Snowbound: The Jim and Jennifer Stolpa Story (1994)

Pretty Good

A different way of telling a story

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Having this on real, old fashioned, vintage VHS, I plugged it in tonight for a blast from the past. Through all the cheese, and swan music, I still found a good story with lots of beautiful chillingly cold scenery. And even the music sounded surprisingly good played through my old Dolby receiver. One thing I didn't like about this film is how they portrayed them getting stuck in the first place. Here's a military soldier suddenly plowing into a thick snow covered road, as if he had no warning, while playing some kind of word game with his wife next to him in the car. And then trying to go further up the snow covered road instead of backing out. There must have been more to the real story.I felt the final recovery efforts, and the people involved, were glanced over at the end. I would have liked to see much more of these people and their efforts. For example, the ham radio operator who made the initial call for help after Jim found him.Overall, not a horrible movie. And fun to see Neil Patrick Harris just after his Doogie Howser days.

warning some parts of this review have spoiler material if you actually want to watch this movie before reading reviews don't read this until you have seen the movie.let me start off by saying that Jim must have not been very smart when it came to driving.Because all he ever did was keep getting both of them into a hole. The movie was way to predictable and the music sucked because every time they were in trouble it just seemed like they would play a really nice song. The reason why i say this movie was predictable is probably because the real Jim and Jennifer Stolpa should have predicted what would happen if you just drove into 2 feet deep snow,you'll get stuck. the actors were not extremely bad because they really got the stupidity down but they didn't even look like they really did when they show the real Jim and Jennifer Stolpa. But anyway it was a okay story to make a movie but i think it would be better if they made their own story that would be like the Jim and Jennifer Stolpa story but they shouldn't have used Jim and Jennifer Stolpas real story.

This is about as good as a made for TV movie gets. The screenplay goes back and forth from the young couple stranded in their truck in a vast, frozen, and deserted wasteland to the desperate parents trying to find them. The movie draws you in as the various authorities, like the California Highway Patrol, search for days when the couple go missing-- with no luck. Meanwhile, Jim, Jennifer, and their baby are in a desperate life or death situation. They are 50 miles from the nearest town on a back road, in a blizzard, and no one knows they are actually in Northern Nevada. There is no one to help them. No people at all just sagebrush, snow, and rock across a wintry dark and deserted high desert valley. Having lived in Northeast California, I can attest to the frozen desolation the Stolpas faced in Northern Nevada. This movie captures that scenery well with the on location shots. The story is interesting, the acting and writing is decent, and the scenery is beautiful. The ending is incredible! I recommend this movie!

SPOILER contained (although I would do you a favor if I... spoiled the film for you and thus prevented you from watching it!)It's hard to start describing the amount of stupidity and... corniness amassed in this TV-film. I thought the script-writer was aiming for the brain-dead section of TV-market until I saw the (real) Stolpas appearing in a picture at the end of the film. Was this a sign that they had given their consent for this film after watching it or were they just happy to... "be on the TV"? Anyway, to make things worse, the director makes every scene look so predictable that it really gets on your nerves. Sad to see Michael Gross (I) (of classic TV sitcom "Family Ties") play in this flick!