To Brave Alaska (1996) (TV)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Bruce Pittman

Writer (WGA):

Carol Mendelsohn (written by)

Release Date:

3 November 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama

Plot:

True story of a yuppie couple's Alaskan trip turning into a wilderness survival struggle. |

Plot Keywords:

Yuppie | Survival | Wilderness | Couple | Hunger

Cast

Alyssa Milano	...	Denise Harris
Cameron Bancroft	...	Roger Lewis
Winston Rekert	...	Bill DeCreeft
Paul Dignard	...	Budd Sills
Duncan Fraser	...	Wylie Bennett
Jason Gaffney	...	Steve the Pilot
Philip Granger	...	Mike McCarthy
Barbara Tyson	...	Barbara DeCreeft
Timothy Webber	...	Bar Patron

Also Known As:

Braving Alaska (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Jaffe/Braunstein Films

Bland as they come, yet watchable.

Sometimes when you have an hour or so to kill you do feel like a good television movie. Since they are usually of the dire variety, it can be hard to sit still and pay attention, or even give a damn. But every so often one comes along that actually manages to keep you in your seat for its duration. Whilst To Brave Alaska is by no means a great film, or really deserves any worthwhile praise, it certainly stops you from feeling bored for a while. The plot centres on ex-policeman Roger Lewis and ex-waitress Denise Harris, a doting young couple who have decided to trade in their old lives and move to Alaska in search of gold. They're about as goofy and bland as loved up couples come, but are more than willing to pack up their lives, and their dog, and go live in peace and get back to nature as they make their fortune. They fly out to an extremely remote area, and at first live quite happily. Yet their supplies are diminishing quickly, and the next due batch hasn't arrived. Days go by, and the couple get more and more concerned. Eventually, with the gold they have found, they decide to travel miles to the nearest town for food. Naturally, they get lost along the way, and a vicious storm is brewing, ready to stop them at every turn. Roger and Denise soon find themselves being tested to their limits, as arguments and quarrels ensue, and any hope of being found is slipping steadily away.

I won't bother to give away the ending to the film, but you have to have an abysmally low IQ to not have guessed by now. To Brave Alaska employs all the usual norms of the genre; pretty actors, courage over adversity, opening credits championing it as a true story, and so on. It's unoriginality and banality is overpowering, but these are also quite endearing factors. Bar a few examples, we expect these films to be this bad. They're just a good excuse to indulge in a bit of rubbish every now and again when we get a free moment. Alyssa Milano and Cameron Bancroft run the show, and both are really good at giving moody, supposedly sexy looks when things aren't going as they had planned. But whilst I liked both actors, I couldn't help but notice how the dog was constantly upstaging them. When that happens, you know you're in some scalding hot water. The occasional flashbacks in black and white only added to my frustration at how poor the whole experience was. But, for all that, it still entertained me. Naturally, I forgot about it ten minutes afterwards, but it's nice to know films like this exist when nothing else will cure your boredom. At least there weren't any abused children or victims of rape either, so that's one small mercy.