Ice (2011) User Reviews

If i could only turn off my brain

[dickster31 · 5/10 · 17 February 2012]

Well let me start of by saying that i like disaster movies and i can overlook some things that aren't realistic in those kinda movies,but this movie just asked to much of me. A ice age that starts from really hot sunny weather in england to -40 degrees in less then 48 hours.

OK i can look past that because i also did it with the movie Day after tomorrow,but the writers and director never ever heard of hypothermia and the effects that it has on a human body,because when people can walk around with jeans and a normal shirt and jacket and wearing no gloves for hours in temperatures of -40 degrees with only a case of really mild shivers just doesn't stick with me and my IQ and is just plain stupid,there is a scene where the climb a solid steel ladder in a elevator shaft with bare hands and it doesn't bother them at all. These are some of the stupid things that are happening during this flick but there are many many more highly illogical happenings that just made my mind spin.

I still give this a rating of 5 because the effects where pretty decent for a TV production,the actors did a OK job but try to shut off your brain,because mine started to hurt after a while.

Nipped in the bud

[fharrison55 · 4/10 · 14 November 2014]

I really wish I could give this more stars. It does start well but totally loses its way in unrealistic events and actions. Sam Neill is not convincing in this role, he simply grins, smirks and tries to look dastardly but it's classic cardboard cut-out stuff. Stephen Moyer is more convincing.

I'm doubly disappointed because I was an extra in this movie shot in NZ. I wanted it to succeed. For your information this was shot as a movie, but clearly the studio thought it was so bad it could only be released as a TV mini-series in the US and then straight to DVD. Extremely limited release as it doesn't work as a film.

Report for the director: needs to do a lot better and I agree with the previous reviews.

Distinctly average

[jamesnsuk · 5/10 · 5 January 2019]

For a start it's way too long. Couple this with some ham acting and a dodgy plot and it's easy to start to lose focus and let your mind wander. That said the production isn't bad, some of the SFX are a iffy but for a TV movie they've not done a half bad job to be fair. Overall though it's all very implausible so that causes it to lose credibility. It's a poor mans 2012 I guess.

If you're at a loose end for 3+ hours, knock yourself out. If you like dodgy tv moves, knock yourself out. If you have the attention span on a goldfish or detest cliches and cliched storylines then you're gonna struggle.

Too unlikely

[Vertikal-dk · 2/10 · 3 June 2012]

It's too bad that Ice fails so miserably on all fronts when it comes to being in any way convincing. The resources and the potential was there, but were so terribly misused.

While watching it tonight I found myself registering unrealistic scenarios and situations rather than watching it as the environmental thriller it was supposed to be. It seems to have had nice resources and both sets and effects are actually OK. Acting isn't great, but on the other hand not worse than seen in many other of these mini-series.

But the disaster and its results? A true disaster!

One single oil drill puncturing hot vents under the inland ice, which then melts in a matter of hours? Really? Has anybody ever looked at the amount of energy it takes to melt ice? The inland ice on Greenland being kilometers thick and the size of... well, Greenland. I'd say decades rather than hours, even with hot vents.

The inland ice cracking like an eggshell. Really? Again... it's kilometers thick. It doesn't crack like inch-thick ice on your local lake.

The legal consultant constantly being in the lab and on the drill rig in Greenland and not in some nice, warm office in the center of London? Really? A paper-pusher and desk jockey like her would never need to go there to do her job.

The boss of all bosses trying to drive the giant rig on belts out of the danger zone? Really? He might go there to be present during the crisis, but being able to operate the rig... hardly.

The professor and the legal consultant examining the ice (what's she doing there at all?) and then swimming under the ice to a nearby hole, and not only surviving that, but also being able to fight off the armed guy wanting to kill them, survive a fall over a cliff on a ski-doo AND walk back to the station through the snow storm at night. And the only damage is a pair of frost-bitten fingers - which get saved by an Asian scientist who BTW is miraculously present with a colleague and rescues them as they crawl "over the edge" of the inland ice. Really?

And that's only in the first episode.

