The title of this thriller from Dominic Sena (Swordfish) is supposed to describe a brutal Antarctic storm, but what's more likely to come to mind is the goop the film's phalanx of writers used to blot out boos-boos while revising the script. Starting from a graphic novel, Sena has turned out your standard TV crime show bloated with a monstrous FX budget.
Call it CSI: Antarctica — and given its confines and its harsh conditions, the continent is a pretty neat place for a whodunit. But the intrigue ebbs long before the climactic storm crashes down on the smattering of generic players.
Kate Beckinsale, who proved a passable action hero in the Underworld series, is oddly demure as Carrie Stetko, the US marshal trying to figure out who hacked up a trio of geologists at a remote research base. The answers she gets come in a blizzard of cheap artifice that'll leave your sensibilities cold.