TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

John Brown This is a confusing film that makes very poor use of an all-star cast. Widmark, Redgrave, Sutherland, Bridges, Lee and more plod their ways through a story which has little explanation until the very end, which is reached after far too long a time.None of the cast seem very enthusiastic, and much of the action is of the 'fast and furious' type, accompanied by loud music, often adopted in films with little to really shout about. The majority of the film makes little real sense with people being killed off but no one doing much about it except, of course, the hero played by Sutherland. People race around over the snow, over the ice and over the water, making maximum use of assorted vehicles, but to what purpose ? In the end, it's just another story about those pesky Nazis doing what Nazis always do - hiding in the shadows, murdering and stealing. Yawn ! It's 2 hours of very underwhelming and, frankly, largely boring stuff, made all the worse by the ridiculously overblown casting.Worst is that I'll never get those 2 hours back.

Leofwine_draca BEAR ISLAND is one of those tough '70s thrillers with an all-star Hollywood cast and a novel behind it (this time by the then-popular thriller writer, Alistair MacLean). It's a virtual reprise of Agatha Christie's AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, with a group of characters assembled on a remote island and whittled down one by one by a mystery villain.Of course, with such productions half of the fun comes from seeing all of the familiar faces and there are plenty here. Lloyd Bridges and Richard Widmark head up the older generation, while Donald Sutherland and Vanessa Redgrave are the fresher faces. Christopher Lee has a minor role as a character whose sole purpose for existing in the film is as a red herring, and Barbara Parkins looks lovely.Unfortunately, BEAR ISLAND turns out to be a rather dull and stodgy production, despite the cast and the suspense inherent in the premise. In essence, there's a stash of Nazi gold hidden somewhere on the same island as the characters, and some of the group members are secret Nazis out to get their hands on it. What it all boils down to is a lot of talking, a lot of walking, and one of the dullest ski chases ever put on film. Director Don Sharp cut his teeth in the Hammer stable with the likes of KISS OF THE VAMPIRE, but unfortunately this is one of his weakest productions; the crisp Arctic photography is about the best thing in it.

TheLittleSongbird I had heard that Bear Island was not a good movie at all, but I wanted to see it anyway because I like the cast a lot. When I eventually saw it, I didn't find it great, but it was much better than I expected.Pros: Lovely photography and great sets and locations. Atmospheric score by Richard Farnon. Great performances from Richard Widmark and Christopher Lee, Vanessa Redgrave has her moments but has an inconsistent accent. Sharp and well paced direction.Cons: As much as I love Donald Sutherland, he does look bored and stiff here. The dialogue is uneven, having moments when it is decent but some of it is really quite bad. The story has great idea and starts and ends well, but the film is rather sluggish with some of the middle section feeling like filler.All in all, not great, not awful, just somewhere in between. 6/10 Bethany Cox

udar55 German scientist Otto Gerran (Richard Widmark) leads an expedition to icy Bear Island - which was also a base for Nazi U-boats in WWII - for some kind of environmental research. Included in the group are fellow scientist Frank Lansing (Donald Sutherland), nurse Heddi Lindquist (Vanessa Redgrave), Russian Lechinski (Christopher Lee) and boat captain Smithy (Lloyd Bridges) among others. When they arrive at the titular location, the group discovers one of the three folks stationed there has gone missing. Before you can say TEN LITTLE INDIANS, folks start getting offed in an effort to hide the island's secret. This is a pretty enjoyable action-mystery adaptation of Alistair MacLean's snowbound novel. The cast is all game, which is good as this must have been a hell of a production to shoot as 70% of it looks shot on location (Alaska and Canada). Director Don Sharp keeps things moving fast and, while you'll probably solve most of the mystery early on, there are still some nice twists. The production is nicely mounted, with great sets and some nice Bond-esquire snow chases. One great scene has Sutherland discovering a German U-boat and he finds the dead crew aboard it, shackled to their posts. One interesting thing my friend who sent this to me pointed out is that this totally has a vibe of John Carpenter's THE THING. Now, of course, THE THING is a remake but I'd wager that film's screenwriter Bill Lancaster or John Carpenter saw this before setting about their version. The opening - where a lone guy runs across a snow-covered plain while being chased by a snowboat - sounds exactly like the opening of Carpenter's film. Look for Bruce Greenwood in his first big screen roll as Tommy the Technician, sporting an epic beard.