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List Price: $26.95 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 105771
Released: March 19, 2002 |
| Our Price: $2.82 |
| Used Price: $1.20 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The Superbit titles utilize a special high bit rate digital encoding process which optimizes video quality while offering a choice of both DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. These titles have been produced by a team of Sony Pictures Digital Studios video, sound and mastering engineers and comes housed in a special package complete with a 4 page booklet that contains technical information on the Superbit process. By reallocating space on the disc normally used for value-added content, Superbit DVDs can be encoded at double their normal bit rate while maintaining full compatibility with the DVD video format.
Description of Vertical Limit (Superbit Collection):
Finally, a movie for the REI set! For all those mountain-climbing aficionados who devoured Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air and similar books (as well as the IMAX film Everest), Vertical Limit attempts to translate man-against-the-mountain adventure into compelling, albeit fictional, drama. And while the climbing action is pretty darn breathtaking, somebody forgot to put the brakes on the cliché machine while penning the screenplay. Two siblings (Chris O'Donnell and Robin Tunney) are mentally scarred by a climbing accident in which their father died to save them. She becomes a famous mountain climber (catch that Sports Illustrated cover?); he never climbs again, and becomes a National Geographic photographer. She agrees to accompany a shady billionaire (Bill Paxton) up the icy carapace of K2, the world's second highest mountain; he just happens to be "in the neighborhood" when she starts. After the requisite argument, she sets out, but an avalanche strands her and the billionaire in some kind of underground cavern, and bad weather forbids a daring rescue. It's up to her determined brother to bring her back, along with a ragtag team of rescuers that includes a French-Canadian babe, two wisecracking Aussies, and a crusty old sage (Scott Glenn) who has a few scores to settle.
It's easy to pick out the rest of the story from here (though you probably didn't count on that faulty nitroglycerine, now did you?), but Vertical Limit is less about the hackneyed plot than it is about putting its characters into increasingly dangerous situations and hanging them precariously over various mountainsides. It's a credit to director Martin Campbell (GoldenEye) that the impressive action keeps the film moving along past the bordering-on-absurd plot twists. O'Donnell tosses his mane of fluffy hair admirably, but it's still disheartening to see this once-promising actor turning into a pretty-boy stand-in; only Glenn manages to overcome his character's predictability. Mountaineering enthusiasts will recognize a cameo by world-renowned climber Ed Viesturs, who as an actor proves that he's... a very good mountain climber. --Mark Englehart
Vertical Limit (Superbit Collection) Reviews:
Corny 
2009-09-09 - Peter (Chris O'Donnell) and Annie (Robin Tunney) are brother and sister who once shared a tragic mountain climbing experience. Since then, Peter has refused to climb but Annie gets lured into climbing K-2 with a novice billionaire. (Of course) they need rescuing and (of course) Peter leads the way.
This movie uses every mountain climbing cliché in the book and is so predictable, it's pathetic. After just minutes we know where the story is going and sure enough, it goes there. There are a few exciting disaster scenes, but even they were by-the-book, right on cue, no surprises.
The Extras feature on the making of the movie was the best part of the DVD. I had assumed the actors were acting in front of blue screens with stock mountain footage in the background, but to my surprise they actually filmed it atop snowy and icy (New Zealand) peaks and the actors did a lot of their own stunts. If I had known that, I might have been more patient with the movie, but it really was a connect-the-dots climbing movie, complete with dastardly businessmen, noble climbers, a surprise avalanche, and deadly crevasses. Disappointing.
Could have been one of the all-time great action movies
2009-07-24 - Vertical Limit could have been a great movie, if only the script had been reworked and reworked again to remove its more ludicrous elements and to replace them with thought provoking dialogue, believable predicaments, and serious character development. For viewers hoping to find an intelligent movie pitting daring yet frail humans against the unforgiving forces of nature, this is not it. The central premise of the movie is excellent. A boorish billionaire bribes and bullies a crack team of mountaineers to lead him to the peak of K2, the second highest peak on Earth, for a publicity stunt with a fixed schedule, in violation of all safety precautions. Disaster strikes, not without warning, and the group is trapped above the "Vertical Limit" with the thin and frigid atmosphere at that extreme altitude rapidly causing their bodies to shut down. A crack team of mountaineers from base camp is recruited for the rescue attempt with the clock ticking. What could be more excitng? With an intelligent script, this movie could have been completely engaging and possibly on the list of all time great action flicks. But, alas, far too often the excitement relies on unnecessary low-to-the-ground helicopter passes, impossible grasps averting (or resulting in) thousand foot plunges to sure annihilation, and to top it all off, nitroglycerine in the backpacks of every member of the rescue team when any other explosive would do. There's a storm on the peak, but not a ripple from the wind in the tents below at base camp. The climbing team is trapped underground, yet the cavern is fully lit. (The nitro, by the way, looks a lot like antifreeze whether it's spilled at a Pakistani military camp or high on the flanks of K2. For some reason, it only explodes on impact when it's most needed for dramatic affect. Otherwise, it can be tossed around like a rag doll, at least in this movie.) The scenery is picturesque and dramatic. Scott Glenn is excellent as an aging mountaineer on a tireless quest to find a member of a long lost climbing party. Bill Paxton makes an excellent billionaire megalomaniac, until he becomes trapped underground with his guides. Chris O'Donnell in the lead is not given enough meaty material to shine and is given too many clichés to deliver to convincingly carry the show. Similary, Robin Tunney and Izabella Scorupco are captive to the script. Setting all that aside, this can be a fun watch. There is just a lot to set aside to really enjoy the view.
Absurdity Limit
2009-07-13 - When you think a movie can't possibly get any more asinine, this one does. Amazingly bad script with totally ridiculous action scenes. What do you do when climbers are trapped on a mountain? You try to rescue them by carrying liquid nitro-glycerin up the mountain. And you take three different routes, including one which requires you to leap across a 30 foot span. And there's more idiocy - much, much more. On the positive side, the movie is quite funny (although unintentionally). The only reason I rate this film 2 stars instead of 1 is that the cinematography is actually quite good. The acting was not good, but no actor could have saved this script.
Don't climb K2 without nitro glycerin
2009-07-12 - The intensity of high altitude mountaineering is obviously not exciting enough for the Hollywood mentality, so the plot needed to be thickened. The streets of LA would have been a better scene for this plot, but I did enjoy the cinematography. The characters were also fairly interesting, and I might have enjoyed it more if I didn't understand the sport.Dancing on the Edge of an Endangered Planet
Great Audio & Visuals 
2009-06-29 - When I saw this shortly after it came out on VHS (and later, this DVD), it got high marks just for the spectacular sound alone. It had some of the best rear-speaker sound I had ever heard. It was a showpiece for surround-sound systems at the time.
The movie is interesting with it's main fault being a common one: overdone action at the end. Along the way, however, it has many almost jaw-dropping scenes and some spectacular mountain scenery which still looks great on the sharp DVD transfer. I"m holding off on the Blu-Ray, due to mixed reviews here on the audio and visuals.
The stunt work in here is also incredible. Martin Campbell, the same director who did "The Mask Of Zorro" and "Goldeneye," is good at producing eye-popping action scenes.
How accurate is it concerning mountain-climbing? Not much, according to a few mountain- climbing experts I know told me, and I believe them. Reviewers here seem to agree. All in all, however, especially for someone who doesn't know the art of climbing, this is a far better film than expected, if for nothing else than the great audios and visuals.
