The most interesting thing about an incredibly flat and uninspiring made-for-television creature feature called "Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon" is when one of our supporting characters gives an inept, all-too-obvious homage to the movie "Predator." Remember that classic moment from that wonderful 1987 movie where Sonny Landham mutters: "There's something out there waiting for us. And it ain't no man." Well, just swap the word "man" with "bear" and you've got the only noteworthy thing in the picture "Yeti." It's not noteworthy because it's humorous or nostalgic, but because it's the most pathetic.
The setup is a rehash. A plane crashes in the Himalayan mountains. The survivors scramble out and try to survive in the wilderness. Then one day, they are starting to get picked off by an (initially) unseen creature. They suspect it's a bear. Then they come to realize that "it ain't no bear," but that it's the legendary abominable snowman.
This time our cast is not a group of ordinary Joes and Janes, but a college football team. A bunch of airheaded jocks and flimsy-minded dames. That means they're obnoxious and exasperating, right? They're even more flat and twice as irritating than the shrieking teens who by themselves destroyed the second half of "Jaws 2." And of course, we've got to have the quarterback - the star vehicle of the team - be this goodhearted, noble-minded gent whose madly in love with a female passenger with a past and who must give a big speech every time he has a point to make and yet somehow, despite the lack of sense or clever wording, everybody ends up nodding in the end. And of course, opposing him, you've got to have this nasty, self-content jerk who wants everything to go his way and will gripe whenever they do not.
Clichés, clichés, clichés.
Seriously, if you are involved in the motion picture business - even if you are involved in only low-budget stuff for the weekend - and you are paid to be creative (and must like being creative) why not have some fun and not just tread over the same old stuff before. Whenever I write a science-fiction short story, even if the plot is familiar, I always try in the few whimsical moments I have beforehand to instill something unique. Nobody's paying me to be imaginative? So why can't these folks who write these teleplays put at least half an hour of effort? That's all it takes.
What's more amazing is the lack of thought put into the creature. Or rather, creatures. There's more than one abominable snowman. And actually, they are more like a cross between an orangutan and a cricket, for despite their size and lack of powerful leg muscles, are capable of (in their CGI form) bound incredible lengths and heights in a fraction of a second. Sometimes their legs don't even move and they go flying, like they're on springs buried beneath the snow. These creatures are cut-outs and only exist because the plot says they must. I think the writers put even less effort into creating them...and they're the stars of the show. It's exceeding rare in monster pictures, especially low-budget ones, where the humans are more interesting than the beasties.
To its credit, "Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon" is not as bad as some of its kin. There are some flicks like "Python" that obviously try and fail harder. Maybe the key to making a cheap flick mediocre when there is a lack of talent or ambition aboard is to just not care. Mediocre is better than terrible. Forgettable is better than memorable when it comes to bad movies. And "Yeti" is forgettable.
The setup is a rehash. A plane crashes in the Himalayan mountains. The survivors scramble out and try to survive in the wilderness. Then one day, they are starting to get picked off by an (initially) unseen creature. They suspect it's a bear. Then they come to realize that "it ain't no bear," but that it's the legendary abominable snowman.
This time our cast is not a group of ordinary Joes and Janes, but a college football team. A bunch of airheaded jocks and flimsy-minded dames. That means they're obnoxious and exasperating, right? They're even more flat and twice as irritating than the shrieking teens who by themselves destroyed the second half of "Jaws 2." And of course, we've got to have the quarterback - the star vehicle of the team - be this goodhearted, noble-minded gent whose madly in love with a female passenger with a past and who must give a big speech every time he has a point to make and yet somehow, despite the lack of sense or clever wording, everybody ends up nodding in the end. And of course, opposing him, you've got to have this nasty, self-content jerk who wants everything to go his way and will gripe whenever they do not.
Clichés, clichés, clichés.
Seriously, if you are involved in the motion picture business - even if you are involved in only low-budget stuff for the weekend - and you are paid to be creative (and must like being creative) why not have some fun and not just tread over the same old stuff before. Whenever I write a science-fiction short story, even if the plot is familiar, I always try in the few whimsical moments I have beforehand to instill something unique. Nobody's paying me to be imaginative? So why can't these folks who write these teleplays put at least half an hour of effort? That's all it takes.
What's more amazing is the lack of thought put into the creature. Or rather, creatures. There's more than one abominable snowman. And actually, they are more like a cross between an orangutan and a cricket, for despite their size and lack of powerful leg muscles, are capable of (in their CGI form) bound incredible lengths and heights in a fraction of a second. Sometimes their legs don't even move and they go flying, like they're on springs buried beneath the snow. These creatures are cut-outs and only exist because the plot says they must. I think the writers put even less effort into creating them...and they're the stars of the show. It's exceeding rare in monster pictures, especially low-budget ones, where the humans are more interesting than the beasties.
To its credit, "Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon" is not as bad as some of its kin. There are some flicks like "Python" that obviously try and fail harder. Maybe the key to making a cheap flick mediocre when there is a lack of talent or ambition aboard is to just not care. Mediocre is better than terrible. Forgettable is better than memorable when it comes to bad movies. And "Yeti" is forgettable.