With the sub zero temperatures that lingered around us all week, I was in no hurry to watch Freezer. I get tired of winter pretty quickly, and I find it hilarious that EVERYBODY wants snow in December (but despises it not even a month later). I guess that’s the joy of Ohio sometimes…
Freezer is a thriller starring Dylan McDermott (American Horror Story, The Practice) as unlucky Robert. Robert was celebrating his birthday at a fancy restaurant in New York City. When he excuses himself to the restroom, he is blindsided and kidnapped by the Russian mafia.
Robert is locked in a large meat locker, and awakens at the beginning of the movie bound on the floor. After he manages to free himself from these restraints, 2 Russian mafia thugs come inside and begin beating him. Unfortunately, they don’t speak English and Robert doesn’t speak Russian.
They leave, and come back later with Alisa (Yuliya Snigir). She speaks English, and demands that Robert return the $8 million dollars he stole from them. Robert tries to explain his innocence to no avail, and the Russians begin removing pieces of his clothing until he talks.
Freezer takes the idea of Saw and combines it with Die Hard aspects. The movie is a descent popcorn flick, and McDermott does a good job carrying the movie. It’s a little predictable, but still manages to toss a few twists as well.
When Saw opens, two men find themselves chained across a large dirty bathroom from each other. Freezer opens with Robert being tossed to the floor and waking up inside the freezer. He pieces the story together much like the characters do in Saw, but he brings dialogue that I found had to be inspired by John McClane (Ironically, Snigir starred in A Good Day to Die Hard.). He’s constantly standing up to the mafia and cracking jokes. (He doesn’t say “Yippee ki yay, motherfucker”, but he should have.)
McDermott, who I find to be a good actor that manages to play fairly bland roles, gets a chance to act out of his element here. He manages to pull this off well, and he’s good enough to carry the movie through the slow waiting periods that happen during isolation films. His character transitions on a dime and when necessary, and he carries an air of intrigue to Robert.
Unfortunately, that “air of intrigue” allows your mind to wander to all of the possible endings to this film. Freezer is fairly predictable as the film gets going, but it still manages to elude revealing a few twists, turns, and reasoning at its conclusion. I guessed it quite early, but sat back and enjoyed the finale as well.
Freezer just came out on DVD January 21 (I just got my screener a few days ago.) and it is worth a watch. I enjoyed it, but now I just really want to watch Die Hard.