The Frozen Ground (2013): Ugh, This Movie [Joey’s Review]

by Joey Lewandowski · Published January 13, 2016 · Updated November 19, 2017

THE FROZEN GROUND is not the worst Cage film to date. However, it may be the most disappointing because, on paper, it should be so much better than it is. An atmospheric thriller based on a true story starring Cage and John Cusack and Dean Norris, set in Alaska in 1983 — with Cage tasked to find a serial killer? So great! I’d watch this movie! Except I did watch this movie, and it just falls flat in about every way. The writer/director only has one other credit to his name (some short film in 2005), but interviews seem to suggest that this is “90 percent” the movie he wanted to make. If that’s true, I do not really want to see his next movies.

One of the big problems in this movie is Vanessa Hudgens, who sort of falls victim to the Diane Kruger Effect, even though that’s what the part calls for. This film comes at a time where she’s firmly in “break free from my High School Musical reputation,” except the problem here is that she’s so much more successful in shaking her past with SPRING BREAKERS, which is better in nearly every way. (No Cage is the only downside. Oh man, Cage in the James Franco role? I may hate it, but also… I may love it.)

I honestly don’t have much to say about this movie. It’s so bland and boring… actually, hold on. Let’s figure out if Cage would be good in Spring Breakers. James Franco is absolutely perfect in that role, so part of me doesn’t want for his part to be touched. But would Cage work in the role? He’s (considerably) older than Franco, which is a strike against him; he would have been 48 or 49 when Harmony Korine shot that film; Franco was 34 or 35. The two actors share a history; Franco starred in SONNY, Cage’s only directorial effort, in a part that Cage wanted to play earlier in his career.

He and Franco share the same kind of manic energy, and I absolutely believe Korine could have gotten peak Cage in that part. I really think the only thing holding him back is his age. A 34-year-old guy bailing college-aged spring breakers out of prison is one thing; a 49-year-old doing it? HARD PASS.