Ice Road Terror (2011)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

High octane horror film that takes place on the hellish frozen landscape the ice road truckers travel. Loaded with mining explosives, the drivers are challenged by much more than the ice beneath them when a prehistoric creature rises from the frozen waters to threaten their very existence. As they fight for their own lives and those of their comrades, they must find a way to survive both the brutal cold and the monster that stalks them. Director Terry Ingram does exceptional work with an intelligent screenplay by Keith Shaw in depicting not only the incredible heroism of these adventurers but their humanity and zest for life. A superb cast gives incredibly effective performances and as the story progresses, we grow to care for these flawed but magnificent individuals. The on location shooting is beautifully done and the intense suspense and excitement builds to a fever pitch of intensity. A rewarding motion picture indeed.

Awakening from beneath the ice at a diamond mine in the Arctic, a vicious prehistoric creature runs rampant through the area that leaves a pair of truckers and a geologist as the only ones to stop it before it destroys all around it.On the whole this one was quite a decent creature feature. One of the better features here is the usual amount of action scenes throughout here which has a great effect on this one in giving it a rather enjoyable pace. The fact that this one gets a lot of these scenes together is what works so well as the action starts in rather quickly with the mining excavation uncovering the creature and its' subsequent rampage across the work-station being an incredible opening as the creature charging through camp, slashing through bodies and wrecking the equipment creates a lot of great times to get this one going. The other big action scenes here are just as fun with the big one being the chase against the tankers out on the ice-road which is quite thrilling trying to use their truckers' tactics to get away with while the main factor of the film's action here is the big attack on the house. There's a lot of fun to be had from these attacks as it breaks through the barricades to get at them which is what generates the suspense and forcing them to find new ways to defend against it. This action also allows it the opportunity for a bit more gore than expected, as the opening massacre is basically ripping bodies apart while those at the house are a lot more varied which helps this one out with it's positives. There's not a whole lot here that hold it back, though they are pretty big. The biggest one here is the fact that there's very little about it's creature that works here, as there's the ever-present atrocious CGI that's present here for the creature that looks really bad throughout here. The digital pixilation for it during the attacks are quite obvious, and the fact that it repeats actions from elsewhere in the film that don't really match-up to their surroundings as well as changes dimensions constantly which throws it off even more. Likewise, the fact that it's origins are so confusing about what it really is and where it came from is all given away in one single throwaway line from a panic- stricken individual who never gets to finish it to provide the final clues. Beyond this, the only other feature here to drag this down was the unnecessary romance building at the very end when the point had already been made that they're attracted to each other which stops the film cold at that point. Otherwise, this one was quite enjoyable.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

Seeing Ice Road Terror was not that mind blowing. The film actually had decent acting, somewhat good action, and a simple plot. But overall it was nothing special.This film is basically about a company up in Alaska that awakens a prehistoric predator "dinosaur". A couple truckers then try to take hazardous materials up to the area where the beast is, not knowing that it exists.I actually thought the human characters were good in this film. They really seemed like truckers and were characters you could get behind. Also the girl who was the scientist was pretty good too. Surprising because usually in movies like these the humans are all cliché.The "dinosaur" in this film is weird in that it really is a big lizard. I do not know of any predatory dinosaur that runs around on four legs. It was pretty standard CGI for this beast and it got some decent action but nothing special.The story is pretty easy to follow.I thought that I got tricked because they showed a carnataurus on the box and some dvds even had a tyrannosaurus on them even though neither of those dinosaurs are in this film. The only creature in this film is the giant lizard. So I don't know why they had to false advertise this film.Pretty standard SYFY film. I do not strongly recommend it, but it isn't bad either. Watch it on a rainy day.

I did expect something worse than what I got with Ice Road Terror, though that is not saying much. It is a pretty rubbish and ridiculous movie, but I do think with stuff like Titanic II, Mega Piranha, Alien vs. Hunter, Almighty Thor, Super Tanker, Quantum Apocalypse, 2010: Moby Dick, Battle of Los Angeles and The Apocalypse that SyFy have done much worse.Although the bad outweigh the good, there are some assets that are halfway decent, some nice scenery, a likable enough performance from Brea Grant and the cabin sequence, which tries hard to give the characters some credibility.On the other hand, Ice Road Terror is a rather scrappy looking film, scenery aside. The editing is hackneyed and doesn't make much sense going from one scene to another, and the monster graphics while not as bad as other efforts from SyFy look very cheap. Not to mention the CGI, especially with the truck sliding and skidding over the hole in the ice, which look very half-baked.The script is terrible, with very cheesy and repetitive dialogue further disadvantaged by wooden line delivery, and the story is predictable with one too many ridiculous scenes such as how the monster actually managed to get on top of the truck and the idea of a monster having a 7th sense. Pacing is another issue, nothing much engages making the film seem dull, and some of the more action-y parts have a rushed feel to them. The characters are bland, despite the cabin sequence's best efforts, any character development is too brief and too late, while the monster is lacking almost completely in menace.When it comes to the acting, I liked Grant, but didn't care at all for anybody else. Again, I've seen worse, but the acting generally comes across as forced to me. All in all, I've seen worse, but a few decent things aren't enough to save Ice Road Terror from being rubbish. 3/10 Bethany Cox