Post by stefancrosscoe on Oct 8, 2017 14:23:02 GMT
"Don't bother to buckle up, you may not want to survive this."
A crew of highly skilled professional criminals have just gotten away with stealing 100 million dollars in cash after capturing a large airplane, however their brilliant plan along with their money goes to pieces when they end up taking a nasty crash landing into the chaotic and hostile landscape of Rocky Mountains.
Trapped in a dangerous enviroment and in some bad need of help, the sadistic leader of the pack Eric Qualen (John Litgow) ends up manipulating a local mountain rescuer into helping them out. But when their rescuer finds out what kind of people he deals with, the situation soon escalates into a desperate battle for survival, for all parts.
Part 2. of Renny Harlin's winter or snow "trilogy" (along with Die Hard 2 and The Long Kiss Goodnight) and my second favorite Sly Stallone 90s movie right behind Cop Land (1997). This great adventure/survival action-thriller was to be one of my earliest memories of seeing a Sylvester Stallone action-film and what a film it is.
Stunning scenery, great music, memorable one-liners, nasty and brutal fight and action scenes, and classic bad ass villains, not just one but a whole gang of them (not many action films these days manage to even have one, but back then, you could have 8 classic villain in one film).
The movie do have a bit of that First Blood (1982) and Die Hard (1988) where a former heroic figure have to save the day, against all odds in a dangerous and unpredictable locations. But I think this was one of the few films which really took that formula and brought along a fantastic and very enjoyable action adventure, and that stills stands as one of the best and most thrillingly made action films of that period.
John Litgow is pure evil as the psychotic and ruthless Eric Qualen, and this was my first movie that I saw him in, so I was suprised that most of the other films or TV-show he has starred in, had him often been playing more likeable or light hearted characters, while here he is the complete opposite of that.
The music and use of locations along with the stunts are still at times breathtaking to watch, not sure if there was a lot of CGI used, but still, some of the action scenes are truly impressive.
My first "experience" of this film came in 1995 with Ace Ventura 2: When nature calls which makes a hilarious parody of the opening scene in Cliffhanger, but back then I did not know which movie it made fun of, as I had still not seen it. And then my dad brought along the VHS tape of Cliffhanger a year later, and I was completely hooked.
Beside Sly Stallone and John Litgow, Michael Rooker, Janine Turner, Rex Linn and Leon Robinson are also among the memorable cast.
The music was done by Trevor Jones and do resemble his score for The Last of the Mohicans (1992) in several parts, but I thought it fitted right in with the dramatic and adventurous ride that is Cliffhanger.
