The white stuff: wintry films to beat the summer heat

Escape summer and chill out with these wintry films. Leigh Paatsch selects five movies with a snowy theme to stream as Liam Neeson’s new flick, Cold Pursuit, hits cinemas.

On the eve of Liam Neeson’s wintry revenge thriller Cold Pursuit rolling into cinemas tomorrow, here are five more streaming picks where there’s ice, snow and below-zero temperatures …

Chris Evans in a scene from film Snowpierce r.

SNOWPIERCER (2013)

Stan

****1/2

A slyly innovative action picture. Everyone in the world dies in a snap freeze, except for those aboard a luxury bullet train. An interior security system — wherein carriages are nations unto themselves — keeps everyone in their place. This ambitious combo of the high-concept and the high-octane is an experience best seen (almost literally) cold. Stars Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton.

Liam Neeson (right) stars in The Grey.

THE GREY (2011)

Foxtel Now, Stan

***

Liam Neeson plays the self-appointed leader of a small band of survivors of a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness. One by one, Neeson’s drab offsiders are picked off by a pack of killer super-wolves. Anticipating when these biting machines might attack turns out to be much more fun than enduring how they always do attack (the pulling apart of humans like cheap jam doughnuts gets old quickly).

Arjay Smith (left) and Jake Gyllenhaal in The Day After Tomorrow.

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (2004)

Netflix

****1/2

Batten down the hatches and brace yourself for the weather bulletin from hell. Accelerated global warming triggers a new Ice Age in this gripping disaster flick from the makers of Independence Day. Despite the piecemeal plotting, the film’s immensely convincing depiction of a world at war with its weather makes for a spectacle as terrifying as it is exciting. Stars Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal and Emmy Rossum.

A scene from film Vertical Limit.

VERTICAL LIMIT (2000)

Google, iTunes

***1/2

Chris O’Donnell leads a band of merry mountaineers (including Australia’s own Ben Mendelsohn in crusty comic-relief mode) on a rescue mission to prevent his sister (Robin Tunney) and her millionaire boyfriend (Bill Paxton) from perishing inside an icebound cave near the summit of K2. An altitude-addling experience that ranks with Sly Stallone’s big-fights-at-great-heights classic, Cliffhanger.

EIGHT BELOW (2006)

Foxtel Now

***

Quality Disney family entertainment, telling the incredible story of a group of husky dogs left to fend for themselves during a harsh winter at an Antarctic base station. The most impressive aspect is how hard the film works to give each of the dogs a recognisable personality. Pity the same can’t be said of the human cast, led by Paul Walker and Jason Biggs.