Vertical Limit

Dom Robinson reviews

Vertical LimitDistributed by

Columbia TriStar

• Cert:
• Cat.no: CDR 30444
• Running time: 119 minutes
• Year: 2000
• Pressing: 2001
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 28 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Languages: English, Hungarian
• Subtitles: 16 languages available
• Widescreen: 1.85:1
• 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: £19.99
• Extras: 2 Featurettes: Surviving the Limit & National Geographic Channel’sQuest for K2, 7 Mini Featurettes (Search and Rescue Tales), Filmographies,Trailers, Audio Commentary
  

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  Director:

  Martin Campbell

  (Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro, No Escape, Vertical Limit)

Producers:

Martin Campbell, Marcia Nasatir, Lloyd Philips and Robert King

Screenplay:

Robert King and Terry Hayes

Music:

James Newton Howard

Cast:

Peter Garrett: Chris O’Donnell
Annie Garrett: Robin Tunney
Elliot Vaughn: Bill Paxton
Monique Aubertine: Izabella Scorupco
Montgomery Wick: Scott Glenn
Tom McLaren: Nicholas Lea
Kareem Nazir: Alexander Siddiq
Skip Taylor: Robert Taylor
Major Rasul: Temeura Morrison
Royce Garret: Stuart Wilson

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Complete and utter nonsense is what you get with Vertical Limit.But that will either appeal or it won’t.

The film begins with the family Garrett – son Peter (Chris O’Donnell),daughter Annie (Robin Tunney) and father Royce (Stuart Wilson) -up on a routine mountain climb, but those two above them cock it up and comecrashing down almost taking these three with them. However, three potentialsurvivors are cut down to two as the father realises that one hook in therock won’t hold all three and begs his son to cut him loose so at least hischildren survive.

That’s mistake number one, because I hate films where one character appearsto selflessly give up their own life just because they think they won’t makeit if the alternative happened, or without giving full thought to working ona solution.

Fast forward three years later and billionaire businessman Elliot Vaughn (BillPaxton) is on a PR campaign to climb K2 with a team that includesSkip Taylor (Robert Taylor), Tom McLaren (Nicholas Lea) andMonique Aubertine (Goldeneye‘s Izabella Scorupco). Of course,things are about to go disastrously wrong but Vaughn would rather save facethan face up to the reality of danger.

Where the Garretts fit into all this is because brother and sister haven’tspoken to each other much since the incident. Peter has become a mountaineeringknow-it-all and Annie works for a TV station who are filming the ascent.Naturally, Peter wants to save his sister from the fate she can’t see at first.And there’s mistake number two – a family matter in amongst an incrediblydull plot.

Now throw in a stupid old man in the “Cracker” role, i.e. with Scott Glennplaying the beardy weirdy Montgomery Wick, you know that everything he saysabout the situation they’re in and which everyone else is ignoring, will turnout to be 100% correct.

There are some nice looking, but painfully obvious, special FX shots along theway, but you’ll find yourself skipping through the flick to get to them, becausethe trite dialogue (mistake number three) won’t keep you engaged.

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Whoops, butterfingers!

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The picture is very good with artifacts only occasionally visible on the1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen picture. When the picture is sharp, it’s pin-sharp.A good example is the opening scene, but it only serves to highlight thatthey’re not really climbing a rock.The average bitrate is 5.10Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 8Mb/s.

Dolby Digital 5.1 is here in English and Hungarian and hits home when there’sa problem on the mountain, but at other times it’s incredibly quiet.

First up in the extras are two main featurettes: Surviving the Limit,a 24-minute bog-standard look at the making of the film with cast and crewchat and non-anamorphic film clips; and National Geographic Channel’sQuest for K2, a 13-minute programme by said TV channel with a few peoplein the know commenting on the problems people have had climbing the mountain.

7 Mini Featurettes are included under the heading of Search and Rescue Tales,each of which last a few minutes in length and look at avalanches, trekkingto K2 and “The Death Zone”. Filmographies for main cast and crew membersare here along with Trailers for this film (in 1.85:1 anamorphic),All the Pretty Horses (4:3 fullscreen – the film stars Matt Damonand Penelope Cruz) andThe Mask of Zorro(2.35:1 non-anamorphic). Finally, comes an Audio Commentary trackfrom director Campbell and producer Lloyd Philips.

The disc contains the usual 28 chapters, plus subtitles in 17 languages:English, Dutch, Polish, Bulgarian, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic,Hindi, Hebrew, Turkish, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Greek andArabic. Dutch subtitles are also provided for the audio commentary, but why aren’tthey in English too?The menus have some animation and are scored, but it’s nothing to get tooexcited about.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALLReview copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.