But 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
Nature Unleashed: Avalanche
2004
Action / Adventure / Drama / Thriller
Nature Unleashed: Avalanche
2004
Action / Adventure / Drama / Thriller
3.6Keywords: disastercatastropheavalanche
Plot summary
It begins on a glacier nestled on a frozen peak high in the wild Ural Mountains of Russia, kissed by clouds, the top of the world. A lonely, forbidding place, it's home to THOM CUSSLER and brother, JOCK, a pair of transplanted westerners seeking their fortune in Russia's new capitalist economy. They run a hard-luck snowmobile tour business that takes adventurous winter tourists up the mountains to experience the ultimate extreme winter thrill. During one such excursion, a massive ledge of snow at the top of the ridge suddenly collapses and an avalanche crashes down! Only the quick thinking and expert driving of Thom and Jock saves them. The tiny village of Dubroz, nestled far below, is not so lucky. Avalanche sirens wail, but the panicked villagers barely have time to act as the avalanche crashes down! A wall of snow smashes into one end of the village, blasting-in windows, collapsing and burying buildings, tossing cars in the air like toys! From their vantage point high on the ridge Thom and Jock see the destruction below. Word of the disaster reaches nearby Kirovina, a booming mining town that a wealthy entrepreneur GEORGE ELKIN is developing into a high-class ski resort. Unfortunately for the Cusslers, his daughter, CALLIE, is an embittered ex-flame of Jock's who'd love to drive the brothers out of business. But, in the peaks high above, the ice groans and rumbles under a heavy blanket of fresh snow. KATYA TATNOVA, a dedicated avalanche researcher, warns that Elkin's mine has wreaked environmental havoc on the glacier and could produce a massive super avalanche that'll wipe out the entire valley. Thom and Jock join forces with her as she tries to convince the residents of Kirovina they're in imminent deadly peril, but her warnings fall on deaf ears. Then an even bigger avalanche kills one of Callie's guides and some skiers high up on a glacier. By now Katya knows it's too late to stop the coming disaster, a killer avalanche is imminent. All they can do is get out of the way. In the mountains, shifting crevasses deep in the glacial ice suddenly erupt like canons. Callie and Jock race against time to evacuate the Cloud House, her trendy lounge and nightclub perched high on the mountain overlooking the town. Meanwhile, Thom and Katya warn the town, but some still refuse to believe in their super avalanche... until part of the glacier crashes down on the Cloud House! Jock and Callie take refuge with two survivors in the subterranean "Ice Lounge" and find themselves hopelessly trapped beneath the now-wrecked building. Katya marshals a major evacuation of Kirovina, the people taking refuge in Elkin's mine. Thom and Elkin convince a small group of rescuers to go up the mountain to try and rescue Jock and Callie from the rubble of the Cloud House buried under 30-meters of snow and debris. Below, Jock and Callie are running out of air and time as the snow closes-in. At the last moment Thom finally manages to break through. Jock and Callie get the wounded out first, and the rescue chopper barely gets them into the air when the entire glacial ridge finally collapses, unleashing a tsunami of snow and ice racing sixty-miles-an-hour down the valley, smashing and sweeping away everything in it's path! In the grim aftermath and search for survivors, Thom fears Katya and the residents of Kirovina didn't make it - but, then a rumble shakes the ground and a giant mine drill bores to the surface, freeing Katya and the evacuees from the buried mine where they took refuge. The lucky survivors are reunited, left witness to the frailty of human enterprise against the awesome fury of nature.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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Well, it's no Vertical Limit
A Paint-by-Numbers Disaster Film
This 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.
An avalanche of boredom
A 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.