Moose: The Movie – review

Making a movie is a hard and expensive process that takes long hours and loads of teamwork.  It is impressive to see local Alaskans work so hard to make a project that is better than most Syfy channel movies. The Carpenter brothers have made independent films before but not one so “community minded.” Moose: The Movie has the help of many folks from throughout Wasilla and has created a unique fictional town that could rival Mayberry or Green Acres for colorful characters.

Moose: The Movie begins with the native tale of a Moosetaur (a half-man and half-moose) that is banished to the underworld. When two campers disturb the totem pole, which acts as a seal to the underworld, the Moosetaur returns to the small Alaskan town of Gangrene Gulch and begins a killing spree. It’s up to the local deputy and a coroner’s assistant to solve the murders and dispatch with the ancient evil.

The movie is beautifully shot and has some great nature photography. The cast gives you their best and they are clearly able to express themselves comically. The writing is fun and has a charm that that crackles with sparks of wit.  The colorful characters make it an entertaining movie and the tight editing gives it almost cartoonish timing.

My only complaints are fairly minor nitpicky reviewer stuff like small continuity errors. Since this is an extremely low budget movie it is free from a lot of that criticism. They get what they can work with, and the end product is nothing to be ashamed of. If there were one minor thing I would change it would be to remove at least one of the two pairs of bumbling comic relief.

Alaska, this is YOUR movie. Enjoy it. The locals are having fun, the humor is not malicious, and it is clearly a labor of love. If you are from Alaska you should definitely see this movie if you can. If you aren’t from Alaska you should still see it for some good humor and to see that even on a low budget a good movie can be made.

The Frozen Ground – review

The Frozen Ground is a 2013 thriller set in Alaska, 1983. The film is about the hunt for serial killer Robert Hansen.  It does a really good job following the true crime novel Butcher, Baker.  The acting is really good and it adds to the grim realism of the film that they filmed a great deal of it in Anchorage and other Alaskan locations.  The Frozen Ground pays a lot of attention to detail to make it look like the dirty, gritty, Anchorage of the 1980s.

Cindy Paulson, played by Vanessa Hudgens, escapes Robert Hansen, played by John Cusack, after he raped and nearly killed her.  The police do not help her. Jack Halcombe, played by Nicolas Cage, figures out that her case is tied to a series of missing person cases.  Hansen is taking women, raping them, and then flying them to the middle of nowhere and hunting them with a high-powered rifle game. Halcombe must find a way to bring Hansen to justice before he can kill again. 

The acting for The Frozen Ground is what makes it stand out.  Vanessa Hudgens gives a decent look at her vulnerable side.  Nicolas Cage gives us a lite-version of his performance from 8mm; fun and believable.  The person that really is amazing is John Cusack who is chilling as Hansen.  He is creepy and plays a very realistic psychopath.  The rest of the cast also fills their roles nicely making for a very enjoyable movie.

The story is decent, however it is a by-the-book police procedural.  It doesn’t bring a lot new to the genre. There are also some strange filming choices.  Clearly the filmmakers loved Alaska because there are tons of establishing shots of landscapes.  

Then there are odd scenes added like a shot of Vanessa Hudgens starring at a moose that walks close to her.  At one point I wondered if it just wandered into the shot in mid-town Anchorage and they decided to keep it in the movie.

The Frozen Ground is an interesting movie.  If you are fan of true crime or thrillers it is worth catching. The movie is certainly creepy and has a cold vibe.  If you have been or are from Alaska it is worth seeing since many of the locations are ones you will be familiar with.  I recommend it to anyone wanting to see something a bit different and see Cusack and Hudgens playing a role that is different from their normal roles.

The Fourth Kind- review

The closest thing to an alien in this movie.

This movie is so stupid.  Why for the love of crap would you have a movie about alien abductions where you do not show an alien?  Hell, I would have even taken a cheap ploy like in the film “Contact” where the alien turned out to be the woman’s father.  It’s lame but it works.  The closest thing you get is an owl with coloration that gives it a slight alien appearance.  Ooh scary.

