RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Inadvands Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

tomsview If you have watched a lot of horror movies over the decades, especially all versions of "The Thing", you know that when you are in the Arctic or the Antarctic you just don't dig things out of the ice. It's nearly as dangerous as taking an alien pod on board your ship in deep space. It's the first step towards the end of mankind.In this case a team of scientists investigating global warming, dig out a woolly mammoth and transport it to their remote lab in the Canadian Arctic.Of course the mammoth, and a dead polar bear they also take back to the lab, are hosts to parasites that have been released as the arctic ice shrinks back. In the best tradition of the genre, the bugs lay eggs; lots of them. Well, Al Gore did warn us.There is a bit of a backstory to the eight characters who find themselves in danger of infestation including the troubled relationship between Dr. Krupien (Val Kilmer) and his daughter Evelyn (Martha MacIsaac).Although "The Thaw" met with generally icy reviews, I think by the middle it really starts to deliver the sort of frission you hope to get from this kind of film. There are a few predictable bits: the guy who is set on self-preservation at the expense of everyone else including his girlfriend, and those who nobly sacrifice themselves for the sake of the others, but as the tension mounts you forget the cinematic je devu.The location on the tundra is superbly desolate, and although the special effects are not on the scale of a James Cameron movie, they produce more than one wince inducing scene – I'll never look at a meat cleaver the same way again."The Thaw" had me going quite a few times. It's a bit preachy on the global warming message, but you could do worse than track this one down, although it may make you think twice next time you go to pull a steak out of the freezer.

mich-leclair There is a dullness to this film that leaves one exhausted and somewhat irritated. The art direction is quite dull. The dialogue is repetitive to the point of being dull. The characters are extremely boring--one might even say dull. As a matter of fact, after viewing this, I had a tremendous urge to watch "Mr. BLANDings Builds his Dream House." Don't know why. Honestly, after hearing the actors yak for about a half hour, I found myself saying aloud, "Oh why don't you shut up!"Fans of poor choices will love this film. Others, not so much.

J Lowry I'm so glad I didn't have to pay to watch this mess. It was "offered" as a free video on demand option, gee I wonder why... All but a couple of the characters have zero redeeming qualities. Clearly Val Kilmer did it for the paycheck. I'm a big supporter of the "suspension of disbelief" factor of movies, but they went way over the line. There is no way Bart would have been able to be lucid and just physically able to help anyone after having his arm cut off with a meat cleaver. And no way would Evelyn be able to shoot down a helicopter with that antiquated rifle. Federico (who thought up THAT name??) was a way too stereotypical douchey frat bro, and Atom (again, THAT name??) is just flaccid. Edward kind of reminded me of M. Night Shyamalan. The dialogue was painful to listen to, I had to fast forward to preserve my sanity.

bowmanblue 'Thaw' is basically a warning against global warming where, because if the polar ice caps melting, a woolly mammoth's body is discovered an unfrozen. Bugs are unleashed from its corpse which then set about infecting and killing your average bunch of American teenagers who always seem to end up in these sorts of situations.Thaw seemed like a bit of a remake of 'Cabin Fever' due to it having a group of dopey teens in a secluded setting, turning on each other as they don't know who's definitely infected and who's not. However, where as Cabin Fever had a fair share of humour to its gore, Thaw plays it straight.That's not to say that Thaw's a bad film. It has its plus points - the bugs are well animated (as far as inch-long beasties can be) and there are some nice moments of gore to keep those with a strong stomach happy. The film goes along as you'd expect. Sure, if this happened in real life, we'd probably do something different, but, luckily for the plot (and bugs in many ways) the group of teenagers contains a prize chump who seems to choose the wrong decision at every turn (which results in another death or amputation).Thaw is no classic (it has Val Kilmer in it after all), but there are worse horror films out there (like most of the studio 'After Dark's' output). Don't expect too much and you may enjoy it.