In the second and final episode London freezes to minus 40 deg. C in a matter of hours and our heroes fly out of the Arctic and to England in a small one-engine plane in a constant blizzard, crash land (conveniently near the M1 just outside London) and crawl out of the shattered and burning plane - unharmed of course - all while the professor's family frees his wife who has been imprisoned in London for being an illegal immigrant, as an American citizen married to a Brit. They of course get trapped under the glacier forming as a result of the "instant ice age". Over them it threatens to flatten the whole building and covers it several floors up, while the same snow leaves the rest of London as a snow covered fairytale landscape with all houses visible. Of course they manage to burn their way out by breaking the gas pipes and setting fire to the gas - using the broken bulb in a flashlight. Really?

Meanwhile the professor and the lawyer are walking through snow covered London (in full arctic gear AND snowshoes. They crashed with a plane just before, remember?). The only people they meet shoot at them for no obvious reason. Really?

And finally the family slides down the snow on the side of the tall building, chased by an avalanche, but winds up right in Dad's arms. Happy reunion, all alone in London, the 7.5 million Londoners mysteriously gone. The clouds part, the sun breaks through. Let's go south. Really?

Really!?

Ice is simply so stupid, so exaggerated, so unlikely and so unrealistic that it makes no sense! The only reason I watched it to the end was to get most possible details for this review.

Too bad as I said... the resources were there, but were so terribly wasted. Save yourself the agony. Watch something else.

Disbelief

[orestegargaro · 1/10 · 9 May 2020]

This is some of the worst writing and directing I've ever seen.

Cold, frozen and mediocre...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 31 January 2013]

Well, with this being a TV movie in mind, then "Ice" wasn't actually all that bad. But it was no "The Day After Tomorrow" either, although it essentially is the same.

Storywise, then "Ice" did prove to be entertaining enough, although the movie was somewhat suffering from being predictable and stereotypical. But take it for what it is, and the movie is fun and enjoyable in itself.

Effect-wise, well then "Ice" doesn't impress. The CGI were adequate enough, but what made the movie suffer was the horribly fake movie snow that was used in almost all scenes that involved snow, and the equally fake ice walls shown in the crevasse. It was so fake that even a blind person would point a finger and laugh. Seriously, despite being from 2011, the effects were better than such even back then.

As for the people on the cast list, well they did good enough jobs with their given roles. People brought a good amount of enthusiasm and energy to the movie and their characters, which made the movie turn out to be more enjoyable.

A lot of the scenes towards the end of the movie was starting to become too much, especially the amounts of snow that apparently had fallen in record time, and the degrees that they said were outside, yet the main characters were able to withstand that cold in thin clothing, and not a single hint of ice on their bodies. It was like time was running out and they had to wrap up the movie fast and efficiently. And that just made it seemed rushed and not believable in any way.

"Ice" does manage to raise something interesting to think about, such as man's constant quest for fossil fuel, man's disregard for the ecology of the world in which we live, and the heartless nature of the corporate giants. If you are one of those environmental concerned people, then this movie does manage to plant a seed for thought. So "Ice" does entertain and leave you with something once the end credits start to roll.

Don't waste your time

[stevesutton-74951 · 1/10 · 18 September 2020]

As this movie is so poorly derivative of The Day After Tomorrow one wonders why they bothered making it. And that's about the only good thing you can say about it. The efforts of the actors are simply wasted in a torrent of poor scripting, poor direction, and an impoverished story line. The attention to detail is so laughable. At minus 40 degrees, where was the frosted breath to mention just one example amongst countless others. I can only assume that the funding for this came about as some sort of tax write off. A truly dreadful effort, which should carry the warning "Don't waste your time"

A Disaster of a Disaster Movie

[crumpytv · 1/10 · 10 April 2021]

Possibly the worst film I have ever seen. To ridiculous for words.

A film about global warming set 10 years in the future is never going to work.

Made in 2011 and set in 2020 the credibility date ran out almost immediately. If it had been set in mid 21st century then maybe it would have had more impact, but then more attention to futuristic technology would have to have been made. A customised VW beetle hardly makes things futuristic when the technology like phones and laptops and cars are pure 2011.

The premise that southern Europe is now a desert and that the UK is run as an immigration police state populated by racists seems just ludicrous. Remember, this film was supposed to be set last year!!

The action is dreadful. -40 and no hats, gloves and Raphael is in a Tee Shirt.

My wife says "it's so bad, its good." More like its so bad, its awful!

Not too shabby.

