This disaster flick gets an A for effort; but falls real short in the entertainment category. Some of the avalanche scenes, that weren't repeated, were impressive. The acting left a lot to be desired. Two brothers Thom(Adam Croasdell)and Jock(Andrew Lee Potts)Cussler try making a living taking tourist on adventurous snowmobile rides up and down the slopes in the Ural Mountains of Russia. An avalanche covers a small village causing Thom to risk his life in saving buried townsfolk including his brother. Air and time are running out as this lumbering snowbound drama finally ends. Also in the cast: Jessica Kate Brooks, Kate Henry, Plamen Manassiev and Nikolai Dodav.
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michaelRokeefe29 October 2005
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battlerarity19 March 2010Nature Unleashed: Avalanche is one of those films that you can occasionally see playing on the Syfy channel at around 2 AM, rounding out another marathon of disaster (both figuratively and literally) movies. If you have trouble sleeping at night, and happen to be up whenever this flick is playing, give it a watch, and I can almost guarantee that you'll soon be out for the night.
Not to say that NU:A doesn't have moments of sporadic entertainment (especially since the titular menace behaves in an eerily similar fashion as the "sentient" tornadoes in the movie Twister), it's just that the package as a whole is bland and uninteresting, much like the snow-covered wastes that make up most of the scenery. Everything you could expect from a made-for-TV natural catastrophe movie is present and accounted for, so much so that even a few minor tweaks here-and-there still render it indistinguishable from the usual early Sunday-morning drivel.
I could go on about the characters and plot, but it just seems kinda moot. Brothers Thom and Jock run a snowmobile rental service in Russia's Ural Mountains, a greedy developer is building a hotel on an unstable slope, and the pleas of a scarred female scientist fall on deaf and money-blinded ears, until disaster strikes! Throw in a few romantic subplots and useless fodder characters, and you get the drill.
NU:A is not a terrible movie, just a very boring one. It's stoically serviceable in every way, but hardly entertaining. If you watch it every night, you'll never have trouble getting to sleep again. -
Polaris_DiB9 February 2006But it gets the job done.
A bunch of characters including two brothers, the younger brother's lover, her father the developer, and an avalanche watcher start to realize a nearby peak is about to come crashing down. Trying to find a way to keep everyone safe while maintaining profit, all while overcoming their own inner drama and differences, keeps them busy for roughly an hour and a half. We get to tag along too.
It basically has mediocre dialog, mediocre directing and editing, some pretty good photography, and bad acting, but it's the story that keeps this little experience interesting. In general, it's a somewhat tense countdown while the weight of the mountain starts burdening the souls of all involved. Can't say it was that bad.
Obviously a big difficulty was keeping it going with limited materials, being that a few shots/ideas are re-used several times. It also has a pretty useless side-story about the developer's evil business partner that frankly only worked to use up space, then climaxed in a pretty campy shot that I won't give away. But the fact that it even had side-plots and backstory and character development is kind of commendable for the type of movie it was. So there we go. Entertainment fun-fest and all that.
--PolarisDiB -
annaandian12 July 2006Is all I could think about during the first 20 min (that's all I could do) is how much wasted money and energy went into this horrendous film. I know there are good screenplays out there being shelved...and yet we have this dog! It did have humor though..Like how they used every previous avalanche ever filmed and combined the footage. Different lighting...different mountain, different snow, but what does it matter when you get a good chuckle. I have three more lines but cannot think of anymore to say about this film. Awful Awful Awful. Oh, the little village is quaint until it gets hit by what seems to be a large cloud of talcum powder and tapioca. This mystery snow does not effect the trees though, they don't move?
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inkblot1127 December 2012Two brothers from the States run a snowmobile business in a Russian ski town. One loves the daughter of a gentleman who runs the resort, the other has a yen for a touchy geologist. But, at present, biz is not great and romance is not budding. All too soon, the geologist declares that there should be no snowmobiling, as the conditions are ripe for an avalanche. Not only that, she says the ski resort should never have been built in this area, for it will most likely be perpetually dangerous to natural disaster! Of course, no one likes this announcement, for those making money on snowy activities are not ready to pull up stakes. Therefore, contention ensues. No surprise, then, when the big avalanche does come roaring down the slopes and some folks are forces to enter a snow cave to wait out a rescue. Will it arrive? This is a fairly horrid film, except for the lovely scenery. The acting is below average, the script is totally implausible and the direction is lame. Yet, for those who realize most disaster films are not magically believable, some viewers may opt to get this one. As some of the bad guys get their due, the calamity breeds romance among the young and the snowy setting is gorgeous, what's not to love, er, like, er tolerate for an evening?
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gomelanie24 December 2005I like sci-fi and the B movie genre so this movie was actually pretty good considering the obvious low budget shots. The acting was palatable the scenes OK except I got tired to the cracking ice shots over and over again. Typical cliché riddled B movie with a few twists. Spoilt daddy's girl is not a whiny brat and actually has some business sense. Greedy Real Estate Daddy Dude actually listens to the scientist and nixes the bottom line to help save the day. Really big whammy, the Hot dude makes it with the homely scientist chick who only has 6 toes. Yep definitely did not see that coming (toe shots either) cool looking ice bar, dumb tourists. Perfect movie if you can't sleep and are stuck home with the flu for Christmas.....again
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capn_crusty16 October 2004Seriously. I mean, alienating one's fan-base can't be the wisest business decision to make. And while I'm pretty sure making a genuinely entertaining movie isn't the easiest thing in the world to do, it can't be THAT difficult, either; it DOES get done, after all, at least occasionally. Nor is there a shortage of decent science fiction, horror and fantasy writers--amateurs and otherwise, all of whom would jump at a chance to create an original, intelligent storyline.
