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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Beckinsale steams up the screen in this frigid thriller
The studios seemed unsure on how to market this movie and the punchline of being the coldest movie ever filmed hardly inspired confidence in the Antarctica-set thriller and the movie quickly vanished from movie screens. That it did not get an audience could also be explained by the fact that the film never quite identified itself in its marketing material. Was it a...
Published 6 months ago by Darren Harrison
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69 of 85 people found the following review helpful:
Kate stays bundled up...well, most of the time
I didn't quite know what to expect when I sat down in the theater today to watch Whiteout. The trailers led me to believe it would be some sort of supernatural type film set in Antarctica, but I wasn't really sure if it was just the weather that would be the evil force or some sort of creature. It was none of the above. Whiteout is really just a typical thriller/mystery...
Published 11 months ago by Monkdude
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69 of 85 people found the following review helpful:
Kate stays bundled up...well, most of the time, September 12, 2009
I didn't quite know what to expect when I sat down in the theater today to watch Whiteout. The trailers led me to believe it would be some sort of supernatural type film set in Antarctica, but I wasn't really sure if it was just the weather that would be the evil force or some sort of creature. It was none of the above. Whiteout is really just a typical thriller/mystery that happens to occur on the coldest land mass in the world. It involves some murders back in 1957 and few more in present day that Kate's character investigates. Within the first ten minutes you get the gorgeous Kate Beckinsale stripping down to her undies (always a good thing), but I didn't expect that to be the films only true highlight. Other than her obvious use in that particular scene, I can't believe they casted a good looking woman only to cover her up from head to toe and in multiple layers for the last 90 minutes. Not to mention a giant snow hat on her head. Anyways, most of the acting was okay I guess. Kind of bland, but nothing noticeably bad.
Whiteout is actually pretty darn entertaining if you take it for what it is and don't expect anything special. It deserves better than all the negative reviews it is receiving from the critics, but I have to admit that without the early gratuitous scene or the atmospheric location, I probably wouldn't give this thing more that two stars. You might get a couple of shivers from this one, but those looking for some true frostbite should stick with John Carpenter's The Thing.
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20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
Murder in a Very Cold Place..., September 19, 2009
"Whiteout" is an implausible but enjoyable thriller set at the South Pole. In its opening sequence, set in 1957, a Soviet cargo plane carrying a mysterious cargo goes down somewhere in Antarctica. In the present, the Amundsen-Scott Scientific Station at the South Pole is preparing to rotate out its summer crew and batten down for the winter darkness, just ahead of an approaching storm. US Marshal Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) is preparing to depart, along with her doctor friend (a grizzled but amiable Tom Skerrit).
The discovery of a body on the ice triggers an investigation that leads in short order to an old Soviet scientific station, another dead body, a killer, and the Soviet cargo plane, minus its mysterious cargo. Stetko is assisted in her investigation by the doctor, an aircraft pilot (Columbus Short) and a UN Security Officer (Gabriel Macht). The group, almost inevitably, becomes trapped in an evacuated station with the killer or killers.
Stetko, traumatized by betrayal in a previous assignment told in flashback, finds she can't trust anyone in her present. The action sequences inside and outside the station work well, moving the audience quickly past some plot holes and cold weather implausibilities to a twisty ending. "Whiteout" isn't going to win any awards, but manages to be moderately entertaining. Canada does stand in for the Antarctic with some stunning exteriors.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
More entertaining to watch myself freeze to death..., April 9, 2010
Seriously.
Walk into a freezer and sit there for a couple hours. It'll be more entertaining and less painful than Whiteout.
Predictible, uncreative, unresearched, inconsistent... Kate Beckinsale IS hot, but her performance was unconvincing. I'm a US Marshall, but every time I see a dead guy I have a flashback every five minutes - her character was sent to Antartica for a REASON -> that reason is because she's S-T-U-P-I-D. "Why are there bullet holes in the plane?" "How come the pilots stopped breathing?" "Why did the plane rittled with bullet holes and with both of it's pilots dead crash?" "Is it possible for ANY surgeon or medical person to have been trained to give stitches in the same manner?" "Why does my kitties breath smell like kitty food?" That's about the depth of the MYSTERY in this movie.
Tom Skerritt was actually the best performer in the film - and that says something. Respect to Tom. Infact, I'm tempted to end myself right now the same way Tom did... by saying, "Duces to this lame movie! I'm going outside to freeze to death rather than participate any further is this farce!!!!"
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Beckinsale steams up the screen in this frigid thriller, February 21, 2010
The studios seemed unsure on how to market this movie and the punchline of being the coldest movie ever filmed hardly inspired confidence in the Antarctica-set thriller and the movie quickly vanished from movie screens. That it did not get an audience could also be explained by the fact that the film never quite identified itself in its marketing material. Was it a paranormal thriller? Was it a horror movie? Was it a psychological thriller? The truth be told it was none of these and was probably closest in structure and narrative to a western.
The plot revolves around a research station in the Antarctic that is prepping for a hibernation period where a skeleton crew keep things runnning through the Antarctic winter. A body is discovered on the ice and it is down to a U.S. Marshall (played competently by the always watchable Kate Beckinsale) to piece together the mystery of precisely what happened. The mystery is tied to a missing Cold War era Soviet Union plane that crashed into the ice decades earlier, which is shown as the movie opens, and the mysterious cargo on board.
