Alaska (1996)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

While searching for their missing father in the mountains of Alaska, two siblings come across a baby polar bear on the run from a pair of poachers. Alaska is a 90's kids movie and a pretty decent one. The perfomances were quite alright nothing to really brag off on that scale, the cinematography quite beautiful and with alot of very good looking shots of rivers and basically the mountains and all that. The storyline quite interesting too and if you're not expecting some really oscar worthy or whatever you might actually very much enjoy it as well as i did. (7/10)

It's the state of Alaska itself plus some beautiful vistas from British Columbia that are the true stars of this film. An incredibly realistic animated bear named Cubby comes in second with all the human players in at a distinct third in Fraser Heston's film Alaska.You will be bowled over by the grand scale cinematography of the northern tundras. The terrain itself is a character in this drama about a brother and sister, Vincent Kartheiser and Thora Birch, who don't think that the authorities are doing enough to rescue their bush pilot father Dirk Benedict who has crashed his small cargo plane and it and he are hanging off a cliff with one of his legs broken.Birch has adapted well enough to Alaska life, the family is transplanted from Chicago and we're constantly reminded of that with Kartheiser's Chicago Cubs road uniform hat. He's missing Chicago real bad and can't understand why dad quit his job as an airline pilot after the death of their mother to go live here.Villain of the film is Charlton Heston who with Duncan Fraser are a pair of poachers. While on their mission the kids liberate a bear cub who adopts them and tags along. Heston and Fraser want that cub back and give chase.Starting in 1982 Charlton Heston who is best known for playing some of the noblest of heroes real and fictional started varying his resume with villains. For his son's version of Treasure Island Heston played a nasty Long John Silver, nothing cute and hammy like Wallace Beery or Robert Newton. Ditto for his portrayal here as a poacher. But I love the way the bear turns the tables on Heston and Fraser.Cubby is also indispensable in the rescue of Benedict. You'll have to see the film for his contribution in that effort.The scenery is as grand and large as our largest and most sparsely populated state. Alaska is a great film of high adventure and good family entertainment.

Ever wonder what it's like to travel through Alaska? If you're curious, now you can experience the magnitude of the scenery that is Alaska by watching this film. The movie Alaska, is a family adventure film that involves two children, Jesse and Sean Barnes on the hunt to find their lost father. How did he get lost? As a pilot, the kids' father, Jake Barnes (Dirk Benedict) flies straight into a storm and crash lands into a mountain where he struggles to survive as his children look to find him. It's amazing because even when the story is not revolving around the adventurous children, the scenery everywhere is so beautiful. This is one of the strong points of this film. Another key part to this movie is a polar bear cub that runs into the Barnes kids and ends up trying to help locate their dad. This bear cub always reminds me of the polar bears from those coke commercials. Besides of what I think it could belong to, he is very cuddly looking. I'm also curious to how director Fraser Heston was able to get this animal to cooperate. I'm sure it's not easy to tame a wild animal. This cub must have been pre-trained some how.To make things even more interesting, poachers are on the move as well. Yes, there are other things on the hunt than the Barnes kids. So what are these guys looking for? If you're thinking the polar bear cub, you're absolutely right! So there are two conflicts here, Jesse and Sean have to find their father AND protect the bear cub from the dangerous poachers. The plot thickens! Many times while watching this movie I was on the edge of my seat because there were many moments of tension. These kinds of situations are brought up when many of the characters are involved with heights. Because a lot of Alaska is made of mountains, many of the scenes in this movie include climbing up steep hills and sailing across cold running rivers. Some scenes can be really gripping due to the slightest movement a character makes on screen. It is that suspenseful.Alaska is a wholesome adventure for both young and old. It's tale of courage and persistence is what keeps the audience watching from the scenic backgrounds to the most intense moments of conflict.

Hard to figure the negative comments about this film. It is geared to an elementary school audience who will find it very entertaining. But it is also good family viewing because the scenery is terrific and the polar bear cub is very cute. Since there was never a conspiracy to keep the demographic identity of the target audience a national secret, those complaining about its lack of sophistication were just too lazy to check it out before actually viewing it. The film delivers exactly what it promises so there is no real basis for that kind of criticism.The editing is first class; especially on the canoe down the rapids sequence where the second unit stuff is perfectly cut into tight shots of the two stars. Thora Birch turns in another excellent performance and Vincent Kartheiser shows that even before "Angel" he modeled his acting on William Shatner (this is not a complement).There are a number of plot holes but nothing that really matters. One interesting thing is the scene where the bear cub helps in the rescue effort by pulling the rope with his teeth. Seldom can you point to a "single" stupid detail that drastically dumbs down a film but that is the case here. Lose that one moronic shot and the film gains about 20 IQ points and could add a couple years to its target audience.