pointyfilippa
The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.
Micah Lloyd
Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
Michelle Ridley
The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
Abegail Noëlle
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Greg Hine
It's wrong on so many levels.Cheap filmwork and ripped noff scenes from other movies, you can spot the plots from miles away.Technically pathetic from a climbing point of view, amateur climbers have better kit and dress sense than these 'pros'. As a large bloke that does some ice climbing I can tell you there are very few big chaps climbing at this level, most are racing snakes.The baddies in supposed winter assault gear have white suits black utility belts and black leather gloves - frostbite and visibly duh.EMP just makes things stop working it doesn't make things spark, and sparks don't come in different colours!Love the bit where the inept gunman is restrained and after a cheesy one liner the lead walks out into the road carrying an automatic weapon but the Police cruiser just lets him go by!The Major with dark aviator sunglasses made me think of the 80s or an Airplane spoof movie.The device was on 'full auto-retaliate' pmsl. Let me see, when the plane was shot down the cube armed with 72 hours on the clock....then someone told the military, they hunted down the lead, lets say a couple of hours passed, then he phones a guy climbing in the rockies and tells him to get the plane to Washington DC in the morning. Lets say thats at least 20 hour including flight time.....they have a briefing and then fly to Pakistan, get in a chopper and only 22 hours has passed.....I will return to this later.The lead also manages a lot of beard growth during the flight yet no one else does.Notice the chopper changes from Pakistan army brown to white when they get offWe climbed Everest in 16.5 hours and without oxygen - c'mon that's treating us like muppets ( I do like the real muppets fyi)Random selection of ice axes, and yep, he slides on his back ignoring all basic winter climbing techniques. You go on your front and push down on the point laying your body across the shaft. If his crampons had caught he would have somersaulted not forgetting his already dislocated arm.Oh 4 more hours gone, standing in a white out without face covering and jackets unzipped at the neck.....sorry why was he crawling up a marginal incline with an ice axe on his belly? Mysteriously appearing harnesses, yep the rope is blue but switches to red and back and forth. It has already been pointed out that the crampons disappeared and the doctor diagnoses internal damage through his gear. Loads of people without hats, and YES you do leave them to die if you have to. Love the way they all disperse in different directions even though the path isn't checked and someone just fell down a hidden crevasse.2 hours into night time allegedly, shot of some tents, two Russians standing up in a massive tent, also soundproofed. By my calcs they have another 8 hours of darkness leaving them 3 hours. More standy up size tents. Conversation outside, no wind, unzipped jackets, and vertical snowflake or two.Not bad someone launched a missile and it took about 20 seconds to get into space.Morning, the injured climber who has been drifting in and out of consciousness wakes up fresh as a daisy and moves around without a wince. Total lack of any protection on the lips, and no noticeable increase in stubble.They set off without crampons at a casual stroll and no ice axes! Climbimg shots with goggles off, helmets appear and disappear along with changing kit.The Major gets on a cellphone to talk to the president but seems to use a sat-phone at other times.OMG a baddie appears in black with no gear save an ice axe - his trousers do change colour, and he ain't wearing climbing boots.his jacket also changes from black to dark navy budget nylon special.Why are the two climbers in the tent sitting down wearing their rucksacks when one of them is expecting to be airlifted to hospital?Some wearing harnesses some not, and casually strolling up the spur, and not roped together. Don't see any loops on the axes either. Lead woman's goggles have shrunk, and they aren't wearing crampons again.Lol quick search for magic cube which is perched on a rock and hadn't been blown off over the last 2+ days. It happens to be across a gap, and as if by magic a bloody great launcher and a whole load of tackle appears to make a 'bridge'. The other end is anchored into snow with invisible screws I assume. If you look behind them the line extends beyond view in both directions.The Major in the next scene looks like he is wearing a janitors coat with some ribbons stuck on it.Accident, somehow the lead lady who cant climb up a rope wearing gear manages to unhook herself and climb over the point man who then gives up clinging on after 3 mins and falls to his death. Why didn't he grab the rope....because it disappears from under his nose literally.Tried to spot the barrel of the gun but failed, and the base jumping scene with a hidden parachute is priceless.This film should be watched by all prospective film students as a 'how not to' make a film. Not sure how many mistakes in this review but I have spent too much of my life which I will never get back watching it already. Hopefully some of my comments will help you enjoy the film.Things I did like, some Lowe Alpine and Mountain Hardwear kit which is good gear are the stars.
