User reviews

One of those movies that are so bad you wonder why anyone would make them. Poor acting, poor CG, poor costumes and most of all poor plot.

Retelling a famous story is fine but this had nothing to do with Snow White! I think they used the Snow White name to try to draw some viewers.

Even for entertainment, it is not worth it. You can laugh when you see the CG characters, or the "beautiful" Snow White, but in the end it makes you wish there was some censorship to ensure minimal quality of movies or that the famous names, such as Snow White, were protected from such blatant amateurism.

A Brave attempt to keep America Working. The movie was not very good, very cheesy and with poor special effect. It would appear that a very low budget was involved, one that could only afford less than 12 elves to make up a kingdom. The lead actors.. hope they didn't give up their day job. The storyline was also not sound and was neither the Disney version of the original Grimm version. It was a shock to see Jamie (James) King, of the Vampire Diaries play such a drab and uneventful role. He does so well in Vampire diaries, is very surprising he is so bad in this role. Prospective and camera shots very bad. If I was the evil queen, I must say feed it to the dogs.

I was dubious of whether to watch this movie as SyFy's resume ranges from a few tolerable, a lot of bad and a number of bottom-of-the-barrel movies. Grimm's Snow White didn't bowl me over, and I wasn't expecting it to, but as far as SyFy movies go they have done much worse than this. The costumes, sets and lighting actually do have a creative and colourful-fantasy-world-like look, while also showing a sense of darkness. The editing is not the choppy editing that I have associated with a lot of SyFy's films but more succinct, neither is it mind-blowingly amazing. The music score is also one of the better ones for a SyFy movie, instead of the generic and sluggish in tempo music SyFy movies often have, this one was suitably haunting with also a quite beautiful twinkling feel. Of the performances the best one was Jane March, her Wicked Queen is coldly beautiful and stoically sinister at the same time. On the other hand, this is where the negatives come. Eliza Bennett's Snow White, looking more like Alice in Wonderland than Snow White actually, I found to be lacking in innocence and she had a wooden way of delivering her lines. Jamie Thomas King also does very little with such an admittedly drab role. They are not helped by really stilted writing, and while the story did start off promisingly it quickly lost drive and became very disjointed in its structure. The sense of drama in the latter part of the film was lacking for me, the bit with the ring didn't make much sense and when people in the battle sequence were supposed to be dead you could tell they weren't. The characters I just didn't care anything for, apart from the Queen they were written very superficially and felt little more than fantasy clichés. The effects have been worse, but there is still a lot of artificiality going on, especially with the dragons. All in all, could have been worse and SyFy have done worse too but Grimm's Snow White didn't do very much for me. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Grimm's Snow White (2012)

** (out of 4)

With both MIRROR MIRROR and SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN hitting theaters in 2012, it was only a matter of time before The Asylum struck with their mockbuster. The story is pretty much the same that we're used to as the Queen (Jane March) wants Snow White (Eliza Bennett) out of the Kingdom but when the jobs not done she enters the Enchanted Forrest where the Prince (Jamie Thomas King) comes to her rescue. Being The Asylum, the wood creatures are actually dragons, which is the biggest change in the story. GRIMM'S SNOW WHITE isn't going to make you forget the Disney classic (or even the good silent version) but it's actually not too bad considering who made it. It seems that everyone on board was actually trying to make a good film and not just a cheap rip-off of something else out there, which is often the case for The Asylum. On a technical level the film is rather impressive as it has a professional look and it's put together rather nicely. I'd add that the editing was also good as was the cinematography. Another thing the film had going for it were the performances, which were actually good and I'd say they were much better than what we got in the bigger budgeted MIRROR MIRROR. Bennett made for a good Snow White as she delivered a certain charm and innocence that really came across. Another major plus was March as the Queen. After the controversial start to her career with films like THE LOVER and COLOR OF NIGHT, I was really interested in seeing her today and she was still a beauty and managed to be quite good in the role. I thought she was very good at playing the evil and she didn't have to be cute with it or go over-the-top. Of course, the low budget also means you get some pretty poor CGI effects with the dragons but to be fair the quality is actually a bit better than you'd typically get. Another problem is that after a while the film just loses all of its gas and momentum and quickly dies out. Obviously this film isn't going to be for everyone but it's certainly not as bad as it could have been.

