T.V.
And Films
Film Reviews
Vertical Limit on DVD
Rating: 12
Running Time: 119 mins.
Extras Subtitles in English/Dutch/Polish, Dubbed Dolby soundtrack in
Hungarian, Animated menus, scene access, 24 minute features: "Surviving
The Limit", featurette/interactive section "Search and Rescue Tales",
Commentary from Micheal Campbell and Lloyd Phillips, (PCs only) link to
official website
This is a slickly produced disc as perhaps you'd expect given the
director's apparent thrill for digital special effects. The transfer is
sharp and the sound - whilst obviously not quite as shell-shocking as it
is in the cinema - still makes one hell of an impact if you have the
volume up loud - but be careful not to scare the neighbors with avalanche
noises, though!
The animated menus look fabulous, navigation is not bad and the scene access is
handy for bypassing some of the establishing scenes, if you're an action
junkie. The bizarre assortment of soundtracks and subtitles is baffling.
The featurettes are - Shock! Horror! - pretty damned decent, although more
from the real mountaineers and a little less film footage would have been
welcome. Particularly frustrating is the endless referrals in the
commentary to how shots were completed and, whilst there seems there is
evidence of this somewhere, it's mostly left out in favor of two or three
clips of the film which appear endlessly in the trailers.
One short segment about filming the real K2 - the climb required 160
porters for a three man team - appears to be cut off short, which is a
pity since it's the most interesting section on the disc - there's a limit
to how many times you can be told how amazing the real climbers are and
how well the actors learned to climb.
The commentary isn't bad, although it ends abruptly. Given the logistics
of the shoot, there's plenty to talk about and Michael Campbell largely
avoids repeating himself. Although it's not much of an extra, you should
check out the link to the website. There are fantastic location
photographs of New Zealand, which doubles for K2, from exec producer
Lloyd Phillips, that are well worth a look.
Generally, a nicely produced and good value package.
However the film its self is not great, which is a great shame considering
the quality of the extras on the DVD.
Rating: 2 Stars
Simon Owen.
