Director: Dominic Sena
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Tom Skerritt, Gabriel Macht, Columbus Short, Alex O'Loughlin, Shawn Doyle, Joel S. Keller, Jesse Todd, Arthur Holden, Erin Hickock, Bashar Rahal, Julian Cain, Steve Lucescu, Paula Jean Hixson, Marc James Beauchamp
Cert: 15
Region: B
Length: 101mins
Video: AVC, 1080p, 2.35:1
Audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Stereo 2.0 LPCM
Languages: English
Subtitles: English (HOH)
Number of Discs: 1

A harsh environment like the Antarctic is a great place to set a thriller. Sadly Whiteout boasts neither the claustrophobic tension of John Carpenter's The Thing nor the throat-shredding thrills of 30 Days of Night, with Dominic 'Swordfish' Sena instead opting for a stale murder mystery with a killer that even Inspector Clouseau would have no trouble sniffing out.

Only a fool would cover up that face

U.S. Deputy Marshal Carrie Stetko (Beckinsale) is the kind of ridiculously attractive woman who gets assigned to a desolate outpost in these kinds of movies - you know, because Hollywood doesn't 'do' ugly. After a prolonged shower scene, Carrie confides in her friend Dr. John Fury (Skerritt) that she's in Antarctica for a bit of peace and quiet but - uh-oh spagettios! - a body winds up in her lap (well, technically on the ice) and suddenly she's racing to solve the murder before the bad weather leaves her stranded on the base for another 6 months. It soon transpires that the dead man was part of a geology team digging in the ice nearby, but the big question is what did they find and why did they start killing each other over it? Or at least it would be if we hadn't already seen a Russian airplane carrying valuable cargo crash land in the very first frickin' scene, putting us so far ahead of the characters that there just aren't any surprises. The idea is to reveal clues slowly, not lay them on a plate and then ask your audience to piece them together. Doh!

The pacing is also way off. In one scene Beckinsale is desperately scrambling to get away from a masked man wielding an axe and then suddenly it's the next day and her injured hand has been conveniently bandaged by her pilot friend, Delfy - himself a possible suspect. Director Sena mistakenly thinks getting through each scene as fast as possible equates to a fast-paced thrill ride. It doesn't. It just disorientates the audience. Later, when Carrie, Delfy and Gabriel Macht's shady U.N operative share a bottle of vodka in a stalled snow plough, the chance to get to know these characters better is wasted as the plot kicks back in almost immediately with the discovery of more dead bodies. This cutting of corners also leads to numerous plot inconsistencies: Skerritt tells us several times that the freezing outdoor temperatures can kill a person within minutes yet Beckinsale never wears a face mask. Meanwhile the masked killer is able to appear anywhere, any time. In a freakin' blizzard.