Many complained that the movie makers covered the lithe, beautiful Beckinsale in many layers, but this criticism was hardly a valid one. The star strips down to her underwear within moments of her appearance on the screen but the scene is not gratuitous and is not graphic. For the rest of the movie necessity has her all bundled up but this is in keeping with the nature of the frigid weather which is a character unto itself in the movie. One quickly understands why the movie is set in the Antarctic for the movie uses the inhospitable climate as a mechanism with which to ratchet up the suspense and claustrophic feeling of the production.
Overall a satisfying thriller that surprised me in how much I liked it. I had expected to be bored by it but found myself entertained.
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13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
Neo-Noir on Ice is Nice....it's de-Litefully right, January 22, 2010
Atmosphere as the title star always gets me. Soundstages and Canada look great as Antarctica. Pretty picture has Kate Beckinsale and Tom Skerritt as part of it's very slick production. Action-mystery in the style of a horror-mystery from 30s to 50s. Story is weak but thriller-lite ...which might bother many; but Dark House Films exist at this B level, and do it well. The bottom feeder in all of us are their target. 30 below, stuck in the snow, mystery in tow with a hot cop and script to go. Graphic Novel inspired
BD looks and sounds great but intentionally soft and mild with power moments. Overall; good looking
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Entertaining and suspenseful (up to a point)., February 19, 2010
This was an entertaining and suspenseful movie and we enjoyed it. But well before the ending we both figured out who was the missing villain and what was in the plane that was so valuable.
The setting of the South Pole for this action mystery made it worth watching just for the views and conditions.
If you are looking for the ultimate suspense thriller then you will be disappointed. If you want perfect acting then you will be disappointed. If you nitpick over details or accuracy, then skip this movie.
But if you want a somewhat suspense thriller set in a very unique location then you might enjoy this movie.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
great movie, February 7, 2010
this is a great suspense/thriller movie. there was great acting, and it had a very good story line. it's about a lone u.s. marshal in Antarctica, and she finds a dead body and now she has to race against time to find the killer before the last plane takes off before the massive storm. the only thing i didn't like about this movie is the fact that she was the only law enforcer there.(not even close to being true)
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Didn't work, May 6, 2010
Kate Beckinsale, Tom Skerritt - cool setting but it adds up to near nothing. Even the basic script was decent but the execution took care of that. A lot of poorly and overdone CGI didn't help much either nor did the actual cause of everything add up. Or the storyline - which in parts was silly.
In total a really bad movie in a nice package. Kate and Tom could do nothing to salvage what was or wasn't there.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Below average film, non-reference BD in every way, January 17, 2010
I am a big fan of Beckinsale so this was a tough review to write, but I suppose this was an even tougher film to sit through.
The story follows a US Marshall in Antarctica as she leads an investigation into murder, betrayal and a 50-year old Russian mystery cargo crashed into the ice. I have screened it in the store for a couple days now and most of the feedback centers around all of the weather mistakes and bad CGI clarity on the BD. Has not been a self-promoter so it is not being shown anymore. The picture clarity is decent during the non-motion interior shots, but the majority of movement scenes are either out of focus or non-reference. The exterior CGI scenes (almost all of them outside of the several flying scenes) have prevalent green-screen lines and the lighting makes for an obvious stage set. Try not to look in any of the goggles because they usually give away most scenes (sun reflections during whiteouts, etc.) and try to ignore the makers' attempts at keeping the audience aware of Kate's face in the snow (one scene shows hot coffee instantly freezing but she can keep her face unprotected in the same whiteout/scene for a few minutes). The TrueHD gets used intermittently during wind storms and the one crash sequence shootout and landing. The supplements are average and include:
* Coldest Thriller Ever, 12:02 minutes. Covers the filming locale in Canada and how cold it was on set. Kate looked beautiful in her interviews, was almost a before/after contrast between the film and here.
* Storyboard to screen, 12:05 minutes. Not a fan of this one but if you like the board docus you will dig this.
* Deleted scenes, totals 4:14 minutes. Would have helped with two of the 40 plot holes this film had, especially at the Russian Base and her day to day investigations she talked about.
* Disc 2 is the Dig Copy, for Windows and Mac (except in Mexico)..?
Not a recommendation for Blu or for the movie, and being there are only three or four points of landscape clarity - could only give this a few stars.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A Whitewash, July 15, 2010
Man, this was one, long tedious movie. You've probably read all the other criticsms, and I agree with them. I gave it two stars instead of one because (1) it had the semblance of a plot, and (2) I was surprised toward the end as to who the bad guy was. I also liked the "heck with physics" part:
POSSIBLE SPOILER! POSSIBLE SPOILER!
You're after a guy who is trying to escape by plane. You get there, and he's gone: somehow he got by you and was headed back from whence you came. Reminds me of an MST-3K laugher (Wild Rebels), when the cops set up a roadblock but somehow forgot about one of the roads (easily seen by anyone). How did that guy get past them?
OK, I'm going to mention the nudity part. What in the heck did that add to the plot? Why is it this young lady straps on a gun but would rather run from someone than use it? Does she have no hand-to-hand combat training? And the whining...
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