So why do the "good folk" at SFC continue to spring garbage like "Nature Unchained: Avalanche" on us?
Wooden acting. Implausible premise. Illogical plot. So-so CGI's. Incomprehensible interpersonal relationships. Pointless characterizations. Dialog that would have to improve to be cliché.
Makes a long-term fan of the genre wanna cry.
But all that aside, there is one good thing I can say about this turkey dropping, something that actually made me go, "huh; lookee there". It involves what is laughingly called a "spoiler" (how does one "spoil" something this rotten?), namely: the Lead Young Guy makes it with a HOMELY chick, not the blond bimbo! No, really; and to top it off, the Homely Chick--a scientist, of course--has only got two toes on one foot (the others were taken off by frostbite, I think)! And they SHOW it!
Now that's slightly different. -
turtleboy8011 July 2007I have to admit I didn't watch the beginning of or even the middle of the movie, I'm glad I didn't for fears of what it would have done to my delicate psyche. All I could think about was how horrible the acting is, I mean seriously some of the most insipid acting i've ever seen it was dull, unmotivated and completely fake i've seen more motivation in a Viagra Commericial. And did anyone NOTICE THE SNOW? Geeees, looked like confetti you bought at the Dollar Store.
Anyhow seriously folks, don't waste your time on this piece of garbage.
I have to say you'll leave the couch or wherever you happen to see this with a fear of horrible acting. -
movieman_kev3 August 2012A group of people that I never truly identify with attempt to fight off a poorly-CGI'd (with the help of some abysmal practical effects thrown in) avalanche from destroying a snow lodge that refuse to close despite the mounting evidence of impeding doom (no pun intended) I believe this originally was a SyFy film but I saw it on Encore Suspense which I preferred as I didn't have to fast-forward every 6 minutes are so due to the vastly numerous amount of commercials on that channel.
But I digress, back to the movie at hand, it's boring, overly melodramatic, and uninteresting. I found myself checking my watch multiple time and I don't even own a watch so it was always a freckle after a hair o'clock which in all honesty was still vastly more interesting than this movie. -
coflorida11 July 2020The group is stuck in a BAR.... surrounded by snow trying to keep warm with a candle... in the background there is TONS of booze sitting on the shelves..., and yet NO ONE thinks of taking a drink to warm themselves up.
They just sit there shivering in the cold.. LOL -
Uriah4329 August 2021This film essentially begins somewhere in Eastern Europe with two brothers named "Thom Cussler" (Adam Croasdell) and "Jock Cussler" (Andrew Lee Potts) acting as guides for a couple of tourists who have rented snowmobiles from them. Although Thom warns the tourists not to travel too far up a glacier that looms above a local ski resort, one of them does anyway and causes an avalanche to come barreling into the small town. Fortunately, although there is some damage done, nobody is seriously injured or killed. Even so both Thom and Jock are blamed by the local villagers for their reckless actions. Meanwhile, a businessman by the name of "Mr. Alkin" (Steven Grives) is in the process of building a large hotel there and he is sparing no effort to make sure it is safe and sturdy. The problem is that his financial manager known simply as "Rogov" (Valentin Ganev) has acquired money for the project from a criminal element and they insist on having it built within a timeframe not suitable for Mr. Alkin's specific agenda. Things get even worse, however, when an environmental scientist by the name of "Katya" (Kate Henry) appears on the scene and warns them of a potential super-avalanche if immediate action isn't taken. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a fairly boring film due in large part to the director (Mark Roper) trying to create suspense by repeating the same scenario over and over again. Likewise, the personal drama between the characters-especially Jock and his former girlfriend "Callie Alkin" (Jessica Brooks)-lacked the necessary passion to really amount to much. In any case, while those interested in a disaster movie of this type might not consider it to be too bad, it didn't really impress me and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Below average.
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sj29-17 October 2008Well, here I was with my geographical education but this certainly taught me about how avalanches work. And you can hear an avalanche growling by listening to the snow. Creaking yes, but growling? It must be the same way the Nu Image sharks growl too. And volcanoes. I love Nu Image films. A bottle of wine and no expectations are needed for this film. And the acting is so bad you can easily recreate treasured moments in your lounge with friends. Careful that your special effects aren't better than the films! If you liked this in the so bad it is totally brilliant category, make sure you watch Shark Attack3 : Megladon very soon. Cheap night in and would be a brilliant first date.
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fwj_looman30 January 2009Rarely have I seen a movie of this calibre. The convincing and passionate actors deliver line after line of heartfelt and meaningful dialogue.
The looming danger of the 'super-avalanche' drives the beautiful avalanche scientist Katya and ruggedly handsome snowmobile driver Jock together. But can unbridled love survive the SUPER AVALANCHE?
I won't spoil the ending, you'll have to see it for yourself. WOW, this movie has everything: avalanches, snow, suspense, and romance. How could anyone not love this movie?
If you like avalanches, and if you want to be swept away by a beautifully written and sublime movie: watch it.
10/10