Avalanche (1978)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Please don't spend money on this.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

My standard disclosure, even though I've watched Avalanche what seems like a million years ago, I rewatched it this week courtesy of the new MST3K. I've always prided myself in my ability to separate MST3K from the movie being presented and not let the jokes cloud my judgment of the movie. In this instance, it hardly matters because Avalanche is just plain old bad regardless of what format you're watching it in. Why is Avalanche so bad? For a movie that is supposed to be about a ski resort buried under (as they tagline puts it) "Six Million Tons of Icy Terror", it's really more about the failed relationship of the ski resort's owner and his wife. Rock Hudson and Mia Farrow play the troubled couple. The problem is they have zero in the way of on- screen chemistry. I'm not sure of a married couple in the history of film that has less chemistry than these two. Their whole relationship feels fake and phony. And it doesn't help anything that three quarters of the film centers around Hudson trying to reignite his relationship with Farrow. It's just pathetic. Beyond the problems with the big name leads, the movie has other issues. Chief among them is a string of nameless, faceless characters that are presented in rapid fashion style that I didn't know or care about. Though I didn't know them, most seemed so annoying I was rooting for them to die. This most likely wasn't the filmmakers were going for. Add to that some poor special effects, ridiculous dialogue, and alcoholism as the punch line to most of the film's jokes and you've got a stinker. I know Producer Roger Corman was trying to cash-in on the 1970s era disaster movie craze. But the budgetary limitations put on the movie by Corman's New World Pictures proved to be the real disaster. Well, that and the Hudson/Farrow relationship debacle.

An avalanche kills people on holiday.Firstly, I should admit that I am a sucker for disaster movies, even those made-for-TV disaster films that came out of the 1970s. Now that we have cleared that up, the review:My main problem with this flick is that we just don't connect to the characters, however the acting of Rock Hudson holds you for the whole time.The scene of the actual avalanche is very well done with cool miniature effects...however I was a bit surprised that obvious stock footage of a real avalanche was sometimes being used. But anyway, whatever, see the flick for this part of the film and don't expect too much from the rest of it.The musical score is very well matched to the disaster of it all, so film score fans might wish to see this movie for the music.In a word, the movie is: average.

Rock Hudson is entrepreneur David Shelby in this production, legendary independent filmmaker Roger Cormans' (belated) contribution to the cycle of disaster films in the 1970s. David doesn't want to let anything stand in the way of his dreams, and he's also still hung up on his younger, estranged ex-wife Caroline Brace (Mia Farrow). David owns & operates a thriving ski resort, and makes the fateful move of deciding to clear some trees from the mountain. Know it all photographer Nick Thorne (Robert Forster) is aware that this is unwise, but his warnings fall on deaf ears. This, of course, paves the way for the event of the title to eventually take place.Yes, the script to this one (by actor turned director Corey Allen and Claude Pola) is uninspired, and one does grow impatient getting through the not terribly interesting stories of the characters. Yes, the acting in "Avalanche" is not so hot, but the actors & characters remain reasonably likable. There are no real villains here; some of the people may make questionable decisions, but there were very few characters that this viewer wanted to die horribly. The photography by Pierre-William Glenn of the wintry landscapes *is* first rate, and may provide some sustenance for viewers who are otherwise bored with the movie. The music by William Kraft also serves its purpose.If one is able to get through the opening half of "Avalanche", they might find the resulting mayhem watchable. The avalanche action is mostly stock footage combined with original footage handled by the very capable, under rated director Lewis Teague, and the action scenes are pretty decent, even if the special effects aren't always up to snuff.There are some fine actors in this thing, even if they're not utilized all that well. Jeanette Nolan plays Davids' lively mother, Rick Moses the conceited star skier Bruce Scott, Steve Franken the perpetually worried looking Henry McDade, Barry Primus the nice guy sportscaster Mark Elliott, and Antony Carbone is Leo the coach."Avalanche" may, in the end, be more for completists of this short lived genre than fans, but it's not totally without entertainment value.Seven out of 10.

Avalanche (1978) ** (out of 4) Rather cheap disaster film has Rock Hudson playing a tycoon who builds a state-of-the-art ski resort even though some warn him that danger could strike. At the opening a photographer (Robert Forster) tries to warn the tycoon once again before taking his ex-wife (Mia Farrow) to bed. Sure enough, the next day an avalanche takes place. This was produced by Roger Corman and I must admit that I was a little shocked to see his name attached to a disaster film. It's clear he stuck to his guns and didn't spend too much money on special effects but it's also clear that everyone involved seems to have wished they were somewhere else. This is a really, really bad movie that is thankfully bad enough to where bad movie lovers will find a few things to be entertained by. I guess we could start with the performances since the majority of them are embarrassingly bad. Just check out the first scene where we see Hudson and look at how badly overacting he is. None of his performance gets better as it's clear he was just picking up a paycheck. Farrow also sleepwalks through her role and Jeanette Nolan gets the part of the elderly woman who tries to give the film a few laughs. Cathy Paine is rather embarrassing as a jilted lover. Other actors fail in cardboard character roles but at least Forster comes off fairly good in his brief, supporting part. The biggest disaster in this disaster flick are the special effects. Corman apparently wanted to skip the majority of the special effects and just buy up stock footage from real avalanches but this is so incredibly silly that it's obvious when this footage comes up. It never makes much sense in terms of what's going on with the avalanche because the footage, when mixed together, seems extremely out of place and the bad editing doesn't help cover this up. When the real effects are used it just seems like fake pieces of ice being thrown around as people scream. One of the dumbest scenes happens with a woman is skiing on some ice as people all around her are screaming and getting crushed yet she never notices. We even get an ultra-cheap explosion where people are so fakely thrown back and into various objects. All of these supposed dramatic moments just contain one laugh after another. I guess the most shocking thing is that this PG-rated film contains several nude scenes including one with a female going full frontal. Fans of the disaster genre will probably want to watch this just so they can say they've seen it all but this is a very bad movie. It's not nearly as awful as WHEN TIME RAN OUT... but it's still pretty bad. Thankfully, it's bad enough and campy enough to get several laughs.