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Director: Martin
Campbell
Cast: Chris O'Donnel, Robin Tunney, Bill Paxton, Isabella Scorrupo, Scott
Glenn.
This one’s a thrill ride -
on the peaks of Pakistan's K2 (PoK-actually there are some corny
references to the ongoing tussles with India throughout
the movie here) The story is about an ex-mountaineer (O'Donnel) who
is on a rescue mission to save his sister (Tunney) who has been trapped in
an avalanche when the quest to conquer the mountain ends in a disaster.
Tunney is cross with big bro coz in the first few reels of the movie,
their ol' man falls down while teethering from the edge of a mountain and
croaks. Sis blames our 'bechara' hero for this. So our hero starts sulking
and gives up mountaineering and turns to photographing snow leopards
playing WWF in Pakistan (really, even Paki wild animals are stupid!)
There's another dude (Bill Paxton), a Texan billionaire who wants to climb
K2 as a publicity stunt for the airline he is about to launch (shades of
Richard Branson here). So he takes a team, which includes Tunney and
attempts to climb up. Now he has done this before and failed. But
unfortunately, if he had learnt a lesson last time, this flick would have
never been made, would it?
Now
because Mr. Billionaire is over smart, he decides to go against the advice
of the group leader and this leads to a major disaster. The whole team is
killed except for Mr. Billionaire, Mr. Group leader and the sister who
fall into a deep crevice. The group leader is so badly hurt that you hope
he dies soon because you have to strain your ears to understand what he is
trying to say and finally you have no choice but to give up and behave as
though you would normally do when your prof is teaching you intricacies of
quantum physics.
Now our hero with a girlfriend of a friend ( Isabella Scorrupo-heroine of
'Goldeneye) and another experienced veteran (Scott Glenn) lead a rescue
mission. However, Mr. Glenn has a 'hidden agenda' here. His wife was a
part of the first expedition led by Billionaire and during the course of
the mission she died. Glenn blames Billionaire for what happened and wants
to take revenge by killing Billionaire.
What follows is a thrill ride- one of the best action movies in recent
times. Of particular note are the helicopter drop at the step of the edge
of the mountain and the cliffhanger (literally) and the subsequent
avalanche. Speaking of which, the movie almost looks like Cliffhanger II,
although a little slow but much more exciting in parts. The actors don't
have much to do and perform competently. Martin Campbell (Goldeneye and
Mask of Zorro) is in fine form here, especially in the action scenes that
are executed with élan. All in all, a must-see for action movie buffs.
Great popcorn entertainment.
By the way, Sis is rescued and she makes up with bro. Alls well that ends
well !!
Rating
* * *
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