I'm not a fan of the disaster genre, they're always the same. Introduction of charactersExpert warns people of imminent disasterPowers that be ignore expertDisaster happensThen either a lot of running and talking about what is happening until it ends or some pseudo science to fix itThis is no different and what's strange is just how little of the film the disaster takes up.Starring Robert Forster, Rock Hudson and Mia Farrow this is more like a soap opera where an avalanche just so happens to take place.Swinging 70's, polystyrene snow and merciless deaths this has it's merits but certainly pales in comparison to the better films within this sub genre.The Good:Cast do a decent jobThe Bad:PredictibleSoap opera likeSFX are poor even for its timeThings I Learnt From This Movie:Unless your name ends in Campbell don't be a Bruce, you are no worthyDeath by polstyrene looks as painful as it sounds

Roger Corman's cheapo entry in the disaster movie sweepstakes. It has not aged well. Hard headed land developer Rock Hudson builds a ski resort at the foot of not so stable mountain. Environmentalist Robert Forster tries to stop him. When there's an avalanche, shown via some dim special effects, a lot of people are trampled, buried in snow and asphyxiated. Hudson yells nearly every line of dialog in what is perhaps his worst performance. Forster looks tired (or bored) and Mia Farrow (as Hudson's ex-wife) is simply out of place in this type of movie. Jeanette Nolan, who once played opposite Orson Welles in MACBETH, is featured as Hudson's free-spirited mother. Barry Primus is cast as a talk show host! Directed, very blandly, by former actor Corey Allen. Lewis Teague did some of the second unit work.

I remember seeing this on T.V. in the early '80's, and even though I was still kind of young, I thought it was awful. Rock Hudson should really have been more selective of the scripts he accepted. some of his films are really good, and others like "embryo" and this piece of drek should have been left to the next generation of actors.now for the scene that I thought was the funniest of the whole movie. it happens at the very end as the camera is pulling away and the screen starts to fade to black. If I remember the scene correctly, a group of people are still in either a wrecked hotel or a cave and some guys wife has just been declared dead. as the camera pulls back you can clearly see the "dead woman" stand up and walk off set.

Fun and entertaining low-budget disaster epic produced by the king of low-budget, Roger Corman (His style: Light, and get away...). Obviously made on the heels of disaster blockbusters like The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and Earthquake, Avalanche is a pretty standard disaster film -- it gathers a large number of broadly portrayed characters to a location, then proceeds to put them into deadly peril. But since this is Corman, we don't have the big-name cast here -- the biggest name is Rock Hudson, not exactly Heston or Newman, but you work with what you got. The special effects are cheap but effective -- they may be double exposures, stock footage, and Styrofoam blocks but the editing is tight and the shots are generally well composed. The acting is middle of the road, TV melodrama kinda stuff, but wholly serviceable for the genre. Plus, at about 90 minutes, it doesn't ever drag on -- Corman's efficiency at work. And watch for a scene involving a pot of soup which is downright hilarious.This film really deserves a 6, but it made me smile, and was original enough (there's not that many disaster films out there about avalanches, after all!) for me to grant that extra point. If you like disaster films, then check out Avalanche.