User Reviews

I would have to say based on Hollow Point, Black Point, TimeCop 3 and Ulterior Motives, OF COURSE Griffith would do a movie like this. It's practically perfect for him. I'm not saying he's a bad actor or that the movie was particularly good. I think maybe his performance made the movie worth watching.

The story line is a bit too simple but it does have a plot and that is after all what it takes to keep most movie fans in the zone. The budget was clearly too small because there was way to much green screen. But the stunts were rather good, the lines were pretty realistic and most important of all, the acting was good. It's wasn't great but no where near bad.

The official, and indeed most accurate title of this film is "Avalanche", but approximately two dozen of other movies have the same title. It's also available as "Escape from Alaska", but that's a rather incorrect title because people are not trying to escape out of the state, just out of a little Alaskan town named Juneau. My point? Everything starts with a good, strong and accurate title.

I honestly don't want to sound too harsh. I really love disaster movies, the bigger the better, and "Escape from Alaska" is a fairly amiable - albeit lacking - attempt. Throughout of the 90s, there were several large-budgeted productions revolving around natural disasters, including pandemics ("Outbreak"), volcanic eruptions ("Dante's Peak", "Volcano"), meteorites ("Deep Impact", "Armageddon") and heavy storms ("Twister"), but yours truly always preferred the true magic of the 70s. I detected a bit of that seventies' spirit in "Escape from Alaska", but unfortunately not enough.

For starters, nobody was ever able to raise humongous budgets like producer Irwin Allen could. I wasn't expecting blockbuster standards, but the special effects in "Escape from Alaska" were truly poor. The miniature sets, the washing power (or whatever it was they used as snow) and the unfitting stock footage of avalanches makes the film look really pathetic. The cast isn't exactly impressive, neither. Fallen-stardom actor Thomas Howell and R. Lee Ermey are the only noteworthy names.

What the film does quite well, however, is splitting the characters into two camps with completely opposite ideals and/or initiatives. The environmental activist and her guilt-ridden helicopter pilot boyfriend form one camp, against reckless oil-industry tycoons (you can practically see the $-signs in their eyes) and middle-class Alaskan workers for whom no refinery means no income. This results in the heroic duo having to embark on clandestine pipeline inspections, rude press-conference and board-meeting interruptions and (pitiable) barfights.

Last but worst, the disasters in "Escape from Alaska" aren't disastrous enough, and there are far, far too many sentimental moments. Another unwritten rule of disaster movies is that the misery and the bad breaks keep on coming non-stop, and that when situations appears to be at their worst, it can and will still get even worse! In this film, this is only partially true. There are plane crashes, malfunctioning helicopters, and supposedly even polar bear attacks, but none of it is thrilling enough.

Messy script, fairly entertaining and horrible cgi! Factory explodes that's connected to a mountain of snow in which causes an avalanche that all happens in the first 20 minutes which is nuts. The cinematography is pretty nice in some parts other parts it feels like a soap opera. The 4.1 is understandable and I'm just a nice critic to give it a 5. Not much to say about this movie there's a few good aspects.

After starring in a movie such as Vampires one would expect Thomas Ian Griffith to not make a movie like this. It's about an evil company that builds an oil pipeline thru a snowy mountain town and causes an avalanche when it goes haywire. The avalanche FX and the terribly interwoven stock footage are the worst I've ever seen. You'll have a hot seeing how awful it is and how anyone involved with the film could allow them to be so poor. See this on TV like I did. Don't rent it. It's seriously bad. 1/10

It really is about as bad a movie as I have ever seen. It is hard to find a single redeeming thing to say about it. The acting was awful; the romance totally unbelievable. I guess I'd never seen Juneau before in a movie. I would recommend that you watch it only if trapped in a mountain cabin room with a TV but no other furniture, books, people, radios or light and if you aren't tired already because this one will certainly put you to sleep. I like disaster movies and can watch the worst of them, and have, but this one has made me rethink ever watching one ever again. It gave a whole new meaning to the catchphrase disaster movie, it is a disaster to watch, not just about a disaster.

I read the reviews just after watching the first 15 minutes, and didn't think they were good reviews at the time, because the film had a very good start.

Then the rest of the movie sunk in.

While I don't agree with this being the worst, or even one of the worst, ever, it was very disappointing after a start that looked like it had potential.

We begin with three chief characters, a young couple who are protecting wildlife in Alaska, and their handsome pilot friend. They aren't Grizzly people. They're tagging and watching the cute little animals.

It all begins rather well. They are likable, and their friends seem fairly real. After an avalanche changes the status quo, two years pass, and the pilot has lost a lot of his confidence, which made this look like it was going into a fresh direction.

