Everest

11/25/2015

"Director Baltasar Kormákur’s vast, encompassing vision thematically broaches the existential drive that consumes extreme climbers, questioning both the brusque heroism and innate fatalism of those that attempt to conquer such harsh climes..." Full review here: http://screen-space.squarespace.com/reviews/2015/9/10/everest.html

2/1/2016

1996, and Mother Nature's big mama is playing her hand again. Based on a true story, Everest tells about a climbing expedition on the world's highest mountain that would become devastated by a severe snow storm. She stands and watches over us all, she is Mount Everest, and climbing her is seen as one of the pinnacles of mountaineering. No matter how many lives are lost over the years, there will always be another group of adventurers ready to take on the mountain and the elements that come with her. The ill fated 1996 trek up Everest gets a worthy cinematic treatment here. Sure it suffers from some of the pitfalls of the disaster movie genre, such as weak characterisations and fake sequences, but emotional investment is high and ready to be grasped by those so inclined. The drama

2/4/2016

> One of the most realistically approached adventure movie based on the real. I was completely surprised with the movie. Because I was expecting 'Vertical Limit' kind of movie. Like, you know, there's no heroic adventure with the incredible stunt sequences in it. But it was very real and more real. Usually while adapting the true events for the screen, unnecessary overdose stunts created to commercialise the product. But in this it was too much closer to the real world adventure, like a documentary film. It was a man versus the mother nature and nothing else. The human villains were not included or the romance and other subplots. It was a multi starrer movie. Lots of big names played only a small role and magnified the expectation for the movie. But like I said expecting awesomeness

12/28/2021

I have read dozens of books about mountaineering expeditions, and several about this particular disastrous climbing season, including Jon Krakuer’s bestseller. Overall I think they did a good job depicting the events in this movie, which makes sense, as they used the expertise of Guy Cotter, a climbing and business partner of Rob Hall, one of the expedition leaders in the forefront of this tragedy. They do an adequate job of putting the grandeur of the mountain on display, while still focusing on the human interactions and personal physical challenges of the characters. The plot runs fairly true to events and the dialogue is well-written. They made changes, of course, such as details of the helicopter rescue scene, but stayed true to the important stuff. I think I agree with the abov

5/18/2023

Based on true events, this rather beautifully shot film tells the story of Kiwi Rob Hall (an adequate Jason Clarke) who ran an exclusive adventure agency that took well-heeled climbers up Mount Everest. In 1996 he decided to team up with accomplished but rather enigmatic mountaineer Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal). What now ensues are a rather join-the-dot series of predicable escapades as the mountain decides that it's had enough of these messy and polluting human gadflies on it's slopes, and so it fights back - impressively and decisively. That leads us to the problem with this - the characterisations are seriously undercooked. I didn't really feel that I knew any of them, nor did I actually find - especially with Gyllenhaal - that I cared whether they survived or not. That might be a te