(rated PG-13)
Call it the winter sleeper, call it “Perfect Storm” in the snow, call it open-scene breath-taking, call it what you want, but Vertical Limits gives new meaning to action adventure with a touch of survivor. These guys didn’t just act, they had to deal with high-altitude, weather elements, whiteouts, and no trailer to go hide in! Filmed in the New Zealand Alps, doubling for the Himalayas, it’s the story of a photographer (Chris O’Donnell) who assembles a group of mountain climbers to help him rescue his sister (Robin Tuney) and her summit team including Elliot Vaughn (Bill Paxton), as a heartless millionaire in it for a stunt, bound to the top of the K2, the world’s second highest mountain. Buried alive under an avalanche, the story has the smoothness of today’s cinematography yet reminiscent of older disaster movies “Alive” and “Poseidon Adventure” It’s good to see Chris O’Donnell surface at his best since “Scent Of A Woman” after being somewhat buried alive in movies like “Batman Forever” and “The Bachelor.” Be warned however, the sensational effects delivered in supreme directing by Martin “The Mask Of Zorro” Campbell, will give anyone with peering-over-a-high-rise-ledge acrophobia, a lot to get dizzy and tip over.