Well, then it looks like they brought in a new writer named Joe Cliché. It got very trite after that. You would have to watch it to know how trite it became. Unbelievable, after what looked like a decent beginning.

This made the movie more disappointing than everything. I still liked the two leads, because they were worth liking, and that salvaged the movie for at least "treadmill or elliptical" viewing, but it was very corny.

And while I liked to see them survive their brushes with death, I would prefer those escapes to be at least partially credible. We cross over all lines of credibility. And that's disappointing.

I'm too flabbergasted by the clichés to even begin to mention them. If you scratch the first 15 minutes, it might even look like a comic farce.

It's one of those movies in which the people involved probably think they either made something much better, or much worse, than they actually did. When you're involved in a project like this, you don't see the glass as half empty. It's either full or empty. Truth be told, it's less than half full, but still passes for mild entertainment.

Avalanche (or also known as Escape from Alaska) is a 1999 disaster film. (For the record, I believe the title Avalanche is much more fitting). The film stars Thomas Ian Griffith (known for films such as The Karate Kid III and Crackerjack). Other notable actors in this film include C. Thomas Howell (Red Dawn and The Outsiders), John Ashton (The Tommyknockers and Beverly Hills Cop), and R. Lee Ermy (Full Metal Jacket and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake). I watched this film a few years before (when I was not well educated in film) and it was just more of a meh movie. Years later, I think of this film as one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

The film follows pilot Neil. His best friend Jack and Jack's wife, Lia, are tagging foxes. An explosion occurs and causes an avalanche that kills Jack. Neil saves Lia after the rescue team calls here a lost cause. Years later, Neil is still in Alaska but Lia is in San Francisco working for this oil company that is making this pipeline in Alaska. There are concerns about this pipeline and how it could cause a huge avalanche that could bury the whole city. The rest of the film follows Neil and Lia as they try to rebuild their relationship and also try to prevent the company from turning on this oil pipe.

This film is sooooooo bad. First of all, the acting is god awful. In the first few minutes of the film, we witness how bad it is. And this is something that is throughout the whole film. Which is a shame because we have actors like R. Lee Ermy who is a fine actor but even he cannot give a good performance. I should note that on one end of the R. Lee Ermy spectrum you have his Full Metal Jacket performance. On the other, Avalanche. The actors and actresses are supposed to make me feel something for these characters and I honestly feel nothing for these characters at all. I could care less if they got buried by an avalanche. There is also so weird one liners that Thomas Ian Griffith (who plays Neil) gives. It is really bizarre actually. With any great disaster film, there are good effects. And as you already know, this is not a good disaster film so the effects are really crappy. Sure, they use stock footage for the avalanche but put the avalanche in footage with people via greenscreen or something. They try to use miniatures for certain scenes but they are very unconvincing. The film has a total of three avalanches. One in the beginning, one in the middle, and one towards the end. The big one is in the end and well, whatever. I could care less. I have to watch through all of this nonsense involving this relationship between Neil and Lia before I even get to it and by the time we do, I am not even interested. The music is something that I almost was sold with but the more I think about it, where is the intense music that acompanies the disaster? Nowhere. There is a plot twist and honestly it is so dumb that had it not happened at all, this film might have been I little better. But that would not be saying a whole lot.

Avalanche is a poorly made disaster film. Nothing is redeemable about this film. It is best to stay away from this film.

The movie isn't as bad as many of the voters up till now are saying. The movie is nice to watch, although it isn't a high budget Hollywood movie as STAR WARS 3. So, you may expect that the special effects and avalanches shown are not as real as you could get them , but still they are acceptable. The story makes up for it. Don't watch this movie for it's special effects, but just to see a nice watchable movie which is in general of medium+ quality, taking all things together.

The is certain a tension building up while watching the movie, which is also a little predictable, but, again, still acceptable.

Generally speaking, the votes on IMDb are low, for many many movies. Why ? I don't know. It's isn't me, I think, having watched 1000+ DVD's. Indeed there are bad made movies, but this one isn't all that bad at all.

If you wanted to see a movie , just for fun, with no complicated but reasonable enjoyable plot, this is surely one for rent.

I'll give it 7 point, just making a statement it's not a super movie but worth watching.

