Whiteout

After two straight-to-DVD releases, Kate Beckinsale’s career is dealt another stalling blow with this messy, confusing murder mystery set in Antarctica. Beckinsale plays a U.S. Marshal stationed at an outpost where a body is discovered. Soon thereafter, somebody is running around killing people with an ice ax. Tom Skerritt shows up as a crusty doctor, and nothing of interest really happens. Director Dominic Sena throws in a gratuitous shower scene at the film’s beginning, as if he knew his film had nothing to offer and needed a marketing hook. Beckinsale is a decent actress, and she deserves better than this.