Wizard-8
Not long after I started watching "Sub Zero", I thought, "Hey, this doesn't look too bad for a made-for-video movie." Not long after that, I saw some scenes that looked spectacular - TOO spectacular. I then remembered that Cinetel Films (which made this movie along with Lions Gate) notoriously uses footage from big-budget major studio movies. It didn't take me long to guess that most of the spectacular footage was from "Vertical Limit", and some on-line research I did after watching the movie proved me correct.How was the rest of the movie, the parts with new footage? Well, after watching the movie, I can understand why the director used a pseudonym. The new special effects done for this movie are mediocre at best, embarrassing at their worst (check out the scene when one mountain climber slips and starts sliding down the mountain - very cheaply done.) The script has a number of faults as well. Over half the movie goes by before the protagonists get off their butts and start their mission. There are clichés, like the black guy being the first of the mountain climbing team to die. Then there are laughable bits, like the Russians shooting down a plane in the Mount Everest area (Russia is too far away from there!), and someone saying they climbed Everest in hours when it actually takes DAYS to climb the mountain! If there had been more laughable bits like those, I might have recommended the movie as an unintentional comedy. But as it is, it's one you can safely avoid.
ver_steeg
Yes, this movie was truly pathetic. As another viewer points out, the mountain did an excellent job. Other than that, embarrassing. Terrible and inconsistent Russian accents, not to mention offensive stereotyping. A doctor who can diagnose "internal hemorrhaging" by touching the outside of an injured climber's parka. The female Russian climber actually looks like she is wearing jeans. The impossibly implausible position of the cube. The RIDICULOUS final climb with the cube--what is he holding on to? It is so clearly shot with them lying down horizontally. Flying effects that looked like a SNL skit.Nevertheless, it was still rather fun to watch how this train wreck of a movie would get worse.
helenebarrette
The picture of a climber on the DVD box is what made me rent the movie. I was expecting something no worse than Cliff Hanger or Vertical Limits (both of which were ludicrous). But I knew within the first 2 minutes that this was oh-so-much-worse... The special effects are bad, the acting is bad, the script is pathetic, and the climbing... beyond laughable. Another reviewer already commented on the "crawling along the snow", the missing crampons in the crevasse, and the poor ice axe technique of the "climbers". I'll add to that: 1) the fact that the climbers go from D.C. to K2 base camp at about 20,000ft with no acclimatization (close to instant death...); 2) they carry big, heavy non-expedition tents to Camp 1; 3) there are tire tracks all around Camp 1 (!!!); 4) they never rope up properly, and walk too close together; 5) it's windy outside, but quiet and calm inside the tent (no wind); 6) they carry Coleman gas lanterns to Camp 1 and no one has a headlamp (what real climbers use); 7) their packs and equipment are all new, and yet, all these climbers are "the world's best" with loads of experience; 8) they're not dressed like climbers (furry hood); 9) they keep referring to the fact that it's suicide to climb K2 "in this season" (winter?), yet, it's mostly sunny and apparently not very cold on the mountain (no visible "breath"). And no one - I don't care how good they are - would ever sign up to reach 23,000ft on the north face of K2, within 72 hours of sitting in an office in Washington, D.C. Not even for large sums of money.If you're going to write a movie about climbing, wouldn't you learn SOMETHING about the sport first?For good climbing movies, Everest (IMAX) by David Brashears, and Touching the Void (the Joe Simpson story) --- much, much, much better, even without the fake Russians and glowing Rubik's cubes...