why is every movie or TV show that is made in vancouver, bc, canada garbage.The acting is awful. You can always tell right away when you are watching something made here.I've seen tons of movies and TV shows made here and its the same awful thing time and time again.If a movie or TV show is decided to be made here its like its been cursed or something.You can make the same movie somewhere else and all of a sudden it seems to be a lot better. I think its because the film and TV industry here is subsidized so heavily by the government that it does not matter how bad it is because the producers are making tons of money whether the TV shows or movies are just the worst thing ever filmed.
... View MoreThis another typical Syfy channel type movie. Low quality writing and directing. Below par acting overall with some actors actually doing a good job. The CGI when the chopper gets trashed is not bad. The scene towards the beginning when the fresh blood starts dripping from the outside top of the tent is very unbelievable. At that height and temperature it would have frozen or congealed a long time ago. The lead rescue climber is a self admitted out of shape, retired climber but with an extremely well regarded reputation. He only takes the job when he finds out his ex wife is one of those needing rescue. Of course there is duplicity from the rich big shots that want the rescue mounted. Relatively early on you see that the ex has survived so far (shucks). The creatures that inhabit the mountain look more like the ones from Alien than any Yeti ever thought up by any human imagination. Not only that but they seem reptilian in appearance and if that is true how do they survive such cold? Actually they look more like a poor man's Godzilla and about as realistic. Then there are the Bhutanese military that show up to steal the info on the site everyone is looking for.. The magic acclimatizing drug works just fine except the supplements are lost and that leaves the new crew with eight hours remaining before their lungs blow out and their brains, such as they are, explode. When it is found out that the entire operation is a search for the mythical Sham-Ba-La or Shangri-La. Then of course, the shots start to wear off and the good guys start bleeding, gasping, and dying. When Kate finally gets rescued they use flares to drive the animals off, yet earlier they operated in the outside. The end where the spoiled son discovers that the blood of the young creatures will heal starts him on the road to destruction. As he harvests the blood he is attacked by a swarm of the younglings and gets his. Where so many young ones come from in the frozen, very high altitude mountain aerie is beyond me, but this is one of those Syfy low budget films. Of course it ends with the pair of exe's getting out and blowing up the cavern.
... View MoreAfter being asked to participate in a rescue mission after a disastrous mountain-climbing incident, a man and his team find the area protected by a group of vicious creatures guarding a secret within the mountain and try to get away before falling victim to the ravenous beings.This one wasn't too bad and definitely has it's good parts. Among the better elements here is that the action scenes are really enjoyable with all the location scenes up high in the mountains, gives this one a rather sizable sense of action along the way. The opening attack of the camp is immensely fun with the attacks keeping the creatures hidden enough while rampaging through camp as well as they're ranks in a flurry of activity, a later scene of the disaster crash of the creatures taking out the helicopter crashing it against the side of the mountain in front of the attempted rescue-victims as well as the rather exciting descent down into the crevice all come off as really fun action scenes spread out across the mountain. Even more fun is the scenes inside the mountain with a great sequence during a driving snowstorm of the creatures attacking the camp and forcing the team underground where the stalking continues into a series of deep caves, plenty of big pits littered with rocky outcroppings and human skeletons which gives off quite a creepy tone here. Even better, the later scenes in the temple are quite fun as the hive featuring all the baby creature coming after the gang in some really creepy scenes giving this one some great action in the numerous escapes and chases throughout here. Likewise, there's some more to like here as the creatures here are pretty enjoyable creations in terms of looks with it's lizard-like body and alien head creating a distinctive look that are given enough storyline points to care about and are woven nicely into the story as there's some great attempts at explaining their connection to the mythology of the area. As well, the fact that there's a rather enjoyable pace keeps this one moving along rather well which is more than enough at keeping this one up over its few flaws. The flaws, though, all seem to come from the fact that this has too many subplots here, as there's the military intervention which is never given a purpose and put here almost as an afterthought that take kills away from the creature, the cancer scare and the trapped wife and eventual reconciliation that come off as complete clichés while the former is further guilty of also being a complete throwaway that all could've gone away and not messed the film up at all. This one also comes up short here in really selling the secret goal of the original mission since it's never really made clear why they needed to be as secretive as they are to get him on-board with their plans. Overall, though, it's pretty enjoyable.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Adult Language.
... View MoreStaying home for the recent storm, I decided to check out Syfy's Saturday night movie to see if it might be another schlock masterpiece like SHARKTOPUS or MEGA PYTHON VS. GATOROID. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to see a movie that actually took itself, and its monsters, seriously.KILLER MOUNTAIN is about a mountain climber (Chief Tyrol from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) who goes to rescue his missing girlfriend from a forbidden mountain. Once he and his fellow climbers (including hottie Crystal Lowe from FINAL DESTINATION 3) get to the top, they realize that the whole thing was a ruse. The reason goal of the mission was to uncover a "fountain of youth" (or something) that a greedy corporate type wants to use to cure himself and then sell on the open market. It turns out that the mountain is really the hidden location of Shangri-La (they call it Shambala).The cool part is that Shangri-La isn't the mystical city we've seen before time and time again. In this version, Shangri-La is an abandoned, underground alien city that is home to hungry alien monsters that are bent on protecting it.The most interesting thing about KILLER MOUNTAIN is that the creatures aren't the sole focus of the story. It's actually an adventure film first, creature film second, which I liked. There's some twists and turns and it's never boring. And they managed to stick in a couple of GALACTICA references which is always fun.What's not so good about it is some questionable CGI... it's the only thing that makes the movie look low budget. Bad FX aside, KILLER MOUNTAIN is definitely worth checking out if you're sick of the same ol' campy creature stuff.
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