An entertaining but lengthy lesson in what happens when you have no limits at all.
Vertical Limit (2000)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:107
Fresh:50
Rotten:57
Average Rating:5.2/10
Consensus: The plot in Vertical Limit is ludicrously contrived and cliched. Meanwhile, the action sequences are so over-the-top and piled one on top of another, they lessen the impact on the viewer.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] intense life/death situations and brief strong language
Runtime: 2 hrs 4 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:Dec 8, 2000 Wide
Box Office: $67,771,442
Synopsis: As action director Martin Campbell's heart-pumping thriller VERTICAL LIMIT begins, an eagle glides gracefully over the stunningly filmed mesas of Utah. Its shadow falls on a vertical rock face... As action director Martin Campbell's heart-pumping thriller VERTICAL LIMIT begins, an eagle glides gracefully over the stunningly filmed mesas of Utah. Its shadow falls on a vertical rock face being climbed by Peter Garrett (Chris O'Donnell), his father (Stuart Wilson), and his sister Annie (Robin Tunney). Suddenly a backpack hurtles by, followed rapidly by two climbers whose ropes tear the male Garretts from the rock face. The excruciatingly tense sequence ends in tragedy. After this stunning opening, the action switches to the Himalayas, where tycoon Elliott Vaughn (Bill Paxton) has financed an expedition that will take him to the summit of K2--the world's second highest mountain. Annie is one of Elliott's party. In the face of a threatening storm, Elliott recklessly insists the climb should continue. The storm duly arrives and decimates the expedition, leaving Elliott and Annie stranded. Peter leads a group of climbers--including the grizzled Montgomery Wick (Scott Glenn) and a French-Canadian nurse (Izabella Scorupco)--in a rescue attempt. Campbell, director of photography Derek Tattersall, many daring cameramen, mountain climbers, avalanche specialists, and special effects technicians, along with veteran editor Thom Noble, deliver a beautifully filmed mountaineering thriller with even more heart-stopping moments than JAWS. [More]
Starring: Chris O'Donnell, Bill Paxton, Robin Tunney, Scott Glenn
Starring: Chris O'Donnell, Bill Paxton, Robin Tunney, Scott Glenn, Izabella Scorupco
Director: Martin Campbell
Director: Martin Campbell
Screenwriter: Robert King, Terry Hayes
Producer: Lloyd Phillips, Robert King, Martin Campbell
Studio: Columbia Pictures
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Reviews for Vertical Limit
The mountain-rescue movie Vertical Limit doesn't just operate at the height of ludicrousness; it also puts marshmallow Chris O'Donnell in the business of saving lives.
The visuals are stunning, but that's not enough. They can't make up for this predictable story populated by cardboard-cutout characters. The film needs more rescuing than that.
For all the pains that have been taken to plunk us vicariously alongside the frozen peril, Vertical Limit is mostly a joke that keeps getting unfunnier.
One of the most thrilling - and authentic - mountain-climbing films in recent memory.
The picture cuts from story thread to story thread, and in such a choppy fashion that we're rarely given the vistas that would allow us to take in the physical layout of the action.
Made from obvious formulas and pulp novel conflicts, but strongly acted and well crafted.
The colorless Peter and Annie and the preposterous Wick indulge in such wince-inducing, old-movie dialogue and ''tis a far, far better thing'-style emoting that the whole thing should be in black-and-white.
Camouflaged as drama, Vertical Limit is a theme park of cheap thrills. It attains a horizontal limit, flattening your mind and spirit.
The film's many stunts are exciting, well-staged and cleverly shot to this layman's eyes, though climbers might nitpick the probabilities of some of the actions.
A melodramatic, adventure-filled feast for the cerebral senses that, despite its lack of originality, manages to somewhat captivate the action enthusiast in all of us.
If you lay aside that action and watch the people instead, it's a morass of dimwitted family crises and hack action-movie cliches.
Vertical Limit kept testing my horizontal limit. Everytime anybody talked I started to fall asleep.
Too often finds itself on the slippery slope of playing to the lowest common denominator.
The acting is passable, the dialogue is serviceable and occasionally clever, and darned if it's not an adrenaline-booster all the way around.
Possibly the most suspense-charged mountain-climbing movie ever made.
The air gets pretty thin at 24,000 feet ... Best I can figure, Robert King must have written his script for Vertical Limit at that altitude. It’s that stupid.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
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