Dann in reel life: 10 snow-filled films

10 best snow job films

What? You just can't get enough snow? You came to the right column.

Here are 10 of the snowiest motion pictures ever made, in ascending order of their all-important snow factor.

Don't see your favorite snow-related movie? Shoot me an e-mail at dgire@dailyherald.com.

10. “On Her Majesty's Secret Service” (1969): Snow ski chases have figured prominently in James Bond adventures, but in this one — starring one-time 007 George Lazenby — the snow becomes a set piece for thrills during a climactic alpine assault on Ernst Stavro Blofeld's mountaintop fortress. This action movie inspired the snowy battle sequence in Christopher Nolan's dreamy film “Inception.”

9. “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980): Remember when injured Luke Skywalker gets lost in the deadly blizzard on the ice planet Hoth, and Han Solo has to jump on a smelly Tauntaun to hunt him down through a zero visibility snowstorm and bone-chilling temps? Me, too.

8. “Snow Day” (2000): A dumb comedy about kids who steal a snowplow in a plot to keep their school closed. Chris Elliott plays Roger the snowplow guy. That's the funniest part of the film. At least it has “Snow” in the title.

7. “Whiteout” (2009): Speaking of flaky snow movies, this one stars Kate Beckinsale as a U.S. marshal who walks around in her underwear like a Victoria's Secret model while trying to stop a serial killer at a research installation in Antarctica.

6. “Snow Falling on Cedars” (1999): Probably the coldest-looking motion picture I have ever seen, with ultra-frigid images captured by cinematographer Robert Richardson. The story — about post-WW II bigotry against Japanese-Americans — is pretty cold, too.

5. “The Thing (From Another World)” (1951): During a chilling segment in Howard Hawks' classic horror production, James Arness' murderous alien is chased into a blizzard in the Arctic night by pursuing dogs.

4. “The Wizard of Oz” (1939): Got a problem with poppies that make you drowsy and lethargic? Take a hit of Glinda's magic snow and, man, that'll pick up your gait all the way into Emerald City. Wait. Is this a reference of some kind?

3. “Airport” (1970): Lincoln International Airport manager Burt Lancaster has his hands full: Helen Hayes is a stowaway on a crippled jet that Van Heflin has almost destroyed with a restroom bomb while a wild blizzard threatens to render the runways unusable.

2. “Citizen Kane” (1941): Sure, Orson Welles' classic contains a couple of chilly scenes of winter, but it's the snow globe that the dying Charles Foster Kane drops and shatters that earns its spot on this list. Snow globes appear in many movies, such as “Eye of the Beholder” and “Trapped in Paradise.”

1. “Home Alone” (1990): When John Hughes' production filmed on Lincoln Avenue in Winnetka, there wasn't enough snow to suit director Chris Columbus. So, the crew whipped up landscapes of artificial snow made from 370 tons of ice purchased from area convenience stores and grocery stores. As Columbus told me on the set: “There are lots of parties that aren't happening in Chicago because of us.”

Reel Life review: ‘The Housemaid'

Korean filmmaker Im Sang-soo's “The Housemaid” is a handsome-looking motion picture rife with shimmering, shiny surfaces and rich, elegant trappings that constantly remind us we're deep within the confines of society's financial upper crust.

“The Housemaid” is a joy for the eyes. Photographer Lee Hyung-deok frames every widescreen shot with the balance and depth of a masterly painting, complemented with striking use of illumination.

The story, an indictment of the hypocritical privileged rich who prey upon the lower classes, is a highly simplistic, less impressive achievement.

“The Housemaid” is based on a classic, black-and-white 1960 film by Korean director Kim Ki-young. I have not seen the original, but it reportedly featured a deranged, sexually insatiable housemaid disrupting the stability of an upwardly mobile middle-class family.

In Im's remake, the maid Euny (Jeon Do-yeon) becomes a reserved, insecure girl preyed upon by the austere master of the house, Hoon (Lee Jung-jae), who uses his position to quietly force his affections on her.

When Euny becomes pregnant, the news kicks Hoon's wife (Seo Woo) and her conniving mother (Park Ji-young) into a Caligula-esque struggle to maintain domestic power by taking out the low-class trash, in this case, Euny and her unborn love/hate child.

You keep hoping the subdued “The Housemaid” will break into an abject terror tale (something like the trailer to “The Roommate”), but no such luck. Im does insert a horrific finale right out of a sensationalist horror opus, followed by a bewildering, surrealistic post script channeling Luis Bunuel.

Both segments feel like slapped-on endings purloined from some other more imaginative movies.

“The Housemaid” opens at the Music Box in Chicago. Not rated, but contains nudity, sexual situations and violence. 106 minutes. 2.5 stars

We go Oscar crazy!

Join me and James Bond novelist Raymond Benson as Dann & Raymond's Movie Club handicaps the Academy Awards at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10, at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, 500 N. Dunton Ave., Arlington Heights. Clips from all 10 of the best picture nominees, plus the major acting categories, will be shown. Free admission! Go to ahml.info or call (847) 392-0100.

‘Hood to Coast' back

“Hood to Coast,” a documentary covering 12,000 runners in the world's longest relay race, returns to selected theaters at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10. Check the Daily Herald theater ads. (Yes, “Hood to Coast” conflicts with Dann & Raymond's Movie Club Oscar show. Life is full of tough choices.) Go to fathomevents.com for tickets, venues and other information.