Ice Soldiers (2014)

Let me preface this by saying that I was trying something new with the Sunday “Bad” Movies, and it never really gelled with me in the way that I was hoping it would.  I’ve taken what I had done and moved some stuff around to make this writing.  For that reason, this writing might feel a little bit choppy or segmented.  I admit it because I can see that.  I am sorry if you feel like you are reading complete and utter crap this time around.  It’s just how it is.

Ice Soldiers is a 2013 Canadian film directed by Sturla Gunnarsson and starring Dominic Purcell, Michael Ironside, Adam Beach, and Gabriel Hogan.  It tells the story of a scientist who seeks out Russian mercenaries in the Canadian north, fifty years after the murder of a research team.  He discovers a deadly force that he must put a stop to before the world is in danger.

This is not a bad movie.  It is well made, though limited by the constraints of Canadian cinema.  Canada simply doesn’t have the resources of the Hollywood or Bollywood systems.  Canada doesn’t even have the same amount of quality of many British films.  There are standouts though.  Ice Soldiers may not be one of the standout Canadian films, but it holds its own.

The acting is good.  It doesn’t add anything to the material, but it also doesn’t take away from the movie.  The same could be said for the direction.  It doesn’t stand out as bringing anything unique to Ice Soldiers.  There is no original vision or anything like that.  It holds the movie together well enough, though.  And the action is entertaining.  Once again, it’s not new.  But there are fun little action moments sprinkled throughout the movie that make the watch worth it.

When you look at the story of Ice Soldiers, it’s a story that is very reminiscent of other movies.  The fact that it’s a Cold War threat in the modern day is a reminder of all of the Cold War action movies from when the Cold War was occurring.  The mercenaries look like they are part of the Aryan race, which brings in the thought of Nazis, even though they are Russian.  And really, the entire story is one man seeking answers for a crime that these Aryan Russians committed during the Cold War.  It feels like a modern science fiction throwback that doesn’t capitalize upon the tropes and clichés of those older films.  It’s still entertaining, but seems like a missed opportunity.

The reason that I decided to add Ice Soldiers to the list of movies to watch was the name.  The name Ice Soldiers feels like a movie that would not be all that good.  It sounds like some sort of B-movie schlock, if there were still B-movies that ran after the big tentpole movies.  The actual film is not all that bad, but the name would make you think it could be.

The other big theme that it has with many bad movies is the use of the Cold War and the Nazi-like bad guys.  Like many video games, people making lesser movies like to use Nazis as a bad guy because they are the most universally hated group of people in history.  It’s easy to hate Nazis after everything that they did during World War II.  The Cold War is an easy way to provide a sense of fear and paranoia.  That’s not to say that these two elements are only used in lower quality films.  Raiders of the Lost Ark uses Nazis as the primary antagonist, and X-Men: First Class uses the Cold War as a setting.  But there are many bad movies who use these elements to create an easy antagonist.

A recommendation of Ice Soldiers would depend upon the person I am talking to.  Ice Soldiers does not redefine the science fiction or action genres in any way whatsoever.  There are many derivative moments throughout the movie.  So I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to people who are looking for their movies to be completely original and unique.  But it is a fun little movie if you want a movie that will keep you busy for an hour and a half.  I would recommend it to anybody that’s not expecting or needing a high intelligence action/thriller that moves the science fiction genre forward.

There are, of course, some notes before we finish up here:

• Benz Antoine, an actor in Ice Soldiers, was in a movie covered in the Sunday “Bad” Movies called Death Race.
• Ice Soldiers actor Camille Sullivan was also in The Marine 3: Homefront, a movie featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies.
• Another Canadian movie that probably didn’t deserve to be in the Sunday “Bad” Movies is Repeaters.
• If you have any recommendations for future movies to be featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies, feel free to suggest them in the comments or tell me on Twitter.