This poor excuse for a movie was absolutely horrible. Poor writing and acting. Total garbage. Don't waste your time. I'd rather crawl through 2 miles of broken glass and then roll through the shafts of a salt mine then watch this movie again. R. Lee Ermey is a good TV show host, but a horrible actor. The special effects suck. It's so low budget, they use the same avalanche footage again and again for 3 separate avalanches. The music is terrible. Lets see, what else can I say to express how terrible this movie is? I'm really trying to express to you that this has to be one of the worst movies ever. Will someone please shoot me now? I'm just going to copy and paste this again. This poor excuse for a movie was absolutely horrible. Poor writing and acting. Total garbage. Don't waste your time. I'd rather crawl through 2 miles of broken glass and then roll through the shafts of a salt mine then watch this movie again. R. Lee Ermey is a good TV show host, but a horrible actor. The special effects suck. It's so low budget, they use the same avalanche footage again and again for 3 separate avalanches. The music is terrible. Lets see, what else can I say to express how terrible this movie is? I'm really trying to express to you that this has to be one of the worst movies ever. Will someone please shoot me now? I'm just going to copy and paste this again. This poor excuse for a movie was absolutely horrible. Poor writing and acting. Total garbage. Don't waste your time. I'd rather crawl through 2 miles of broken glass and then roll through the shafts of a salt mine then watch this movie again. R. Lee Ermey is a good TV show host, but a horrible actor. The special effects suck. It's so low budget, they use the same avalanche footage again and again for 3 separate avalanches. The music is terrible. Lets see, what else can I say to express how terrible this movie is? I'm really trying to express to you that this has to be one of the worst movies ever. Will someone please shoot me now? I'm just going to copy and paste this again.

It still is hard to believe that PM Entertainment/Sunland Studios exited the video market after producing such great movies as this. Maybe they won't win any Academy awards but for the blue collar video fan their films were hard to beat. I liked Avalanche aka Escape From Alaska for a number of reasons. It was a believable movie given the pending oil exploration in Alsaka in real life. Ever since Seige of Firebase Gloria and Full Metal Jacket I've been a big fan of R. Lee Ermey. C. Thomas Howell is a bankable actor with a devoted video following and does a good job in this film. The character of Dr. Lia Freeman, the crusading enviornmentalist, is given real character with the personal problems exhibited by actress Caroleen Feeney. So maybe the special effects where done on a budget and people in the "biz" can pick at them but to my eye they look great. I think a lot of people will enjoy this movie for what it is, a nice action adventure film with recognizable names that draws its inspiration from today's headlines.

first off this is not a horrible movie as most of you in these discussion boards have pointed out,, do I care that polar bears don't go as far south as Juneau,, no I really don't care.. most people won't ever even know the difference till some people decide to nit-pick a movie to death. Thomas Ian Griffith did a great job with the movie,, to bad the female lead was awful,, liked R. Lee Ermey's character. John Ashton was good to. I loved all of the wonderful Alaskan scenery as depicted in the movie. and yes the polar bears south of Juneau too, the storyline was great.. about the Pipeline, being built by a company knowing that it sits right on an area where avalanches are prone to happen, great action in this one. plot pretty good,, I just wish people wouldn't be so harsh on a movie like this.

This movie is hilarious!! The effects, plot and acting are SO BAD that you'll be cracking up, or crying. It's a movie you should watch if you feel like ripping apart something. The best scene is the airplane crash, and how they just survive getting thrown around, but still jump right out. I couldn't understand how they were so scared of the ice crack, but then just slide right down it. As someone who has studied glaciers, a crevasse is dangerous and once you fall in, that's it. But as soon as they slide down it, the next scene is great because it shows them just walking out of the crevasse. Also, the models of the city and the powdered sugar used for snow are awful effects.

Want one Reason to buy or watch Avalanche 1999? Want it or not it's Hilary Shepard as Annie. Let the non-existent polar bear eat the others, but give me more of that killer babe in those tight spray-on pants. Like the best wines she just keeps getting better with age. Great casting, even better wardrobe, and who cares what she says or doesn't! She looks great doing it !!!!! Stock footage? Who cares???? Hilary forgives a multitude of sins! If she were on the other side of the confessional, I wouldn't miss going! Avalanche is a better view than the nightly news, a credit I'd take, and cash is cash - no pro on the pic has anything to be embarrassed about. Not every pic needs to have or can have a 'billion' dollar budget. It's a watch able film & I'd for one visit Alaska because of it. It's probably more accurate, true to life, etc. than Election 2004. A good film to have on in the background or work to.

My friends parents would always be grabbing disaster movies like this at blockbuster and I would always end up watching them on sleepovers when I was a kid. Not Armageddon, not even Deep Impact, some poor impressionable sod grabbed Meteor Movie 4 down the line, ya feel me? This era of disaster movie is so cozy it's sublime.

The first line, after what should have been a life ending snowmobile roll, is "Sorry Alicia, I zigged when I should have zagged". It's tasty.

The polar bear scene is a real treat & Tiny really stole the show. It's a film about environmentalism, second chances & healing from trauma. I loved Neal's relationship with Annie, what a snowbunny! Lea is insufferable throughout. Do I seem fired up about this movie?

"I'll show you fired up, woman - I'll show you fired up."