[Movies] Ice Men

Most movies with any amount of gay influence tend to be rather hit-or-miss in terms of success or worth. A lot of them go largely unnoticed by most movie goers since (1) they tend to come out of small film production groups and (2) they expect these movies to be just about sex.

Ice Men is one of those movies that are a tad harder to classify. Many might consider it to be a blatantly gay film if only for (1) the presence of a gay character and (2) the fact that there is gay sex in the movie. However this is hardly at the core of the story nor is the sex scene all that gratuitous (hell, there's worse yet) so what is this movie, really? That becomes the real question.

Like most small productions, you probably won't recognize most of the actors involved in Ice Men, which can be a good thing since it's hard to peg who the main character is without the added star power. My partner and I started this movie thinking it had gay overtones, so half the time we were trying to figure out who the gay characters and eventually who the gay actors could be and who were probably straight. Yeah, that can be distracting too, so I'd recommend you not think of this as a gay movie. It helps, I assure you.

But there will be gay sex. Sorry to spoil things in that light, but some of you need to know that going into this venture.

What the movie is really about is how a group of friends who had been close for most of their lives separate for a few years and when they come together for a reunion in a far off cabin, they learn how all of them have grown and changed. Thus, the film tries to deal with these changes and how the characters respond.

This is why it was good to employ actors you won't recognize unless you pay close attention to the TV shows you watch - it's really an ensemble piece, so the success of the movie depends on how genuine their interactions are.

A lot of the movie might leave you a bit confused since the writers seem to have employed the classic you've-come-in-at-the middle-of-the-story trick as a plot device. The characters seem a bit extreme and a smidge hammy at times but more or less it seems to work in the long run. It's not the most amazing or mind-blowing story to come along, but it certainly helps pass the time for a bit.

The interplay between the characters gets somewhat better as the movie progresses and the writers really had a field day thinking of left field ideas to really throw things off-kilter. Kudos to them for that, haha.

So if you're looking for something out of the ordinary to watch on a slow weekend afternoon, this is the movie for you. Yes, I say that even with the incidental gay sex scene for all your heterosexual readers out there. There's a straight one too if that helps balance things out, haha.