Roger Corman might have been a tad late when it came to jumping on the 70's disaster flick bandwagon, but what this item lacks in fancy large scale scope it more than compensates for with a deliciously tacky surplus of cheap'n'cheerful exploitation cinema thrills.Loud and huffy millionaire David Shelby (broadly essayed with blustery brio by Rock Hudson) is on the verge of opening his posh new ski resort in the Colorado mountains. Crusading environmentalist photographer Nick Thorne (a solid and engaging performance by the ever-reliable Robert Forster) tries to warn Shelby about the threat of a possible avalanche to no avail. Among the guests attending the gala event are Shelby's estranged wife Caroline (a winningly warm portrayal by a radiant Mia Farrow) and Shelby's sassy fireplug mother Florence (Jeanette Nolan, who brings plenty of delightful spark to her role).Director Corey Allen, who also co-wrote the compact script with Claude Pola, keeps the familiar, yet still engrossing and entertaining story moving along at a brisk pace, makes neat use of the breathtaking rocky and wintry landscape, and pulls out all the hysterically absurd and exciting stops once the titular catastrophe occurs. And boy does this baby kick into priceless kitschy overdrive when that happens: Cocky champion skier Bruce Scott (hunky Rick Moses) tries (and fails) to outrace the avalanche, a pretty figure skater gets taken out while in the middle of her swirling routine, and a sexy neurotic gal (foxy brunette Cathey Paine) winds up buying it just as she's about to commit suicide by overdosing on pills. Barry Primus acquits himself well as smooth reporter Mark Elliott. Steven Franken also contributes a sound turn as uptight book keeper Henry McDade. The (far from) special effects are hilariously hokey: The massive chunks of snow are clearly made out of Styrofoam and the poorly matted in snow has an odd bluish hue in several scenes. A wild sequence depicting a snow mobile race in which the participants play dirty rates as a definite sidesplitting highlight; the fact that the folks in charge of rescuing any survivors prove to be even more dangerous than the avalanche supplies additional unintentional belly laughs. Both William Kraft's lively score and Pierre-William Glenn's crisp cinematography are up to par. As a yummy extra plus, there's even a decent sprinkling of tasty gratuitous female nudity. A real campy hoot and a half.

Avalanche (1978) ** (out of 4) Rather cheap disaster film has Rock Hudson playing a tycoon who builds a state-of-the-art ski resort even though some warn him that danger could strike. At the opening a photographer (Robert Forster) tries to warn the tycoon once again before taking his ex-wife (Mia Farrow) to bed. Sure enough, the next day an avalanche takes place. This was produced by Roger Corman and I must admit that I was a little shocked to see his name attached to a disaster film. It's clear he stuck to his guns and didn't spend too much money on special effects but it's also clear that everyone involved seems to have wished they were somewhere else. This is a really, really bad movie that is thankfully bad enough to where bad movie lovers will find a few things to be entertained by. I guess we could start with the performances since the majority of them are embarrassingly bad. Just check out the first scene where we see Hudson and look at how badly overacting he is. None of his performance gets better as it's clear he was just picking up a paycheck. Farrow also sleepwalks through her role and Jeanette Nolan gets the part of the elderly woman who tries to give the film a few laughs. Cathy Paine is rather embarrassing as a jilted lover. Other actors fail in cardboard character roles but at least Forster comes off fairly good in his brief, supporting part. The biggest disaster in this disaster flick are the special effects. Corman apparently wanted to skip the majority of the special effects and just buy up stock footage from real avalanches but this is so incredibly silly that it's obvious when this footage comes up. It never makes much sense in terms of what's going on with the avalanche because the footage, when mixed together, seems extremely out of place and the bad editing doesn't help cover this up. When the real effects are used it just seems like fake pieces of ice being thrown around as people scream. One of the dumbest scenes happens with a woman is skiing on some ice as people all around her are screaming and getting crushed yet she never notices. We even get an ultra-cheap explosion where people are so fakely thrown back and into various objects. All of these supposed dramatic moments just contain one laugh after another. I guess the most shocking thing is that this PG-rated film contains several nude scenes including one with a female going full frontal. Fans of the disaster genre will probably want to watch this just so they can say they've seen it all but this is a very bad movie. It's not nearly as awful as WHEN TIME RAN OUT... but it's still pretty bad. Thankfully, it's bad enough and campy enough to get several laughs.

I love disaster films, even the bad ones, but this one is completely horrible. From the acting to the special effects this one is crap. The script is laughable and the whole affair is absolutely boring. The "Avalanche" doesn't happen till around the hour mark and all we get till then is totally blinding boredom. Mia and Rock barely have anything to do (god knows why they actually did the movie), Robert Forester is hot but the character is bland, and Jeanette Nolan is under used in the only entertaining role in the flick. The rest of the cast are forgettable and not all that all-star. The action is contrived and "special effects" are for the most part low-budget 70's-ish.This movie would make a great sleep aid. It's bad, not enjoyably bad, just bad. It's bland and pointless. Skip if at all possible.

Fun and entertaining low-budget disaster epic produced by the king of low-budget, Roger Corman (His style: Light, and get away...). Obviously made on the heels of disaster blockbusters like The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and Earthquake, Avalanche is a pretty standard disaster film -- it gathers a large number of broadly portrayed characters to a location, then proceeds to put them into deadly peril. But since this is Corman, we don't have the big-name cast here -- the biggest name is Rock Hudson, not exactly Heston or Newman, but you work with what you got. The special effects are cheap but effective -- they may be double exposures, stock footage, and Styrofoam blocks but the editing is tight and the shots are generally well composed. The acting is middle of the road, TV melodrama kinda stuff, but wholly serviceable for the genre. Plus, at about 90 minutes, it doesn't ever drag on -- Corman's efficiency at work. And watch for a scene involving a pot of soup which is downright hilarious.This film really deserves a 6, but it made me smile, and was original enough (there's not that many disaster films out there about avalanches, after all!) for me to grant that extra point. If you like disaster films, then check out Avalanche.