Let's have a look back on the past Asylum films that they invented. 666: The Beast, 666: The Child and also, Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. THOSE films were terrible with a capital T. I saw another film produced by The Asylum not long ago with Ving Rhames 'Zombie Apocalypse' compare all those films to their latest ones now, they're improving just very slowly. They're not cheesy as much any more, their films are not in low quality, also they're hiring actors who are known to the community. I'm waiting for some of their new films that are going to be released soon Golden Winter, Super Cyclone, Nazis at the centre of the earth and also Alien Origin. Sure, Grimm's snow white wasn't as exciting but it's definitely an improvement from The Asylum. -Trent Browning

Poor acting, poorly scripted, badly drawn CGI graphics, yellow stick-on ears that don't fit the wearer, a lack of depth in the characters, an incredibly small elf army representing the whole of the elf population, CGI dogs that can't jump gaps and just fall into them, guards who don't really pay very much attention to whether their queen is under threat or not, a serious lack of dwarfs, an ugly hag who's supposed to be the 2nd most beautiful woman in the kingdom and wears a dress that's massively too big for her and is lacking in any jewellery, and snow white has blonde hair and pink lips. Need I say any more?

While the story has an interesting take on the tale we're all too familiar with it's lacking proper care and whoever did the makeup needs shooting. Couldn't even be bothered to paint the ears to make them the same skin colour as the wearer or attempt at hiding the seams so it looks like they're wearing fake ears.

Aside that SnowWhite is blonde and that you can almost notice every part of CG and masks in the movie, dwarfs have been replaced with elves and you can see their different skin on their pike ears mask so easy it just hurts. Also they stepped aside from the original story so much that they turned nice fairy tale in some wannabe hack and slash wannabe copy of Lord of the Rings.... only here they replace a huge armies with barely 10 elf's... If my memory serves me well... original story was named SnowWhite and seven dwarfs not elf's... They totally ruined the movie with bad effects and even worse script.

My advice if you know original SnowWhite at all, avoid this movie like plague...

As far as bad movies go, this one takes the cake. I'm always a sucker for fairy tales, so I thought "LET'S GIVE IT A TRY!" It's like they took the better parts of all the big epic movies and threw them in a blender and hit puree. First you have a girl who looks and dresses like Alice, and you have OBVIOUS knockoffs of LOTR and Game of Thrones with the elves (OMG they actually named one "Orlando?" - BLOOM by any chance?); and Prince Alexander has the RPat look going on. He does everything but sparkle. Our family had more fun MST3K-ing it than watching it seriously. As my husband eloquently put it, "Someone raided a RenFaire for these costumes.

It's the Snow White tale with some odd takes. Eliza Bennett is Snow White and Jane March is the Evil Queen. The production value here is horrible. The F/X, the sets, everything is low grade amateur hour. The actors are just not A-list, and it shows on screen. I have nothing to recommend here, and everybody is best advised to just avoid this. The only interesting thing here is the different take on the well known tale. I think they are trying to go back to the source and take it back to Grimm's Tales. I'm not an expert on their version or versions. I can't really comment on its faithfulness. But with elfs, dragons, and magic fire, there's just too much going on.

Many may wonder why I gave it an 8. When I sit down to watch a movie I try to do it with an open mind... Granted it did not have the flare of a Hollywood movie.. but that would be because I am guessing they didn't have the money to do that.

I enjoyed the story and loved the different take on it.. There was a lot of hard work put into this movie and I loved it..

We are so spoiled in a lot of what is offered at the box office that we don't give the new upcoming stars a chance..

The music fit in perfectly.. the scenery was beautiful.. and the acting was good...

