1/5 THIS PHOENIX NEVER RISES
  by Michael Butts (Martinsburg, WV USA)
I try not to be too harsh on some of these lesser known, "indie" films, because I go into them with reserved expectations. ICE COLD IN PHOENIX however is one of the worst movies I've forced myself to finish watching. Screenwrtier/director Lindsay Craig Shonteff resorts to crude, offensive dialogue to exploit the sexual deviance of all the people involved. Duane Espinoza as the coldhearted murderer, Ryan Kelly (Where in the hell did they come up with such an Irish name for an obvious Hispanic actor?) is one of the worst actors to blight our screens. But the rest of this cast is even worse: April Shepherd and Razel Wolf as the "sex objects" are about as sexy as cantaloupes, and Cesar Reyes as the studly Caesar couldn't act his way out of a cellophane wrapper. The violence is sadistic and the sex scenes are as exploitative as one can get outside of a soft porn movie. There isn't one character in the film who is likeable and the climax is so strained and preposterous, one can only stare in disbelief when the final credits roll up. This is also another movie that adds terrible music whose only justifiable inclusion is to drown out some of the awful dialogue. I've seen some really rotten movies, but this one is soaring to the top of my list. Avoid if you have any taste in even bad movies!!!

4/5 Good independent effort
  by O. Diaz (St. Petersburg, FL)
Our main character, a handsome 27 year old drifter, goes on a killing/raping rampage because he needs to get back at the world for having had an abusive father as a child. When he drops by his old man's place to make peace with him, he's bluntly rejected and this event appears to trigger his criminal spree. A rash of kidnappings, rape and murder follows, as our hero makes the rest of the world pay for his miserable upbringing. Then he hooks up with a thuggish couple he encounters on the road, a fateful turning point in our main character's life.
This feature was shot on digital video, and the picture quality is very good, the photography has a good eye for the arid Arizona landscape, which serves as a metaphorical counterpoint to our characters' desperate lives. The film is sexually bold and its violence is swift and brutal, but both are justified and in context with the story at hand. There seems to be an undercurrent of social commentary in here which is never developed beyond the obvious, but the film's dog-eat-dog view of the world comes through loud and clear before the credits roll.
Note: The film was originally rated NC-17, then reedited to an R, and that is the version contained on this DVD.