Review of Cliffhanger (1993) by Joe H — 01 Jun 2010

A classic 90's thriller/action movie up alongside Wesley Snipes' "Drop Zone", Christian Slater's "Hard Rain", and other similar stories involving heroes and villains against the elements (air, water, and--in "Cliffhanger's" case--earth/rock).

That said, I can't believe I hadn't seen this movie sooner than last night. While I liked the film, there were definitely some elements about it that I really didn't care for or didn't get.

First off, casting Sylvester Stallone as Gabe was an INTERESTING choice... I'm not saying I didn't like him being in the movie... but it just seemed weird because usually when Sly is cast in a movie, he does something where your like "Oh yeah, that's definitely a character for Stallone; that's definitely why they cast him".

But I didn't get that sense with him in this movie. Honestly, his character really could have been played by ANY actor. But this was a minor thing in light of my next thought: ...... John.... Lithgow.

...? Are you for serious? Yeah... John Lithgow should never ever ever ever EVER ever ever play a villain in a serious movie. ESPECIALLY not with a really prissy British accent. And a terrible job AT said accent.

I just couldn't take him seriously. It was all I could do to not laugh at him every heckin' time he was on screen and/or talking. Terrible casting. Terrible. (Minor spoilers beyond this point) Thirdly.

.. what the heck purpose did the two teenagers serve in the movie!? When they first showed up driving alongside their hero, Stallone's character, I immediately thought "Oh, they're the comic relief that's going to end up doing something to HELP someone later on".

But, no.... Nothing! They did absolutely nothing except get SHOT for crying out loud! What the heck was the purpose of having them in the movie!? Like, because they didn't do anything at all, I actually forgot until this morning that they were even IN the bloody movie.

Fourthly, and this is not a critique but more of a 'drowning my sorrows'... The opening... with Hal's wife or girlfriend? UGH! Wow... that is definitely near the top of the list of worst female character deaths I've ever seen (worst as in heart-wrenchingly awful).

On the list it's right around Richard Kimble's wife in "The Fugitive" (still gives me nightmares) and Vesper Lynd in "Casino Royale". The FUNNY thing is, during the whole sequence where her gear straps are breaking, I kept thinking "I know those shots! I've seen those exact clips of the gear breaking before".

.. a few minutes later as she's falling to her death it suddenly connected: "Ace Ventura". They used the EXACT footage of the gear straps snapping during their (what I now understand is a) parody of "Cliffhanger".

Anyway, moving on. Trevor Jones score, like most of his 90's scores, was forgettable (the 90's really were a bad time for his music, probably because EVERYTHING sounded like "The Last of the Mohicans", a score which I don't care for in the first place), but it did have one or two cool sounding moments.

All-in-all, I'd definitely watch this movie again. Oh... but just one thing.... Is it an established law that movies involving heights (and actually, a LOT of movies involving the elements) always begin with a pre-story story involving the main character and his best friend having fun and then something happens and that friend falls to his death? "Cliffhanger", "Vertical Limit" (in that case, the Dad), "Drop Zone".

.. I know there's gotta be others... Anyway, there's my review :) 4/5 stars for this classic 90's Action/Thriller.... and heck... three of those stars are probably solely for Janine Turner.

.. *woof whistle* :).