Freezer Burn (2007)

If a person were in northern Japan now, cold and starving after the tsunami, and they could get their hands on some warm hamburger or pork loin, they'd probably wolf it down--even if it had FREEZER BURN. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man gets to write the movie reviews; in the realm of very low-budget, low-actors-on-the-totem pole, backyard special effects science fiction films, FREEZER BURN is slightly better than some.In this movie, acting performances fluctuate between understated and WAY over the top, even by the same cast member. While there may be a couple almost memorable lines of dialog (the best one involves wife Blake saying "whittle" and husband Virgil hearing "wittle" early on), most of it is quite lame. So this spin on ENCINO MAN or SLEEPER comes off as a pale, if mildly diverting, imitation.

Not to be confused with the utterly awful horror/comedy "Freezer Burn: The Invasion of Laxdale", this film has Virgil Stamp, a scientist experimenting with cryogenics, deciding to test it on himself after his marriage turns sour and he develops an affection for his wife's 14 year old student, Emma, after growing enamored with her paintings. (his wife understandable throws a fit and destroys his previous research when she finds out). His plan is to thaw himself back out after Emma gets to be the age he was before freezing himself. Needless to say, things don't go as planned.The acting in the film is a tad sub-par. That and the numerous badly done 'winks' to other films made me not like it as much as I could have. The film also feels like it could've been edited down a bit more as it drags in parts. The plot itself was interesting (hence why i Netflix-ed this) but the execution left me wanting.My Grade: D+DVD Extras: 23 minute short film: Final defrostification of Virgil Stamp (an extremely edited cut of the film which actually plays better); gag reel; posters; trailer for this movie; and trailers for "He's on my Mind" &"the GARTH Method""

i watched this under a friend's recommendation, & my only problem was, given the title, the obviously low budget, & the fact it involved scientists working in a cheapo lab, i naturally assumed it was going to morph into some sort of sci-fi (that's right, we still spell it that way, SyFy!!) horror film--the Rampage of the Hideous Freezer Demon, or something. but once i got past that, & settled into the film's rhythms, i was pleasantly surprised. i won't bother w/a plot synopsis, but suffice-to-say, it's a very original product, a light but dark anti-romantic comedy. sure, you can laugh that the petri dishes they use in their "lab" are in fact tin-foil take-out containers, but as a veteran of many even LOWER budget productions than this, i can tell you that the level of direction, writing, acting & the consistency of tone they achieve is extremely difficult under those circumstances, & all the more impressive for it. keep your mind open, look past the obvious short-comings, & you'll have a good time most Hollywood dreck can't provide...

It's hard to say exactly what I expected from this movie going into it.It has the appearance of a turkey in the way it's executed but none the less I personally was relatively entertained and I have nothing to do with the production team. I could see how some people watching this could, if it caught them on the wrong day, hate this movie.It's a pretty unusual plot to start with, although I think the plot outline is somewhat misleading on the sensational "sidesteps the issue of age by freezing himself till its not an issue" thing. Yes that does happen but this movie is really about an inventor who is mildly a 'dweeb' who is in a relationship that is imbalanced against him and has a lab partner who is unreliable and a bad luck magnet. He invents successful cryogenics but because of everything else in his life the invention comes only in time to spare him the pain of his present existence, so he freezes himself on the off chance that he can rely on his unreliable side kick and that in the future things will go how he wants them to, but of course that's not the case.The laughs are understated, that's for sure, but I found the events not obvious and better for that. it doesn't go well for him, and if anything it's a little too realistic on the actual problems our protagonists plans might hit. Hollywood would gloss over these in order to give us a whiz bang story of sci fi adventure, where as this movie investigates all the bits Hollywood would ignore, and I found it interesting for that.Yes it is budget cinema, that's plainly obvious from the get go, and the delivery has a light comedy feel where perhaps it would have been better with something a little darker. The sets are rough and although the acting is not crap no actor manages to pull off a stunner, they all have good moments, but then they all have some bad ones too. Nothing a multimillion dollar budget couldn't fix I'm sure.a lot hinges on Robert Harriell's performance and that's perhaps where this movie trips in that he's not a particularly likable or dis-likable character. Maybe that's the delicate middle ground they wanted to take with this movie, but it would have appealed to more people if they'd made more of a decision on dark or light.Special mention to Michael Consiglio for his shifty unreliable side kick part. There were some funny throw away lines delivered well from him, he was charmingly a jerk and funny for it.In summary I didn't hate this movie. It's definitely not an indie award winner but it's not without merit either only if you manage to be in the right mood to overlook the productions flaws. Given that it's the first movie for the director and writer the next one could well be better as they all learn the craft.I give it 6.5 for an interesting concept and addressing non obvious plot points.