[asage19 · 7/10 · 10 November 2020]

I love disaster movies, and weather catastrophe disaster movies :) This one is just fine. It's intelligent, well-enough paced, good special effects, and enough drama and excitement to keep it moving along. I think maybe people who were expecting something fast-paced with thrills and spills and all that jazz were probably disappointed. In fact, it's a fairly intelligent tv drama. There are kids in it, but they aren't at all annoying, the way most kids in disaster movies seem to be. There's a grandpa, and Ben Cross brings a likeable real-life-person quality to him, rather than being the folksy, taking it on the chin for the women-folk kinda thing. The Brits are good at this kind of movie, and they do it again here. I like the combined UK-NZ collaboration. There are a lot of NZ actors that we don't see enough of (I first saw Taika Waititi on Brokenwood Mysteries, for example!). I liked it. As opposed to other weather disaster movies, this one seems fairly realistic, and I didn't for one moment feel that this was something I could survive. Good enough for that reason alone ;>

Don't bother, honestly, Don't bother with this one

[stevesutton-74951 · 1/10 · 29 August 2021]

Yes, as a disaster movie this lives up to its bold effort: It's disaster. Given that The Day After Tomorrow appeared some years earlier, you would have thought that the screen writers would have made some attempt to develop a successful storyline. But no. It's lazy, contrived, incoherent, improbable, and risible. With no character development everyone seems to shout orders at each other. It does boast a host of good actors, but we can only assume that they wanted some quick cash for an expensive holiday. I have no idea why I writing this as this movie simply doesn't deserve mine or anyone else's attention.

Good entertainment

[blrnani · 7/10 · 21 March 2018]

This film basically takes the hypotheses as to what can happen when the northern icepack melts and runs with them. We are already post 2020 and the rising temperatures in Southern Europe have already made those areas uninhabitable, sparking massive migration northwards (sound familiar?). And out of fear that services and resources will be overwhelmed, drastic immigration controls are imposed in the UK. So the Artic region is already under threat and to exacerbate this the Halo energy giant intends to drill to supply the world's spiraling energy demand. Richard Roxburgh warns that the drilling will speed up the melting and dump millions of gallons of cold fresh water into the North Atlantic, with dire effects on the Gulf Stream that warms the region. Sam Neill can only see things from his limited global energy perspective and employs talented lawyer Frances O'Connor to maintain the status quo. But in good ole 'big business' tradition, when she also starts getting suspicious, the fight gets dirtier. Being a hands on guy who limits the number of people allowed to be in on the dirty tricks, Neill is on the rig when the inevitable happens. The icepack cracks and melts, dumping all the fresh water, the Gulf Stream breaks down and a new Ice Age hits Northern Europe. Very ironically, the northern Europeans now have to migrate south, where the drought devastated lands will presumably be more amenable to human habitation once more. Amid the chaos, Roxburgh and his new ally O'Connor, hasten to reunite with his family, who have gone to London to free his wife, who was carted off by the immigration authorities (presumably at Neill's instigation). We have environmentalists who are studying polar bears and come to the rescue, London thugs who have armed themselves to exploit the situation, and a grandfather who makes the ultimate sacrifice to save the rest of the family. All in all it presents a convincing picture of 'what if' that is comparable to the film "The Day After Tomorrow", though arguably a lot more realistic, as it doesn't depend on abnormally extreme weather for its action, but simply a natural chain of events that have catastrophic consequences.

Awfully disappointing and misuse of good actors

[OJT · 3/10 · 21 July 2014]

This is based on a great idea, and starts quite good. the first half an hours is quite OK, at least for a mediocre grade here, but then it deteriorates fast.

It's full of both bad scripting, silly dialog, awful CGI and laughable ideas. The actors do their best, and there are quite a few great actors here, which is left with a ridiculous script. The longer into the miniseries the worse they struggle in doing their job.

The worst is the extremely bad CGI. Even the ice and snow doesn't look like anything other than styrofoam. Simply laughable.

Stay away, unless you have three hours to kill with less than MacGyver on DVD.

Truly Awful

[boozey · 1/10 · 11 June 2020]

I watched this and it was agony, a good idea and I like the apocalypse genre type of films but this is just very bad, acting, music, filming and especially the dreadful special effects. Please don't waste your time like I did

Roller-coaster ride for the frozen "green" brain

[fortean · 1/10 · 14 April 2017]

Leave your thinking-cap off. Whoever wrote the screenplay didn't have much of a clue about cold weather. As a Canadian, I doubt that these characters would be so immune to the cold on the Greenland Ice Cap and in "minus 40" (Celsius) weather, when London gets frozen over with ice.

