Oh boy, nothing about this movie holds up. From the casting of leads Chris O’Donnell (Batman Forever, Batman & Robin) and
Robin Tunney (The Craft, Empire Records)
to the bad CGI avalanches to the cheap looking green screening to the stoner
dude bro comic relief characters to the idea of scaling K2 (the second highest
mountain in the world) not being dangerous enough so they throw in human bad guys
as well (they pulled the same shit in Twister
where apparently deadly tornadoes weren’t adequately villainous) and etc.
Then there’s the just flat out stupid shit. One of the most baffling things is each
member of the rescue team that goes looking for the three trapped climbers
carries nitroglycerin with them so they can blast away the snow to get to the
survivors. First off, they procure it
from a Pakistani military commander guy (I have no idea why the Pakistani army
has this stuff and is storing it on K2 to being with) who has absolutely no
problem with these foreign visitors taking it off his hands, then they make a
point of demonstrating how unstable the substance is where one little gyration
will set it off (but of course it’s never really a concern until the movie
needs it to be) and then to top it all off the shit is neon green like some
cartoony toxic waste goop! What the
fuck?! The nitroglycerin angle is
entirely unnecessary and like something a seven year old came up with.
There are also a couple of weird coincidences. One is that Chris O’Donnell and Robin Tunney,
who play siblings, happen to be at K2 at the same time but for different
reasons and neither knew the other was going to be there. That’s awkward and an easy fix script wise.
I do kinda love that Paxton yells "fuck you!" at K2 |
But maybe the worst aspect of the picture is how it yada
yadas over two key scenes at the beginning and the end. At the start Chris O’Donnell, Robin Tunney
and their father (Stuart Wilson (No Escape)) are rock climbing but shit goes sideways and Chris has to make a
decision to either cut the rope, which will kill his father and save himself
and his sister, or not cut the rope and they all die. *Sorta
spoilers here, it’s the opening of the movie though* Chris cuts the rope
leading to a comical setup shot of the calm desert floor and then suddenly
wham! The father splats in front of
you. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t
supposed to be funny but it certainly doesn’t come off as a serious
moment. The next thing we know we’re on
K2. Chris and Robin were still dangling
there off the side of a rockface hundreds of feet off the ground with no help
in sight. We don’t know how the fuck
they got out of there. The film simply
moves ahead after the father slams into the earth.
And then they do this again *yes, actual spoilers this time but fuck this movie* at the
conclusion of the finale where Chris and Robin are hanging on a rope in a chasm
and we don’t see how they get out. At
least this time there’s someone at the top who can help them but last time we
saw her she was struggling to hang on herself.
Instead we hard cut back to base camp where Chris and Robin are resting
up and everything’s hunky dory. C’mon
movie, you can’t keep fuckin’ doing this.
Not only is the script bad and the production poorly
executed but from what I’ve read none of the mountain climbing shit is accurate
either. Everything you’re seeing is
wrong.
So this is a bad movie.
Like, yelling at your screen and shaking your head in frustration kinda
bad. Director Martin Campbell had two
huge hits back to back with Goldeneye
and The Mask of Zorro but completely
fucked up his third major Hollywood outing missing the hattrick. It’s even stranger to me that he went from
one of the best action adventure summer popcorn films ever made with Zorro to one of the worst.
I don’t think I’ll be coming back to this one. Limit reached.
No comments:
Post a Comment