K2 (1991)

Fresh and Exciting

disgusting, overrated, pointless

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

When I first saw this movie's title I thought it was going to be another "Cliff Hanger", but I was wrong.This multi-national creation is stunningly high quality production. Each scenes are vivid, and points well delivered.K2 is one of the most dangerous mountain to climb in the world, killing one out of every four who climb's there. This movie captures the audacity, and adventure of the team who dares to attempt it. Very little facts about climbing on K2 were known in 1992, so they did an excellent job getting all the details right. International cast of actors includes Hiroshi Fujioka who's the original Kamen Rider, and Julia Nickson who was playing various exotic roles both in the US and Asia. Other actors were spot on choices for their roles as well.I wish I had the physical ability to climb a mountain. My high blood pressure makes me high risk at high altitude, so climbing something above 10000 ft is out of the question. But I wish I can experience some of the extreme conditions like the characters in this movie has experienced. But movies like this gives me the opportunity to feel what it's like to be there.

Plainly an insult to anyone who knows the least about mountaineering and mountain climbing, there are any number of mountains in the world where this story might have taken place but K2 is not one of them. People like Pete Athens and Conrad Anker do not shoot themselves with methamphetamines to complete a climb and the premise that a previous climber died because someone stole their drugs is pathetic.This movie is a series of bad scenes compiled of bad stock characters played by bad actors. Look at the credits list for this film and you will note that there are no photos for most of the actors even the stars. That is because they have no talent and they never made any good movies so that anyone would load their photos anywhere.Bad story badly made and an insult to the genuine sport.

I bought the DVD out of a big bin for $4.99, thinking I'd lucked into some documentary pearl that would actually show extensive footage of the Karakoram mountains, and K2 in particular. Fast-forwarding through the film, I reached the climactic scene in which the climbers catch their first sight of ---- Mount Waddington, towering to all of 13,260 ft, in Canada's Coastal Range. At least one of the several bozos geared up to climb K2 clearly has no idea what the real mountain actually looks like -- he has to be assured by his friend and climbing partner that he wouldn't have been brought by said partner to an ugly mountain. Given that one of the film's premises is that 27 or so people have lost their lives on K2, you might think that the jerk in question might have taken a minute or two to bone up on a few basic facts, but the clown seems to think that preparations on this scale, while good enough for the likes of Reinhold Messner, are beneath him. To be honest, I haven't watched the whole thing. What I've seen makes me cringe. They say that you get what you pay for. At $4.99, I've been ripped off.

I liked this movie enough to having watched it three times as of now. With few exceptions, it's a realistic adventure movie - this according to a friend who has done 5000+ meter climbs - with beautiful scenery, very interestingly developing plot, personal intrigues, good humor etc. Also, the acting is generally excellent, where the two main characters are the cream of the crop.The only thing I don't like is the kind of "Crap, we ran out of money, how do we put a quick end to this?" ending. Also, the quality of the picture is a bit "amateurish", the "home VCR" kind of quality at times with that dreaded bad contrast which makes for a "grey-biassed" picture. Not a good thing for an adventure/trek movie with beautiful scenery.All in all, it's indeed enjoyable to watch, though. Moderately recommended. Rating: 7/10