Movie Review : Vertical Limit

Vertical Limit (2000)

December 8, 2000

FILM REVIEW; Man vs. Mountain, the Nth Round

By ELVIS MITCHELL

Published: December 8, 2000

The director Martin Campbell knows what his competition is for ''Vertical Limit,'' a shallow yet empty action extravaganza set on the notorious Himalayan peak K2. It's the ''Cliffhanger'' trailer, which neatly jettisoned the (heh, heh) plot and shoehorned in every heart-stopping leap and explosion that took place in the blissful, snowcapped setting, where even sub-arctic temperatures couldn't keep Sylvester Stallone from wearing T-
shirts. (The trailer is the best picture Renny Harlin ever made.)

This time, it's Chris O'Donnell against the mountain. He plays Peter Garrett, a former mountaineer scaling K2 to save his sister, Annie (Robin Tunney), who is trapped with her fellow climbers in an icy crevasse that looks as if it were made of Tide. The height and the temperature are sure to kill them -- that is, if merciless winds and Annie's employer, the survive-at-all-costs entrepreneur Elliot Vaughn (Bill Paxton), don't do them in first.

''Vertical Limit'' starts with a sequence that sets up the schisms between Peter and Annie, as well as Peter's reluctance to climb again. In this section, a pleasure climb that morphs into a nightmare version of a Mountain Dew commercial, Mr. Campbell shows the same breezy brio that he displayed in the opening of ''Goldeneye.'' Both demonstrated his talent for exposing human quirks in the middle of two-fisted choreography. This initial tease of a scene shows more class and thought than the rest of the movie, which lumbers from lardy exposition to climax overload.

After the opening, ''Vertical Limit'' leaps three years ahead. Peter is now a photographer shooting in the Himalayas. Annie is there with the excessive and crudely manipulative Vaughn, who wants to use their expedition to publicize a new business venture. Vaughn has tried the climb before; someone notes, ''As you know, that attempt ended in tragedy.'' (Apparently, the oxygen is so thin at that height that even the ability to come up with competent dialogue is threatened.) The Vaughn base camp looks like a parking lot party at a Phish concert.

When Annie and her group are lost, Peter volunteers to help, despite his issues. He is joined by Montgomery Wick (Scott Glenn), who is much tougher than his name would suggest. An ornery cuss, Wick is weathered enough to look as if he has spent the last 20 years sleeping on a mountain face, and when he gets ready to join Peter on the trip, he shaves his long beard with a blade and no water. The aging Mr. Glenn looks like David Carradine, and his lines make him sound like a deranged version of Mr. Carradine's Caine from ''Kung Fu.''

''Vertical Limit'' is like an enabler for Mr. Campbell's action addiction. The picture includes so many explosions on the mountain that you may leave the theater wondering why any of the Himalayas are still standing; the director begins to seem as cold and manipulative as Vaughn. The film gives lip service to Pakistani politics -- a brief mix of the book ''Into Thin Air'' and the old movie ''The King of the Khyber Rifles'' -- but only so that nitroglycerin can be introduced into the story. And it piles on characters like snowflakes in a blizzard, though they exist solely to be dispatched in some of the garishly cinematic demises that Mr. Campbell and company have in store.

After a particularly pointless conversation about mortality, someone says: ''All men die. It's what they do before then that counts.'' Such a sentiment doesn't begin to explain ''Vertical Limit.''

''Vertical Limit'' is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for violence, explosions, avalanches and intense and harrowing scenes of mountain climbing.

VERTICAL LIMIT

Directed by Martin Campbell; written by Robert King and Terry Hayes, based on a story by Mr. King; director of photography, David Tattersall; edited by Thom Noble; music by James Newton Howard; production designer, Jon Bunker; produced by Mr. Campbell, Lloyd Phillips, Mr. King and Marcia Nasatir; released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: 110 minutes. This film is rated PG-13.

WITH: Chris O'Donnell (Peter Garrett), Bill Paxton (Elliot Vaughn), Robin Tunney (Annie Garrett), Scott Glenn (Montgomery Wick), Izabella Scorupco (Monique Aubertine), Temuera Morrison (Major Rasul), Nicholas Lea (Tom McLaren), Alexander Siddig (Kareem), Steve Le Marquand (Cyril Bench), Ben Mendelsohn (Malcolm Bench), Robert Taylor (Skip Taylor), Stuart Wilson (Royce Garrett) and Roshan Seth (Colonel Amir Salem). 

Source : http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940DEFDD113CF93BA35751C1A9669C8B63