STARRING: Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow, Michael Rooker, Janine Turner, Leon Robinson, Paul Winfield and Ralph Waite. Screenplay by Michael France and Sylvester Stallone. Directed by Renny Harlin. Budget $70 million. Boxoffice taking $255 million. Running time 113 minutes. Originally released in 1993.
How funny, last night I watched I Play Rocky and tonight I'm watching Cliffhanger back in our cinemas for one night, not sure why, but what the heck, they don't make films like this anymore and it's been probably 30 years since I last saw it.
The plot sees Park Ranger Gabe Walker (Sylvester Stallone) blame himself for the death of his best friend, Hal Tucker's (Michael Rooker) girlfriend's death who plummets to her pancake demise after a climbing accident. Anyway Gabe is still grief stricken a year later when former British military intelligence officer and psychopath Eric Qualen (John Lithgow) and his motly crew of heavily armed crimbos hijack a US Federal Mint aircraft in midflight and loss $100 million in three suitcases across the very mountains Gabe and Tucker work in, thus triggering a frantic pursuit to find the suitcases before Qualen executes all his men in punishment for not killing Gabe. Before a final showdown to the death between the two men.
Look, screw the plot, it's stupid, it's got more holes than a Swiss cheese, and it's built on a foundation of coincidences, happenstance and kismet. Stallone spends most of the film in just a vest to out Willis Willis and has bigger arms than Arnoldt. The film directed by one-time golden boy, Renny Harlin, once the poster boy for action films was green lit by the following elevator pitch, "It's Die Hard but on mountains." The film is generic, derivative, and mindless. Harlin directs it very well and it's not stymied by shaky-cam or overly frantic editing. The soundtrack grates, but it's the scenery and action that makes it fun. As is watching all the henchmen kill themselves or get killed. Gabe goes from being just a great climber to a one man killing machine and takes to it like duck to water, within minutes he's stabbing, hacking, or impaling people on stalactites with no sign of PTSD, in fact he soon makes Rambo look like a goddam boy scout. Anyway the generic band of baddies are reduced to one, the big boss leading to the end level big boss fight and a happy goodbye for our three plucky heroes, Sly, his once best pal, now best pal again, and girlfriend, then ex before being girlfriend again. Oh, and if you want to see where Christopher Nolan got his idea for the jet plane hiest in that awful third Battyman film, Bane in the ass, look no further.
How funny, last night I watched I Play Rocky and tonight I'm watching Cliffhanger back in our cinemas for one night, not sure why, but what the heck, they don't make films like this anymore and it's been probably 30 years since I last saw it.
The plot sees Park Ranger Gabe Walker (Sylvester Stallone) blame himself for the death of his best friend, Hal Tucker's (Michael Rooker) girlfriend's death who plummets to her pancake demise after a climbing accident. Anyway Gabe is still grief stricken a year later when former British military intelligence officer and psychopath Eric Qualen (John Lithgow) and his motly crew of heavily armed crimbos hijack a US Federal Mint aircraft in midflight and loss $100 million in three suitcases across the very mountains Gabe and Tucker work in, thus triggering a frantic pursuit to find the suitcases before Qualen executes all his men in punishment for not killing Gabe. Before a final showdown to the death between the two men.
Look, screw the plot, it's stupid, it's got more holes than a Swiss cheese, and it's built on a foundation of coincidences, happenstance and kismet. Stallone spends most of the film in just a vest to out Willis Willis and has bigger arms than Arnoldt. The film directed by one-time golden boy, Renny Harlin, once the poster boy for action films was green lit by the following elevator pitch, "It's Die Hard but on mountains." The film is generic, derivative, and mindless. Harlin directs it very well and it's not stymied by shaky-cam or overly frantic editing. The soundtrack grates, but it's the scenery and action that makes it fun. As is watching all the henchmen kill themselves or get killed. Gabe goes from being just a great climber to a one man killing machine and takes to it like duck to water, within minutes he's stabbing, hacking, or impaling people on stalactites with no sign of PTSD, in fact he soon makes Rambo look like a goddam boy scout. Anyway the generic band of baddies are reduced to one, the big boss leading to the end level big boss fight and a happy goodbye for our three plucky heroes, Sly, his once best pal, now best pal again, and girlfriend, then ex before being girlfriend again. Oh, and if you want to see where Christopher Nolan got his idea for the jet plane hiest in that awful third Battyman film, Bane in the ass, look no further.
Not a totally terribly bad way to spend a Saturday night, great to see it on the big screen, the scennery really deserves it. And good to see Stallone settling into his macho man hero personna, but I'll take First Blood anytime over this.
7/10
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