New on Netflix: The Snowman

in movies •  5 years ago 

While this film is not "new" in the purest sense (it was made in 2017,) it is new in the sense that it is being pushed on Netflix right now at least in my area. It has a big budget, lots of stars, and a decent enough story in a thriller genre, but unfortunately, it is a massive snowy disappointment.

As always, I try to avoid all spoilers but if you like to enter a film blind you may wish to skip this

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Basically, i don't think this film is very good and for the most part it is not something I consider to be valuable. I believe that that they use the fact that there is a snowman involved to try to capitalize on their level of Christmas films but I can go ahead and confirm now that this movie has absolutely nothing to do with the Christmas spirit and unlike Die-Hard, i don't think there is really any wiggle-room for argument here.

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To keep this brief and spoiler-free I'll just be vague and say that in Oslo, Norway there is a killer that has emerged that instead of just killing seems to taunt the victims as well as authorities with riddles all based around a snowman (hence, the name of the film) and while we are only show bits of it, the killer stalks their victims by creating a snowman around their property to get them all freaked out before killing them.

For me, this portion of the film was ridiculous. I grew up in Nebraska where the winters are absolutely brutal, and even though i left there when i was 12 I know that there are only very specific temperature-specific situations in which snowman-creation is even possible at all. So that part of the movie made me upset. It also is very unlikely that you are going to be able to make an entire snowman without being noticed since by the end of it all, the bottom portion of your average snowman probably weighs as much as a person and used all the snow in the yard.

Ok, let's get away from the physical impossibility of a stealth-op and just focus on the good parts of the film.

Pros!


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  • It was nice to see a non-fat, non-drug-addled Val Kilmer starring in this film... although i strongly believe that his lines may actually have been overdubbed because they don't seem to match his mouth in the scenes
  • Most of the acting in an overall sense is actually very good and it is always a welcome addition to have J.K. Simmons in a film although his part in the movie is very brief.
  • The scenery is stunning: I want to travel to visit Norway after seeing this film. I know lots of Norwegian people and none of them mentioned the beauty that this place possesses.
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    This bridge scene in particular, i gotta find that spot some day man

Cons


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this is about as scary as it gets!

  • Even though i mentioned before that i was happy to see Val Kilmer in this film not looking like he recently polished off both a buffet and a bus of meth, it appears as though his lines are overdubbed - which i wouldn't find surprising at all if that were true given his track record.
  • The story is exceptionally difficult to follow and once the big ending happens there are a LOT of things that could have made arriving at that conclusion impossible... it's just too convoluted and doesn't make a great deal of sense
  • The film takes place in Norway and everyone is speaking English with a WIDE variety of accents. There is a very real lack of continuity here. I know that most Norwegian people speak English, but no one in this film speaks English with a Norwegian accent.... also no one ever speaks Norwegian... ever.
  • The biggest con? It's quite boring for the most part. Combine this with the fact that you have a really difficult time figuring WTF is going on, and it just doesn't make sense that this was made at all.

Overall conclusion

I think that since this film is 2 years old and has a snowy theme, we can conclude that it is pulled out of the closet every year during Christmas in order to lure people into watching it under the auspices that it is going to be a fun thriller or even a horror movie. It is none of these things.

In the end we have a mess of a movie that has too much going on at once and a villain that once they are revealed is so removed from the entire thing that it doesn't make even an iota of sense that they would ever have been who we were looking for in the first place. It isn't a "gotcha!" moment... it is a "oh give me a fucking break!" moment.

This film is not good and i suspect that is why they didn't make it available (at least obviously) on Netflix until the past couple of weeks.

This movie can easily be skipped and I recommend that you do precisely that. If you want to see a good thriller. Go watch a Korean movie and read the subtitles such as "Memories of Murder," I Saw the Devil," or if you are one of the few people unaware of it "Oldboy." None of these movies have anything to do with Christmas... but to be fair, neither does "The Snowman."

My overall rating 3 / 10


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Skipt it HARDER of this one!

i had high hopes for this one.... so much good stuff wasted.

@tipu curate

I remember when the trailers came out for this movie it make it look like it was really creepy and intense. I was thinking to myself, I don't know if I would be able to watch that. Now that you talk about it, I feel pretty ridiculous. You were so spot on with your description of making a snowman. It is pretty laughable to think that any of that would ever be possible. It's gotta be that wet stuff otherwise you are screwed!

yeah, you can't just grab any ol snow and snowman it up. You'll just end up with a snow clump :P

I remember that when I had my Netflix account I was recommended this movie, I saw the trailer, but if I'm honest with you, it didn't catch my attention at all - I see my intuition didn't fail.

Did you ever see Bird Box? What did you think of the movie?

I liked Bird Box, but there was a lot of holes in the story. I thought it was good and that Sanda Bullock did a wonderful job, but I wasn't as 'gaga" about it as it seems a lot of the rest of the world was.

I thought it was interesting to be "blind" and that's why I saw it, if I'm honest with you, I didn't think it was a big deal. I highly recommend you A Quiet Place, I enjoyed that film like no other, it's too good (I personally liked it a lot)

lol, a Quiet Place kind of ticked me off with its inconsistency. I mean, why wouldn't they just live next to the waterfall? Also, what happens to these beasties during a thunderstorm? Do they just ravage the hell out of everything. It was a pretty decent film, but not without its flaws.

Well, you mention those points, and it doesn't look so great anymore hahaha. I will keep my favorite: Avengers

I'm surprised it got a 3 rating gooddream. lol. I didn't even know Val Kilmer was acting again. I've seen a couple of previews over the years but haven't seen him in anything.

The last thing I saw him in was Heat and I loved him in Tombstone. This is a great review though, I've seen the previews and wondered about it but no more so thanks!

well it's got great production value, it is just a hole-filled story and by the time it is finished you regret having wasted your time.

And now I won't be tempted thanks to your review! They can make anything look so good in the previews so you have no idea really.

oh and Val Kilmer's Doc Holiday role is one that lives in infamy. What happened to that guy? I think the Batman curse got him.

lol! Indeed. He got real fat and then I read somewhere that he had cancer and then drug problems..I don't know but I think he's been through it! I hope he stays healthy and makes a comeback if he isn't already.