Vertical Limit

Vertical Limit, starring Chris O'Donnell, is an exciting winter movie in many respects, however, it has some major problems.

As you may have guessed, the special effects were awesome, not the best (see Hollow Man) but they were difficulty a plus to the film. You get people dangling from a cliff being held up solely by a pick, avalanches, and even numerous explosions. However, special effects are not the only thing that makes a movie. You also need some what of a story (unfortunately, that is one of the things this movie lacks).

O'Donnell stars as Peter Garret, a climber turned photographer after a climbing accident were he is forced to cut his father's rope to save himself and his sister. Three years later, Peter's sister, now a pro climber, has still not forgiven him. She is hired to help a billionaire business man (played by the always horrible Bill Paxton) reach the summit of K2 for an advertising event. However, advertising soon turns to tragedy when an avalanche kills two guides and traps Annie, Paxton, and another experienced climber in a crevasse. Peter and five other climbers agree to hold a rescue mission, and this is were the stock characters pile up. You've got the main character, the one-dimensional love interest, the comic relief (two Australian brothers), the experienced old man (Montgomery Wick), and the cousin of one of the guides, (Karem).

Over all, this film has some nail-biting-cliff-hanging-life-or-death-action scenes, but fails far short of what it could have been.

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***.5/***** With easily the most amazing special F/X of the year, Vertical Limit could have been an excellent holiday movie, garnered terrific reviews (Oscars?), and been a hit at the box office. Unfortunately for them, they forgot that in order to have a good movie, you need other things besides incredible special effects, like a decent script.

For what it's worth, Vertical Limit is about Peter Garret (Chris O'Donnell), a former mountain-climber who quit after an accident where he was forced (by his dad's urging) to cut him off, thus killing him. His sister Annie (Robin Tunney) chose to continue climbing, but has never fully forgiven Peter for killing their father. Annie is about to climb K2, the world's second highest mountain, as assistance for a wealthy businessman (Bill Paxton), who plans to launch an airline as he reaches the summit. Due to Paxton's over-aggressiveness, the two, along with an expert climber (Nicholas Lea), are trapped in a "vertical cave", a crevasse in the mountain. By pure chance, Peter happens to be photographing an article for National Geographic at base camp, and gathers up a search team consisting of himself, a French-Canadian assistant/love interest, a native who's cousin was one of the guides o! n the doomed first mission, and two stoned British brothers. Rounding out the crew is Montgomery Wick (Scott Glenn), a grizzled, wily, old legend who has a secret agenda involving Paxton and his late wife, who died on Paxton's ill fated previous mission. Wick is GRIZZLED, and experienced, and assists Peter, because he's GRIZZLED. The fact that Wick is GRIZZLED is not at all lost on the audience. Anyway, some sweet special effects ensue, what with the avalanches, and the death, and whatnot.

Bottom line for this movie is go see it if you don't mind a poor script and major plot holes, because other than that the movie is fairly good. The performances are surprisingly good, particularly surprisingly from O'Donnell, he of Robin in the last two crappy Batman films. The first ten minutes of this movie are absolutely amazing, and, as stated before, the effects are worth the price of admission alone. Unfortunately for most of us, not much else is.

by David Nazari

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