Vertical Limit -- Two and a half stars
Pretty much this is the script everyone wanted to write after they read the Everest-disaster book "Into Thin Air" (great book, by the way). But, instead of a disaster on Everest, it's a lost expedition on K2, a mountain which is an even tougher technical climb than Everest. Except this story has guys climbing up the mountain with some ridiculously unstable nitroglycerine in their backpacks.
If avalalanches and falls off a 26,000 ft tall mountain aren't enough, just throw in some nitroglycerine for some huge explosions.
That said, the film is decent; I'm tempted to give it three stars, because it doesn't suck, but not quite tempted enough.
THIS is how CGI should be done: CGI provides breathtaking backgrounds and incidental elements to the foreground action; you can't really tell it's CGI. It looks good. And, if you get the DVD, you get a huge number of featurettes on the special effects (and seeing them paint mountain landscapes over bluescreen is soooo cool) including a National Geographic documentary. The director (Martin Cambpell, Goldeneye) and producer provide audio-track commentary; while occasionally interesting, it's chiefly both men agreeing that each and every scene and performance is "great," "lovely," and/or "extraodinary" or some combination thereof.
The story: A Richard Branson type tycoon --except he's a brash Texan rather than a Brit -- pays Robin Tunney and a master-climber to take him to the top of K2 as a publicity stunt for his new airline.
Well, Robin Tunney (who, unfortunately, does not show her boobs in this picture) is the brother of Chris O'Donnell (only 75% as annoying as he usually is). And see, in the teaser, they're rockclimbing with Dad and... well, did you see Cliffhanger? Let's just say that when friends and family are rock-climbing in the beginning of the film, the sequence ain't gonna end with a picnic.
So, years later, Chris O'Donnel has given up climbing; Robin Tunney is even more determined to become a champion climber, and is in fact one of the best female climbers in the world. And she's so gung-ho to get to the top of K2 that she ignores the fact that a serious storm is coming... which is okay with billionare Paxton, because he doesn't care about the storm either.
The storm strikes. Paxton and Tunney are buried in a sort-of fake-looking ice cave. And now Chris O'Donnel and a team of five other climbers (including Scott Glen, playing the obligatory burnt-out, cynical, world-weary older expert) now have to carry lots and lots (and I mean LOTS) of nitroglycerine up the mountain to blow open the ice-cave Sis is trapped in.
Wait... didn't they get stuck in the cave because of an avalanche? Won't the nitroglycerine -- especially the industrial-sized tanks these boys are carrying -- cause even WORSE avalanches?
Not to worry. In true disaster picture style, there will be poignant deaths and noble sacrifices and even long-sought vengeance, but rest assured the youngest, and prettiest, people will survive.
The film is competent. It begins much, much better than its middle or end; in the beginning, you're ready for a really good movie. But while it's not really all that good, it's not terrible, either. So it's worth a rental, especially on DVD.
