Vertical Limit

An unintentionally funny piece of crap that gave my diaphragm a hard time. It looks almost like a parody and the fact that it is meant seriously only adds to its comedy. Whether it's scenes with spilled nitroglycerin or a climber hanging on a rock wall, easily coping with an avalanche, but the highlight is the meeting of one of the characters with his frozen wife in a cardboard set, I just couldn't stand it anymore and I was writhing with laughter. I felt like I was watching a sequence of Monthy Python sketches. I would play this comedy to climbers in base-camp before a climb, they would be amused and if they are having a hard time, they could remember Vertical Limit and immediately climb better. Otherwise, O'Donnell is woefully uncharismatic and a bad actor, and the avalanche of all sorts of clichés is really lethal. I like films about climbing, I've always been fascinated by mountains, but this one is a definite NO... And by the way, the opening scene is stolen from an older French film. (26.08.2002)

Vertical Limit manages to entertain with solid action (Martin Campbell was, is and will be capable) and annoy with moments where it tries to pretend to be a real drama. And there are so many moments like that! Stallone's Cliffhanger and Eastwood's The Eiger Sanction disappear into the unfathomable heights, while Vertical Limit struggles to dig itself out of base camp. (18.02.2013)