An Indigenous game warden arrests a poacher who knows where a crashed plane full of cash is hidden. Hunted by criminals and corrupt cops, the two must team up to escape across a thawing lake.
What We Thought:
Icefall might have been a decent drama if it wasn’t one of the fakest looking films I have ever seen. I don’t know where they shot this movie, but the background looks fully AI and some of the special effects are terrible. When the plane catches fire and crashes is laughably bad as are all the muzzle flashes and other effects. It has some decent actors, but the look of the film lost me.
I’m not saying it could have been the next Wind River or Fargo, but for a movie I had never heard of, the story could have worked. We’ve seen similar movies before, but with Danny Huston, Graham Greene, Joel Kinnaman and others, the cast could have lifted the unoriginal story up. Criminals lead by Huston steal millions, it gets loaded unto a plane which crashes into a frozen lake. Months go by and Kinnaman finds a suitcase full of money that has an active tracker and leads the bad guys to him. A Native game warden is involved and her and Kinnaman try to escape the bad guys and survive the elements.
Yes it feels like a lot of other movies, but it could have been watchable. Kinnaman is a good actor and Huston is always a good bad guy. I just couldn’t get passed at how fake it was. The frozen lake was bad and the backdrop was even worse. If you told me it was shot on a soundstage and made in post I’d believe you.
Icefall is a movie you most likely didn’t know existed. I’m fine with that especially when you have actors in it that I like. Unfortunately I just couldn’t believe what I was watching. The look ruined the film for me and it was difficult to take seriously because of it.
The Nerds Templar 