Guest Movie Review: Vertical Limit

The LOBO Guest Reviews are coming fast and furiously at you. I feel like I am on vacation with substitute hosts. Christina was one of the Honorable Mention winners in the last New Category Contest. Her category suggestion was 'Food.' Have a good read, but be warned: if heights, edges and ledges are a problem for you (they are for me) you might get dizzy just thinking about this movie. I couldn't even watch the previews. J

Story: I'm a huge fan of survival/rescue movies, especially if they involve snow and ice, so this was a perfect film for Saturday, our big-snow-storm day. And I don't go for the story, I go for the action and adventure. So my story expectations aren't that high. This story is better than a lot of action/adventures -- I'd give it a B+. The opening sequence is stunning -- a gorgeous view of Monument Valley, complete with soaring eagle, followed by close-ups of a brother (Chris O'Donnell) and sister (Robin Tunney) scaling gorgeous red rocks with their father. Suddenly and quickly and quite dramatically, climbers above them fall, there is much scrambling and falling and screaming. This ends traumatically, and in such a way that the sister and brother don't talk for several years. Fast forward five years to the Karakoram Mountain Range, where O'Donnell, a National Geographic photographer, is photgraphing snow leopards (or maybe white tigers -- it looks like that's what I wrote in my notes taken in thedark); and from there to K-2 base camp, where he runs into his sister, whois about to accompany tycoon Bill Paxton to the summit. There seem to behundreds of people at base camp, but we only meet a few -- quirky brothersfrom Australia who are first seen sunbathing nude (they provide some of the humor in this film), Scott Glenn as Montgomery Wick, the wise oldmountain man with revenge in his heart (so maybe he's not so wise). We first see him rubbing the stubs of his missing toes, presumably lost to frostbite. When the sister & the bad tycoon & their leader end up in a snow-covered chasm, O'Donnell patches together a rescue team. And from then on, the thrills come quicker than you can say avalanche! Okay, so some of them are a little far-fetched -- but they're still thrilling. There are harrowing avalanche scenes, falling into ice crevasses, lots of falling, in fact. There are small touches I liked, such as tons of modern technology being used by the climbers, but it's good old-fashioned Morse code that enables the brother to find the sister.

Acting: I liked looking at Chris O'Donnell, and in fact I thought he did

a pretty good job. Certainly no Oscar-worthy acting, but nobody was awful. Scott Glenn was fun to watch.

Pets: None. (The snow leopards/white tigers don't count, because they

were wild.) Normal pet-type animals prefer a nice cozy chair to the freezing

temperatures and low oxygen at 28,000 feet.

Food: One power bar eaten by the supercharged, foolhardy billionaire.

There was talk of a barbecue at base camp but we didn't get to experience

anyone eating that. Lots of tea, some beer, unknown liquid out of thermoses on the climb.

Visual Art: Only visual art was a photo of the dead wife of Scott Glenn

attached to a cairn.

Soundtrack: Unobtrusive, as soundtracks should be. There are a few poorly sung renditions of old, fun rock and roll songs. (Was MacArthur Park as sung by Richard Harris considered rock and roll? I personally never quite knew how to categorize that.)

Titles: At the end, over a black screen.

Theater Audience: Fairly full theater; a lot of young, atlethic-looking folks, but also a couple of old geezers who reminded me of Scott Glenn. The audience was somewhat restless -- the adolescent sitting near me was up and down several times getting popcorn and soda. The couple behind me laughed a lot, inappropriately, but I didn't tell them to be quiet because they weren't speaking English.

Sappy Factor: 3

Quirky Meter: 2

Tissue Usage: 1 or 2. I always need a tissue when people die. (Yes,

some people do not survive!)

Oscar Worthy: No.

Nit Picking: In some of the scenes, the actors didn't actually look cold. I like it when they really look like they're close to frostbite! Also, a small nit: The opening shot shows Monument Valley, which is in Arizona (I've been there so I know), but the credits say, Shot in Utah.

Big Screen or Rental: Big screen, definitely, for the spectacular mountain scenery.

Length: Just a minute or two over two hours.

LOBO HOWLS/Nelson Notches: 6.5. I recommend this to people who like this genre; not to the rest of you!