Vertical Limit, 2000

Vertical Limit, 2000
Director: Martin Campbell
Cast: Scott Glenn, Chris O'Donnell, Bill Paxton


Stage: Home TV selection, somewhere in between the week.



Vertical in short: A high-adrenaline tale of young climber Peter Garrett, who must launch a treacherous and extraordinary rescue effort up K2, the world's second highest peak. Confronting both his own limitations and the awesome power of nature's uncontrollable elements, Peter risks his life to save his sister, Annie, and her summit team in a race against time. The team is trapped in an icy grave at 26,000 feet - a death zone above the vertical limit of endurance where the human body cannot survive for long. Every second counts as Peter enlists the help of a crew of fellow climbers, including eccentric, reclusive mountain man Montgomery Wick, to ascend the chilling might of the world's most feared peak to save her.



Preps: Hm. Third time, I guess. NOthing spectacular I need to see. But something to relax my mind after a long day.


Reality: Somehow it's similar to Apollo 13. Someone that goes on climbing Himalaya, should know his/her strengths, weaknesses. And how far can he/she go in these thin lines between life and death.
Somehow I seem to be repeating myself. How much is one life worth or how much are three lives worth? In currency of lives and maybe in currency of media spectacles. How would it make a change if it was a relative or someone you love up in the mountain? How much money would you claim if you were the brave hero trying to rescue a mission?

One of the good missions that started with a prediction of fail, ends up in the vertical (of death), waiting for the rescue or its death. Being economic along the way (which makes it interesting, I might add). But nothing more than a good mission to make us think about our climbing, if we ever want to go. To think about the stakes and if we are willing to let them be, for the sake of dying possibly on the mountain, or being handicapped for the rest of our lives.

Not to underestimate the mountains is the main message. Taken in many copies around the movie world. This one is pretty average and makes you think about all the others. I still feel the piece with the most breathtaking message, how not to underestimate the mountains, is Alive. Also upon a true story. Maybe that's why it takes my breath away every time. Naah, that's not it. It's the good delivery.


My personal rate: 4,0 (ah.. if you don't have anything more important to do. It's a low brainer).


Vertical on IMDB

The Bachelor, 1999

The Bachelor, 1999
Director:Gary Sinyor
Cast: Renee Zellwegger, Chris O'Donnel, Artie Lange



The Bachelor in short:Jimmie is seeing his single friends get married one by one. He isn't too worried until his girlfriend Anne catches the bouquet at his friend Marco's wedding. Suddenly, his wild mustang days are numbered. He finally decides to propose to her, but he sticks his foot in his mouth and botches the proposal. Being insulted by the defeatist proposal, Anne leaves town on an assignment. After she's gone, he finds out that his recently-deceased grandfather's will stipulates that he gets nothing of a multi-million dollar fortune unless he's married by 6:05pm on his 30th birthday: tomorrow! Not being able to find Anne, Jimmie begins backtracking through his past girlfriends to find a wife.

Stage: Home TV selection

Preps: None in perticular, the first five minutes sparkle my interest..

Reality: Well, this is supposed to be an anti-marketing campaign with a theme marriage. Who gets married and why are the "studs" - obviously self called male persons, so fucked up, when they get married? In the movie, it's all about getting the least out of your life when you get married and tons of excuses why not to get married.
For me, the marriage institution is not as important as it may sound from my beginning. However, I despise movies that go so deep into this topic. For heaven's sake, if a guy doesn't want to get married, so what. I mean, you can either to decide to "only live with a girl" and the marriage stays only a paper for what I can see, or you can go and smell the grass on the other side for as long as you want. But making a movie about how depressive life gets when you get married.. well, come on. It's really below the standards and it puts off any desire left in those that really want to get married.

Every now and then, you pop into a movie that turns a serious topic into some sort of comedy wannabe. Well, this piece is a commedy wanna be. So the guys are supposed to be these stereotipes of mustangs, running free, until a dragon lady catches them. Well, give me a break. It really pulled my nerve. You poor creatures, you men. Well, in my opinion, the director made a completely fool out of himself with this piece, as most of these things are not so stereotypical as they might seem in this movie. Life is not really black and white. It's maybe in the US, that a life is measured through 1:0 standard (married : not married), but in my honest opinion, real life doesn't work this way.


My personal rating: 2,0 (for amusement sake, not for the content)
The Bachelor on IMDB