Cliffhanger is one of the more successful Die Hard imitators ("Die Hard on a Mountain"), with a good heroic cast - Sylvester Stallone, Michael Rooker (is this the original Guardians movie?) and Janine Turner - giving terrorist-thieves a bad time in the Rockies after a hare-brained heist goes wrong. Great use of the location and strong stunt work, and though the film itself is derivative (it also steals from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for some reason), it also seems fairly influential. In addition to the parodies that made the first sequence part of pop culture, I dare say the Mission: Impossible franchise poached a couple of sequences from it, as did Peter Jackson over the years. It's one real weakness, for me, was the villains. They are almost impossibly stupid, impatiently shooting at people for no reason but to make the movie last longer. If they'd only shown some restraint early on, I'm pretty sure they would have gotten away with the money and their lives. And that means John Lithgow's character is criminally underwritten, just a vaguely European psychopath, with nowhere near the standing of Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber. Truth in advertising: Why doesn't this end on an actual cliffhanger?
Very good remastering on the Blu-ray, the 90s film material looks great on this one. Some amazing stuntwork done here - including the officially most expensive single stunt in film history! - and a few throroughly professional action scenes. Dialogue is, of course!, often laughable with the most moronic villains and inexplicable behavior from almost anyone in the snow. But did us 90s folks care? I'm surprised to still have some good braindead fun with it.
One of the better aged Stallone action guilty pleasures ..
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Comments 1 - 7 of 7
Earring72
Still great action movie with terrific stunts and exciting over the top action. Great funSiskoid
Cliffhanger is one of the more successful Die Hard imitators ("Die Hard on a Mountain"), with a good heroic cast - Sylvester Stallone, Michael Rooker (is this the original Guardians movie?) and Janine Turner - giving terrorist-thieves a bad time in the Rockies after a hare-brained heist goes wrong. Great use of the location and strong stunt work, and though the film itself is derivative (it also steals from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for some reason), it also seems fairly influential. In addition to the parodies that made the first sequence part of pop culture, I dare say the Mission: Impossible franchise poached a couple of sequences from it, as did Peter Jackson over the years. It's one real weakness, for me, was the villains. They are almost impossibly stupid, impatiently shooting at people for no reason but to make the movie last longer. If they'd only shown some restraint early on, I'm pretty sure they would have gotten away with the money and their lives. And that means John Lithgow's character is criminally underwritten, just a vaguely European psychopath, with nowhere near the standing of Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber. Truth in advertising: Why doesn't this end on an actual cliffhanger?Torgo
Very good remastering on the Blu-ray, the 90s film material looks great on this one. Some amazing stuntwork done here - including the officially most expensive single stunt in film history! - and a few throroughly professional action scenes. Dialogue is, of course!, often laughable with the most moronic villains and inexplicable behavior from almost anyone in the snow. But did us 90s folks care? I'm surprised to still have some good braindead fun with it.One of the better aged Stallone action guilty pleasures ..
mook
Watchable Stallone action/thriller with a solid premise (Die Hard up a Mountain?) - but I never really got into it. 6/10.Follow me on Twitter @LastFilmSeen
Jaqo
Bad acting, horrible directing. Great action, though.gregmnewman
What an awful filmafan
worst villains of all time...horrible movie by any standards...