"Ice" is what you get when someone thinks they can do "Miami Vice" and Michael Mann without having the creative talent to back it up. Call it "Michael Meh". It's all gestures and no muscle.
This is the kind of movie where people can shoot each other through chain link fences, where the fact that the protagonist has killed at least a dozen people (in the commission of several felonies) doesn't seem to bother the cops in the least, where everyone seems to be able to fly a helicopter, where a petite 100 lb red head can snap people's necks and out-shoot dozens of thugs without a scratch. And where Traci Lords has one all purpose expression which she seems to use for every scene.
One thing Lords has going in her favor in "Ice" is that she really isn't any worse on camera than the rest of the cast, so her lack of performance doesn't call any more attention to itself than any other actor. (Let it be said that in the abstract I actually admire Ms. Lords' work ethic - she keeps managing to carve out a career of sorts when a lot of people would have given up and faded into obscurity). But the camera is on her more than anyone else, and she just can't carry the film, or even individual scenes.
It took me four tries to make it all the way through "Ice", trying to find something to like about it, and in the end I just stared at it and waited for it to be over. I haven't seen this kind of slickly polished direct-to-cable dullness since the heyday of Crown International Pictures.
This is the kind of movie where people can shoot each other through chain link fences, where the fact that the protagonist has killed at least a dozen people (in the commission of several felonies) doesn't seem to bother the cops in the least, where everyone seems to be able to fly a helicopter, where a petite 100 lb red head can snap people's necks and out-shoot dozens of thugs without a scratch. And where Traci Lords has one all purpose expression which she seems to use for every scene.
One thing Lords has going in her favor in "Ice" is that she really isn't any worse on camera than the rest of the cast, so her lack of performance doesn't call any more attention to itself than any other actor. (Let it be said that in the abstract I actually admire Ms. Lords' work ethic - she keeps managing to carve out a career of sorts when a lot of people would have given up and faded into obscurity). But the camera is on her more than anyone else, and she just can't carry the film, or even individual scenes.
It took me four tries to make it all the way through "Ice", trying to find something to like about it, and in the end I just stared at it and waited for it to be over. I haven't seen this kind of slickly polished direct-to-cable dullness since the heyday of Crown International Pictures.