Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 14, SEPTEMBER 21, 2009, THE ISLANDER
“GoirT to
the Show...
♦♦
with...
Roland
Willis
WHITE O UT
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Tom Skeritt, Gabriel Macht,
Columbus Short & Alex O'Loughlin
Directed by Dominic Sena
Written by Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber,
Chad Hates & Carey Hayes
Based on a graphic novel by Greg Rucka
Running Time: 1 hour, 41 minutes
Rated R - Violence
Just like French cheese, some mov
ies are so bad that they become good.
Wliiteout is not one of these; it is stu
pid, preposterous, poorly written and
just plain bad.
Even Kate Beckinsale can’t save this
one although she does model under
wear rather well.
Yes, when early in the film the direc
tor has Kate do a gratuitous striptease
before she jumps in the shower, you
know that he is out of ideas.
The movie starts about twenty years
earlier aboard a Russian cargo plane
crossing Antarctica. Three heavily
armed men are in the back guarding a
box which contains something of great
value.
The pilot and copilot decide to grab
this and the copilot goes back to gun
down the guards.
That’s right, the copilot has not
read the instructions that came with
the plane, specifically, “A gun fight on
this plane is likely to lead to a nasty
crash.”
So the plane crashes and gradually,
over the years, sinks into the ice.
Flash forward to the present where
we are introduced to U. S. Marshall
3dcmd CINEMAS
Sea Island Rd. at Frederica Rd.
www.hollywood.com
MOVIES INFO. BARGAIN
. 634-9100 MATINEES DAILY ,
r CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE 1
OF MEATBALLS (PG)
Mon-Thurs 5:20,7:30
THE INFORMANT! (R)
Mon-Thurs 4:30,8:00
JENNIFER'S BODY (R)
Mon-Thurs 4:45,7:50
TYLER PERRY'S I CAN DO
BAD ALL BY MYSELF (R)
Mon-Thurs 4:40,7:55
WHITEOUT (R)
Mon-Thurs 4:55,7:35
ALL ABOUT STEVE (PG-13)
Mon-Thurs 5:00,7:40
(500) DAYS OF SUMMER
(PG-13)
Mon-Thurs 5:15,7:45
Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) at the
U.S. Antarctic base.
She had a traumatic law-enforce
ment experience back in the States and
has signed-up to provide security on
this remote base to clear her mind.
Her best pal on the base is Doctor
John Fury (Tom Skeritt) and they
are both looking forward to leaving
the base as the long, dark winter is
approaching.
Ml but a skeleton staff will remain
through the winter and everyone else
will be evacuated.
There is a major storm approaching
and the evacuation becomes urgent
because the planes cannot fly when the
high winds and consequent whiteout
arrive.
Just then, a badly beaten body is
discovered out on the ice and Carrie
feels obliged to investigate in spite of
the approaching storm.
She needs some answers from the
Russian base so she flies over there
with her pilot Deify (Columbus Short).
The murderer has beaten her to
it, but she does run into Special U.N.
Agent Robert Pryce (Gabriel Macht).
The screen writers do not explain
how he got there. Perhaps Delta
Express flies there?
Anyway, they spend the rest of the
movie tracking down the murderer as
he tries to kill them.
In the only bright spot in this movie,
the bad guy is well played by the Aus
tralian actor, Mex O’Loughlin.
I’ve always been a big fan of Kate
Beckinsale. I liked her in Pearl Harbor,
as Ava Gardner in The Aviator and as
Anna in Van Helsing, but I loved her
as Selene in the Underworld series
{Underworld, Rise of the Lycans and
Evolution).
How could she get roped into this
mess? She needs a better agent!
It is clear that Tom Skeritt wishes he
were elsewhere. He has made numer
ous movies and TV series over the
years and was great in A River Runs
Through It and especially in Alien.
Now there was a great sci-fi movie
set in the numbing coldness of space
rather than Antarctica.
There have been great movies which
effectively used the brutal conditions of
the arctic or antarctic as an effective
backdrop.
Scott of the Antarctic which told
the story of Scott’s doomed expedition
starred the famous British actors John
Mills, Derek Bond and Kenneth More
and had a wonderful score by Vaughan
Williams.
There was the classic Howard
Hawks production of The Thing from
Another World starring James Amess,
and John Carpenter’s remake starring
Kurt Russell.
Closer to Whiteout, as they involved
a murder mystery but opposite since
they dealt with the eternal daylight of
the arctic summer, were Eric Skjold-
bjaerg’s Insomnia and the American
remake with the same title, directed by
Christopher Nolan and with wonderful
performances by M Pacino, Robin Wil
liams and Hilary Swank.
Any of these are infinitely better
than Whiteout.
Even the husky survival movie
Eight Below is much better than this
rubbish.
My rating is a D. □
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