Just perfect...

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

"Happy f*ckin' birthday" "Freezer" is like a refrigerator at someones home who suffers from bulimia. Empty and cold. Don't expect panoramic images, because the whole film is set in an enclosed area of a few square meters. You only get a few glimpses of other locations in the beginning of the film and in the end. For the rest it's a desolate view of the inside of a cooling room with some hunks of meat hanging from the ceiling and also a whole range of iron shelves with boxes. And strangely enough, in between an infiltrator comes crawling out of a shelf where he was tucked away for some time. But that's the last thing I will tell you, otherwise there's nothing left from this unlikely,far-fetched thin story.When a complete movie takes place in one specific area, then it can only be successful by using a surprising twist in a clever put together story that takes you by surprise. A movie like "Devil", which is almost exclusively set in an elevator, was equipped with such an original story. "Freezer" is a total failure in this part and the denouement is really exaggerated and far-fetched. Well it didn't warm me up. How appropriate! Robert (Dylan McDermott) is the unfortunate mechanic who awakes in a cooling room, with a plastic bag over his head and his hands and feet tied with straps. He has no idea where he is, but soon realizes it's terribly cold in there. After a while two sturdy guys come in who start beating him up. Robert realizes that something is not quite all right and that he's in an awkward and difficult position. Usually you'll come to that conclusion after you get a hard punch in your stomach and you find your lunch spread all over the floor. The Russian tough guys know only one English word: "Money." Apparently they are seeking for 8 million dollars they've lost. And they claim that Robert has pinched this considerable sum of money.What follows is a fairly monotonous routine in which the two Russian mobsters disappear and reappear. Soon after they are also accompanied by a Russian tough lady called Alisa (Yuliya Snigir), who seemed to be quite superior at first, but after wards appeared to be just another third-rate accomplice. Between these interludes Robert tries to save himself out of this situation and starts to search for a possible escape route. If I were him, I would have emptied the fire extinguisher unceremoniously in the face of the gangsters at the time they walked into the freezer and subsequently crush the empty fire extinguisher on their Russian heads. I guess the cold hindered the ability to think.The story itself is already wafer-thin. So what about the performances? About the gangsters we can be short and concise. Ultimately they are just mindless hulks and that's how they perform. Plain stupid. Snigir was very convincing in the beginning but then the overacting arose and it soon changed into a sad spectacle. The only one who could get my approval was McDermott. Although his situation looked desperate, he tried to pervade it with subtle and humorous conversations. But that didn't save the movie. He did save his face though. An admirable performance in a meaningless movie. I think he really looks like David Schwimmer (Ross from the sitcom "Friends"). It reminded me of that episode where Chandler got stuck in an ATM vestibule. But that's aside.There were also some rarities in this movie that left some question-marks. Apparently this cold room was already used before. Wouldn't it be appropriate to remove some dangerous items such as meat hooks and a fire extinguisher ? And apparently it wasn't that cold in there because there were no freezing phenomena. Not even a little cloud in the air as they were speaking. And after removing his shoes, Robert had difficulties to stand on his feet because of the so called freezing cold. Seems that plastic brings salvation ? And after wards, although the temperature was even lower, it didn't look like it bothered him. And how you can make a glowing stove with only two electrical wires and an iron rack, remains a mystery to me.If I ever want to watch a movie again with frost in it, I'll look for the umpteenth time "Frozen" again together with my two kids. There's more story, tension and content in this wonderful Walt Disney movie than in this would-be thriller ...More reviews at http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/