A family struggles to get together, (by sheer coincidences, in most cases), with a crisis every ten to fifteen minutes, (for TV commercial breaks), and mindlessly finds a way to escape every peril, (whether an airplane crashes or a building collapses). It's "The Day After" and "Earthquake" and every other disaster movie, with every trope played out by a half dozen characters, again and again.

It's "green" propaganda at its worst. An oil company drilling rig searching for oil in Greenland knocks the Ice Cap into the ocean, stops the Gulf Stream Current, and begins a rise in the ocean level. Millions will perish, (as environmental disasters already have wiped out a few countries, by 2020); but, the important thing is this "family" being reunited. Oh, yes, and the polar bear researchers; let's not forget about them, (as, by coincidence, they come to the rescue, and provide an airplane, to keep this roller-coaster going), 'cause polar bears are an important part of the environmental propaganda.

SPOILER WARNING.

After two episodes, or one very long watch, one understands why roller-coaster rides only last a few minutes; it's not the need for toilet breaks, but the tedium that sets in after rounding the same track,again and again and again. Mercifully, (spoiler), there wasn't a family pet that needed to be rescued, (again and again); so I'll give this frozen turkey one star.

So bad it was good

[rtipping68 · 5/10 · 10 June 2020]

Despite a good set of actors most of the dialogue is laughable. The dialogue almost feels made for radio if you shut your eyes. This is Sharkado meets Day After Tomorrow. I did however sit through both episodes of this mini series. I did actually enjoy it but for all the wrong reasons. Special effect where "special" indeed. The acting was poor adding more humorous moments. A man battered by large hail stones lays unconscious/ dead with blood over his face and one of the main characters shouts " hey you ok?"

It's made for TV so lower any expectations, read the reviews and lower them some more and you may enjoy this. I am a furloughed worked with too much time on my hands so if your bored on a Wednesday afternoon then it will see you through till it's time to eat again.

Dreadful

[sunterj · 1/10 · 9 October 2021]

Crap in every way ... utter rubbish ... awful ... dreadful.

What a Disaster!

[irslartibartfast · 2/10 · 20 April 2022]

Ice, more than three hours full of disaster, despair and courage. The movie starts quietly; nice pictures of snow and, above all, ice. An evil company wants to make a lot of money by drilling for oil in Antarctica. The good guys, scientists of course, discover that drilling would be disastrous and would start a dramatic climate change. But the drilling licence is renewed and now the movie really starts...

I don't know how to explain what happens next, the story is becoming more and more ridiculous. Half way I am looking at a slapstick. Let me rephrase a scene and let it sink in:

The British Prime Minister is being informed that a huge disaster is developing in Antarctica.

"Mister Prime Minister, I very big disaster happens in Antarctica and is coming to the UK very rapidly. Look (showing a map of the world), large parts of Norway and Sweden already have disappeared! The sea level will rise many meters".

PM: "How many meters?"

"It least seven meters, mister PM".

"Immediately raise the water locks!".

"That will not stop the water Sir!".

PM (thinking ...): "Immediately transport everyone in the UK to higher places!".

"But Sir, that will not be sufficient ... the temperature will drop very fast too!".

PM: "How cold will it become ....?"

"At least minus forty degres Sir!".

PM (thinking...): "All right there is no other option: immediately transport everyone in the UK to the South of the world! We will leave no one unprotected in the UK!"

"But Sir we are talking about millions of people ....!"

PM: "Do your job man, you crhildren and grandchildren will look back at us as heroes".

The best scene is at the end of the movie (spoiler alert!). The UK is covered with tens of meters of snow, the scientist and his family have survived the most crazy accidents. They seem to be the last people in the UK. They are happy, however, and smile, walking hand in hand when the sun appears, the clouds open a bit and one can see some birds flying over.

Scientist (a tear in his eye): "Look! The birds are flying south, let's follow them".

The camera zooms out.

Wow...