As if that wasn’t bad enough the film makers work their hardest to make this movie out to be some sort of authentic movie by having the actress Milla Jovovich come in the beginning and break the fourth wall telling the audience how frightening and real the events are.  Intertwined between this is “Real” footage, audio and video clips which are supposed to give the film authenticity.

There is a huge flaw to this and that is that it’s all BULLSHIT! The people in the “Real” footage are actors. Universal Studios had to settle out of court for making fake articles and obituaries to promote this movie.  Anchorage Daily News writer Kyle Hopkins even investigated some of the validity this movie and found nothing to be accurate. 

The only thing slightly true is this: There was a string of disappearance in Nome.  Around 20 folks disappeared so the F.B.I got involved and determined that alcohol and cold temperatures caused their deaths.  This happens more often than you think in cold, isolated areas.  9 of the bodies were never recovered.  That is a big stretch to jump to the conclusion of U.F.O. abduction. 

Now I have no problem with Hollywood bullshit.  But when a movie tells you its true because the movie relies on it being true so heavily for its shock value then it really is a cheap thing to pull.   Now apart from that it still has a lot of problems.  The movie is terribly slow and the writing is so poor it comes off as filler.

I wet the bed!

There are a few jump scares and they are so-so.  Milla gives a performance that is too good for the material that she is dealing with.  Honestly this movie could have been so much better if it had gone two other ways.  If it abandoned the PG-13 idea and went full on R mode and made the alien appear and made it sadistic, cold, and terrifying in its abductions.  That would have been worked.  The other way would have been to make it a documentary style where it was told interview style as if they were discovering footage as it was happening that way they wouldn’t have to get rid of a lot of the original script but they could at least tighten it up with interviews and more information and U.F.O. footage.

All in all it is a lame attempt to cash in on an unexpected fear and the ignorance of the location by folks who don’t want to look up the facts.  Its probably will get the same draw to people who enjoy silliness like “30 Days of Night”.  Except where that movie has some fun to it now and again this one is a stone cold snooze fest in the guise of a horror movie.

Frost Bite-review

Get ready to be terrorized by this beast Alaska.

Starting with the fact that it’s a movie about a Sasquatch made in Alaska with Alaskan actors and with a tiny budget of low-end equipment $76 and a bag of stale Cheetos according to the “Tundra” website. Normally, you wouldn’t expect a lot. Hell, the syfy channel does movies about Sasquatch regularly and they suck royally.  But if you take a moment and actually watch this movie I think you will appreciate it for what it is.  It’s a damn, funny and well put together movie.

            In most cheaply made movies, the things that stand out the most are the acting, the pacing, and the editing.  The acting at least seems to match the scripts needs and calls for nothing less than what you get.  Good humor with decent timing.  No more, no less.   The pacing is actually great.  Most movies would bog you down in exposition and pointless scene after scene of filler.  This one doesn’t waste your time.  It gives you the story and it gives it well.  Thanks.

All images for the movie "Frost Bite" stolen off the Tundra website.

            The editing is where it stands out. There are tons of scenes in lovely bits of wilderness and we get beautiful shots of some flora and fauna.  But what really makes this work are the smooth transitions and the fact that it really comes off as professional.  The humor is dark.  But the subject matter is too.  If that is what you find funny as well you will enjoy it.  There are a few off the wall moments that I appreciated greatly as well such as Darin Carpenter appearing as a great white hunter character for a few minutes of comedic gold. 

            It’s the sort of project I enjoy watching and showing to others.  I hope so much they get a chance to make another movie soon.  Film making, is an expensive and time consuming endeavor but when the results produce such cool results I think that it is so worth it and hope that they get support in the future.  If you want to see a copy of it visit: http://www.tundracomics.com/content.asp?CAT_ID=98 to watch it chapter by chapter. It is very worth it.