITE get the enjoyment out of it that I did, I'll still stand behind this film's quality, and predict that everyone ought to at least consider it worth the 90 minute investment. Frozen is an example of the kind of innovation and technical prowess that makes for a genre-refreshing release. I wish I had been the one to make this movie. I'd be proud to say it was MY idea, and MY production....

Adam Green, you brilliant bastard, I am jealous of you.

5 out of 5.

b.