Hey folks, Harry here with our filmgoing sleepwalker, Cesare stumbling through the net to give us his latest appraisal of a Martin Campbell flickerino.... VERTICAL LIMIT. I've been hearing good things about this film, and my only hesitation has been... Chris O'Donnell.... I can't stand him typically. He does this concentration look sometimes that makes me want to slap him and say, "Staring at the end of your nose does not denote concentration!" And I was kinda hoping that this would be more of an ensemble flick as... I really don't think Chris is up to carrying whole films on his back just yet. But the action is supposed to be incredible on this one.... we'll see soon enough... The following review has quite a few spoilers... the type ya might not want to read, but he likes the film.... hates it when Campbell cuts away from a tense moment to Chris yapping. Tells us that it is not CLIFFHANGER.... whatever that means... And...well, there ya have it.... Read at your own risk....

Harry,

As a friend of the press, I was able to sneak into a screening of Vertical Limit and let me tell you, it was pretty good. Not great--Chris O'Donnell was the star after all--but it is pumped full of enough action to quickly forget about him.

The story is simple and you can guess it from the trailers. Peter & Annie Garret (O'Donnell & Robin Tunney) are part of a great climbing family headed by their father. However, a strenous afternoon family climb turns into disaster as Peter is forced to cut the safety rope plunging his father to his death before his extra weight kills them all. It is a decision which will haunt Peter forever and cause his sister to stop talking to him.

However as chance has it, Peter, now a wildlife photographer, winds up in the base camp for everybody trying to ascend K2. This includes Annie who is part of Elliot the billionaire's (Bill Paxton) high-tech climbing team. The team also includes that Krycek guy from the X files.

Thankfully, the plot sort of ends here when Elliot's team tries to climb to the peak but puts marketing over safety. Disaster (in the form of a cool avalanche) ensues and Elliot, Annie, and the Krycek (forget his character's name, they should have called him Krycek) guy are trapped on the mountain. And, of course, our hero, Christopher O'Donnell (ugh!) rallies the boys (and one blonde) to mount a daring rescue. I'll let you guess if he overcomes it all, saves his sister, and they start talking again.

I feel safe in giving out all these spoilers because a) you can figure it out from the trailer and b) the movie ain't about plot. It is about adrenline. The last half of the movie is just one hair-raising stunt after another. You find yourself gripping the armrest trying to hang on. They don't make enough of these kind of movies. Pure action, pure suspense, no frills--just giving us what we want (aside from Chris O'Donnell talking). This ain't Cliffhanger. Again, this isn't Cliffhanger.

One complaint though, I felt the director, Martin Campbell, didn't let the suspense really take hold. Everytime someone would be clinging for their life, he would cut away to something less exciting (Mr. Donnell talking). I wasn't there for Chris, I was there for the mountain and I would have liked to have seen it be more of a star.

Bottom Line: go see Vertical Limit. It's a lot better than you think.

Cesare