Sub Zero (2005) (V)

Director:

Jim Wynorski

Writers:

William Langlois (writer)
Jonas Quastel (writer)

Release Date:

6 September 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama

Tagline:

The fate of humankind is only a slip away.

Cast

Costas Mandylor	...	John Deckert
Nia Peeples	...	Kelli Paris
Linden Ashby	...	Soloman Davis
Michael Sunczyk	...	Mike Foster
Jim Thorburn	...	Mike Frazier
Colin Lawrence	...	Pete Tanner
Jacqueline Samuda	...	Sasha Mirov
Mike Dopud	...	Dr. Petrov Jenko
Zoran Vukelic	...	Ivan Salatka
Michael Ryan	...	General Martin Cook
Alistair Abell	...	Lt. Charles Brill
Dalias Blake	...	Officer McCoy
Michael Kopsa	...	President James Jordan
Tim Henry	...	Sec. TJ Stocker
Bruce Dawson	...	Sec. Roger Banks

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence.

Country:

Canada

Color:

Color

Certification:

Netherlands:12 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Avrio Filmworks

This frozen dinner needed more time in the oven

Sure, look at the cast, look at who directed, know it's a straight to DVD release and figure the couple of bucks to rent it is a gallon of gas not in your tank. But go with the gas in your tank than the gas coming off the screen. This is just a variation on the 'Cliffhanger' story of an expert climber who loses a female climber to an accident, gives up climbing, then is coaxed back up by circumstance. In this case it is over some gimmicky Rubik's cube device that's sitting atop K2 in the Himalayas (as played by a Canadian mountain stand-in and played well). Mandylor and Peeples and a few others are hired by the President to get their butts up that mountain and retrieve that cube before the clock ticks down and it fires up satellites around the Earth to destroy the world (which is absurd since no satellites have the ability to fire laser beams that would destroy entire cities). Nia Peeples still looks good and does well as a feisty fellow climber. Nobody else makes an impression (unless you enjoy the humorously thick Natasha accent of one of the Russian climbers). There is some decent avalanche footage and other location shooting that gives the film some authenticity (none of that horrible process screen or computerized imagery). And the big finish had some good elements but it was all but killed by the stumbling direction and suspenseless score. Too bad. But I looked at the cast, and I looked at the director, knew it was a straight to DVD release, and I spent my money... so what was I thinking?