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Vertical Limit (2000) Columbia Tristar 2 hrs. 5 mins. Starring: Chris O’ Donnell, Robin Tunney, Bill Paxton, Scott Glenn Music by: Alan Silvestri Directed by: Martin Campbell. Vertical Limit Rating:  
E-MAIL GIANCARLO DE LISI There is that rare action movie that can stay with you long after you leave the theatre. Even that rarest of them of all that you actually physically force your friends and family to watch due to its resilient excitement. This is by far not one of those brilliant action movies. As far as action goes, you ‘ve already seen it in the trailer either on television or at the movies. Vertical Limit stars Chris O’Donnell and Robin Tunney as a brother-sister duo who happen to be the best mountain climbers in the world. After a tragic accident, O’ Donnell must return into action as a climber to save his little sister who is stuck on k-2 after a publicity stunt goes wrong. Without giving too much away, the film’s opener will be the only time you will be holding your breath. It opens with a scene similar to M-I 2’ s opening where the actors are filmed climbing right on the mountain. After seeing this CG opening, I have a new found respect for Tom Cruise being able to do his owns stunts. In M-I 2, the opening seemed natural because it was actually Cruise on a mountain, I doubt it was that high as they make it out to be but when there is a close-up on Cruise’s face and the picturesque scenery is in the background, you could tell it is not fake. Unfortunately, with ‘ Vertical Limit’ it is all-fake. Sharing a similarity to another great film, Limit opens up in the tradition of Cliffhanger. Stallone’s 1993 action opus that was great. This film from the opening scene does not manage to capture the intensity and the drama that it could have had going for it. While this film also takes some time to develop, we are exposed to characters that in my opinion were completely formulaic. You know the way it goes, an accident happens, one climber vows never to return. Yet, someone close to him is in peril, and now he must return. So the adventure begins, but let me remind you that we have characters here that we do not care about from the beginning. Along the trek to save his sister, O’Donnell is accompanied by of course some comic relief too boring too mention, a beautiful Mountain-climber who in the film is French-Canadian and gutsy, and another case of over-acting by Scott Glenn, a mountaineer who wants vengeance. What does this add up to? Let us see, a lot of deaths, a lot of explosions, a lot of conflicts and a lot of nothing. This film ceases to take off from the very beginning resulting in a series of misadventures that the audience does not care about because we do not care about the characters. They are all too perfect to be real people, and too stupid to be characters in this type of film. Director Martin Campbell did ‘Golden Eye”, the first Bond film in a series of revivals and I did not like that one either. He lacks an eye to stage some well done action set pieces; all the action in the film seems improvised except for a few gasps of unrealism. As aforementioned, character depth is obsolete resulting in us want the film to be over quick. And that is never a good sign for an action-thriller flick. There are simply too many things wrong with this film even for me to respect it. Bill Paxton does a horrible job as the publicity stunt’s guru who wants to climb the mountain. Robin Tunney simply is the damsel in distress and Chris O’Donnell, in my mind cannot be realistically viewed as an action hero. Furthermore, the director does not make this a fun movie when it could be. Unlike other action flicks, some have their strong points; this one has none that come to mind. It just is a sloppy piece of film thrown together to profit from the Holiday movie craze. Trust me, you will have more fun jumping off the roof of your car onto a snow bank than at this failed attempt in thrills. Click here to comment on this review or post your own thoughts. Giancarlo De Lisi © TheWorldJournal.com |
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