If you sit and try not to compare it and just watch it with an open mind I am sure you will enjoy it too...

This was pretty good. I think the scenery was absolutely lush and beautiful and made half the movie. The action didn't flag, and the characters were mostly stock but well defined and played.

I know this sounds like faint praise. But, for a production produced by The Asylum, this is very very good.

I've seen a few of their 'mock' busters. This was much better than their usual, cheap fare.

If you like fantasy, with a beautiful central/southern European flavor, then watch this.

The stepmother was well played, as were many of the elf characters. The only miscasting was Snow White. She was the wrong one for that role. But fortunately Snow White had a small part, for all that the title promises.

In this age of high end special effects, they managed pretty well using basic computer graphics tools. Pretty soon, special effects in films of any budget will be good.

Im not sure where robot looking dogs and a dinosaur dragon come into the story of Snow White... but they do here. The mythological creatures seemed really fake, acting was questionable, and the evil stepmother was more like a jealous best friend. They tried to stick with the main plot but many parts were confusing when it came to the elves, and who was who. And I'm sorry but when Snow White and the prince got back together no one cared.

The movie is not one of Hollywood's mainstream movies but there is still some quality to it. I can tell the movie crew did the very best they could with the budget they had. For me, the acting was the best part. Everyone was believable. I also like the different spin on the classic Snow White tale.

RELEASED TO VIDEO IN 2012 and directed by Rachel Goldenberg, "Grimm's Snow White" is a loose adaption of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale about an evil queen (Jane March) who takes over her husband's kingdom after his dubious death. Upon discovering that her beautiful stepdaughter, Snow (Eliza Bennett), is a rival for the attentions of a valiant prince (Jamie Thomas King) she tries to kill her, but Snow escapes into the enchanted forest where she finds reluctant sanctuary with some elves (Sebastian Wimmer, Alan Burgon, Frauke Steiner, etc.). Meanwhile war is brewing. Otto Jankovich is on hand as the prince's adviser.

The Asylum (film company) is known for making low-budget knockoffs of major films (always for less than $1 million) and thus "Grimm's Snow White" came out eleven weeks before "Snow White and the Huntsman" to steal some of its thunder. While it lacks that film's production polish, I found the story at least as engaging and Eliza Bennett is just all-around more fitting in the title role than the nigh impassive Kristen Stewart. Sure, she looks like Alice in Wonderland, but who cares? As for Snow's blonde hair, there have been renditions of the story where she has blonde ("golden") hair. There's also at least one other film version where she's a blonde. Jamie Thomas King is also preferable to the hulking Chris Hemsworth simply because he's more of an 'every man' and is just plain more likable.

Moreover, the locations and authentic castles are awesome, shot in the heart of Europe; and the emerald forests are to die for. Sure, the CGI dragons and canine beasts are hopelessly cartoony, but that's to be expected in a TV-budgeted flick.

If you don't mind low-budgets and like fantasy adventures that feature all the elements noted in my title blurb, you'll find this movie entertaining. Remember: Imagination and legend are about good and evil and the power of selfless courage against impossible odds. There is nothing more heroic than man (male or female) against monster. This is what you get in "Grimm's Snow White."

Yes, some Asylum movies suck (e.g. "30,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "Mega Piranha"), but some don't (e.g. "The Land That Time Forgot" and "6 Guns"). "Grimm's Snow White" ranks with the latter.

THE FILM RUNS 90 minutes and was shot in and around Vienna, Austria. WRITER: Naomi L. Selfman.

GRADE: B/B- (6.5/10)

Asylum have done really good fantasy films. Unfortunately I felt quite bored watching it. There were no dwarves but elves instead. The prince wasn't convincing as a hero because he proposed to the evil queen! The kiss scene of the prince and queen was cringe. Snow White is blonde for a change although she miraculously became skilled at archery all of a sudden without training. The film had so many holes. But it had a number of monsters and special effects wasn't too bad. It had atmosphere, which is also important because most modern films lack this quality.