A bit better than expected

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 28 January 2019]

ICE is a two-part disaster-themed TV miniseries made as a collaboration between the UK and New Zealand. It's set in the former and shot in the latter for the most part, and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW is a big inspiration. The viewer is treated to three hours of square-jawed hero Richard Roxburgh running around warning of the break-up of the ice sheets in Greenland, while the usual corporate types couldn't care less. This plays out in two distinct halves, with Sam Neill's venal businessman proving the villain of the first, while the second goes into full apocalypse mode. There's a lot of cheesy CGI here and a lot of familiar actors doing their thing; I found it a bit better than I'd expected, with plenty of incident to keep the pace moving along.

Climate comedy

[graham_j_crawford · 2/10 · 13 October 2021]

Polystyrene (PS) is a polymer made from the monomer styrene, a liquid hydrocarbon that is commercially manufactured from petroleum.

This show helped caused global warming on a 70's Dr Who budget. That's a record we don't need to break again.

An metaphor for a post Brexit Britain

[gwynmoses · 6/10 · 24 February 2019]

Although released in 2011, the breakdown of society and the brutality towards immigrants is prescient of what is happening in the UK as it heads towards Brexit, with the rise in authoritarianism.

On the subject of the film, it is an early one of a long series of environmental disaster movies with extreme theories of climatic Armageddon being used to good effect.

The characters are beautifully cliched, the ignored scientist, the corporate environmentalist who comes good, the evil corporate boss, bad oil company, the good wife, the petulant daughter, the rich grandfather, the nice Italian student: all rolled into cliched relationships.

Saying all that, it wasted a Sunday afternoon perfectly well, but it's not something to watch and rewatch.

Simply goofy

[Venom_81 · 4/10 · 6 December 2016]

Ice it's a sci-fi mini series about a future glaciation due to an exploitation of the environment from the mankind. Let's say the story , the script could be interesting, absolutely nothing new but let's say it's the better part of this series. Let's say that on this series there is an actor like Sam Neill (the only one who works fine) and others that are like Claire Forlani (that are absolutely embarrassing as actress definitely better as a model Who doesn't have to speak) so the cast in general is quite terrible. The directing seems quite OK for very low profile series and sometimes it's definitely bad like a south American drama of the 90's. It's a Uk series and you can feel it simply because all the word it's concentrated into the Uk and seems that exists only the Uk, no other nations if you are not considering just the poor immigrants from the rest of the Europe that wants to reach the Uk haven. Come on colonialism finished some times ago, seems a London and Uk style of life commercial. But what bother me more than all it's simply the stupidity of a lots of situations. A couple of examples.. The big frost arrived and all the airport in the north Europe close down, well our heroes takes a small airplane from Iceland and they are able to fly to UK. There is less 40 Celsius degree and there are people dressed as a sunny day in winter..no gloves, no wool bonnet, no scarf..and sometimes they put just a jacket over a Tshirt and they are just above 10 meters of snow. Crazyness. Visual effects are from quite decent to bad but I can say that on this series they are last of the problem. A poor cast, a poor direction and a lot of stupid situations create a recipe for a bad series. Probably the worst i watched in the last years

2020 a disaster, they were spot on.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 5/10 · 4 September 2020]

I can't lie I did skip through some of it, because at times it was agonising to watch. It felt a little bit like Flood, which had been done some years before, a disaster TV series.

It does have a very, very impressive cast list, Stephen Moyer, Richard Roxburgh, Simon Callow etc, they fight against the somewhat dubious script.

It is far fetched beyond belief, but it does have some nice special effects.

They get points for forecasting that 2020 was the year of catastrophe, they got that spot on.

It's watchable enough, 5/10.

What were these actors thinking???

[pgreinecke · 2/10 · 10 July 2019]

Gets two stars because the actors turned up, and there is some semblance of addressing the issue of climate change.

Dialogue and acting is appalling. And Roxburgh's English accent a joke. Why couldn't he simply have been an Australian scientist?

Cringe worthy.

Only for Greta Thunberg fans

[pilot1009 · 3/10 · 13 November 2020]

As another reviewer says a wicked waste of some really good actors on a story so full of holes there is nothing in between the holes. No science, no logic, and not much story. read a book instead.

Another global disaster

[sharpjohn · 5/10 · 26 March 2019]

So a promising film with to many typical p.c flaws, people falling for the obvious good guys bad guys, bad guys turning good blah blah blah,And on top of this a police state in the UK. Oh yes almost forgot the ice caps may melt.