Robert (Dylan McDermott) wakes up in a walk-in freezer with hands and feet bound. It's his birthday and has no memory of how he got there. Door is locked from the outside. And, it's getting colder and colder. What to do? What to do?Okay, I get it. There will be some big twist at the end so I decided to hang for a while or until Robert dies from hypothermia. Shouldn't be too long. Maybe this is one of those Hollywood Short Shorts we hear about and never see. Hmmmm……..Two Russian heavies come in and demand to know where the money is and, of course, Robert has no way of knowing what they are talking about. They beat him up pretty good. Later, more Russians come in but this time Alisa (Yulia Snigir) is with them and she, too, is asking for the money. Robert gets beat up again. They leave. The Russians want their money: $8-million. The Russians come and they go and the beatings continue and they take his shoes (oh, no, not that!). You know for a small room there seems to be more foot traffic in this freezer than there is at Grand Central Station. Later Robert discovers he is not alone. There is a wounded cop in with him. Robert finds a telephone and calls the police, but he cannot tell them where he is. He has no idea where he is. Did the phone belong to the wounded cop? Is the cop dirty? Is the cop that answered the phone dirty too? Can anyone be trusted? So this is how it goes and Robert is getting closer to freezing to death, but keeps looking for a way out or to stop the freezing . I kept yelling at the screen for him to knock out the fans, but the freezer impaired his hearing. Bummer. I have to admit the dialogues and the acting carry this film. We are now fully engaged. (Who would have thought? ) Let's review: Robert in a freezer, gets beat up many times by the Russians, the woman seems softer and may be able to help, but she makes Robert take his clothes off – so no help there, many fights break out with Robert getting the worst of them. Then the big crime boss comes into the freezer to get his money and wait a minute: did I hear Robert speak Russian? So there is something more to this. I have to admit that for a limited space in the freezer I was kept in suspense and Robert's quips may have saved him at times, but the Russians need him alive to find the money. And, then it happens, the twist. Told ya. All in all this is pretty good. Great acting performances from McDermott and the supporting cast and great dialogues and some things we are not told until the very end. That is what twists are all about. Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes.

In this confusing mess of a movie, Dylan McDermott stars as Robert Saunders (why he's even in this film is the first good question to ask). At the beginning of the film Robert finds his hands and feet bound, and that he's locked into a meat freezer, where the average survival time is 3-4 hours before hypothermia kicks in.He's soon visited by two Russian mobsters, and we slowly learn that $8 million of the Russian mob's money is missing, and they think Robert knows where it is. What's amazing is that no matter how perilous and dire Robert's situation gets, he's always able to come up with a Cagney or Bogart-like wise-crack, like you'd see in a 1940's B-movie. Since this is kept up the entire film, it can quite annoying after a while.Various characters will enter and depart from the freezer, including an undercover NYPD Narcotics Detective (Peter Facinelli), who's clinging to life under a box of meat. Also, another NYPD Detective (David McNally) who manages to get a call through to Robert but mysteriously doesn't seem in any hurry to help him.Of course, we must have a beautiful Russian woman come onto the scene, as that would be Alisa (Yuliya Snigir) who apparently was the "mule" that brought the $8 million up from Miami and is also the girlfriend of the son of the Russian mob boss Oleg.As the story continues, the various twists and surprises get more and more ridiculous and convoluted. I would suggest that you don't try and figure them out or your brain cells may freeze-up from "Freezer".

I saw this movie based on a preview I saw and the preview made it seem promising. So I saw it. Mercifully the movie was less that 90 minutes. My summary-You just won't care-is an actual line used in the movie when Alisa (Yuliya Snigir) tells Robert (Dylan McDermott) that he will get so cold (he's trapped in a freezer-hence the title) that "you will crawl into a cold, dark corner and wait for death. And the worst thing will be, you just won't care." At the end of this movie, it summed up how I felt: I just didn't care. This movie progressed steadily from some rather inexplicable scenes to totally over-the-wall inexplicable scenes. The most charitable things I can say are Dylan McDermott looks good for his age (52) and Yuliya Snigir is very pretty. Beyond that maybe OK for a cheap rental at home when you've seen whatever else it is you wanted to see. I will say some of Robert's cheeky lines did help to lift the movie up a little. Otherwise I would have given this movie a 2. All in all I was disappointed and expected better.