one of my absolute favorites!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Gabe Walker was a rescue worker in the Rocky Mountains but after an accident where he was unable to save the life of a friend he has left the mountains. Almost a year later he returns hoping to persuade his girlfriend, Jessie, to come back to Denver with him. He has no intention to go climbing but events conspire against him. A treasury plane transporting a hundred million dollars is intercepted and hijacked in an audacious attempt to steal the money. The robbery doesn't go according to plan and the three cases full of cash fall into the mountains and the hijacker's plane makes a forced landing. They then put out a false emergency call, claiming to be lost hikers. Gabe's former friend, Hal Tucker, responds to the Call and Jessie persuades Gabe to go too although it soon becomes clear that Hal hasn't blames him for what happened in the opening scene. That is all put behind them though when they are forced to help the hijackers. Gabe is forced to climb for one of the cases but when he finds it he scatters the money and then escapes as the villains accidentally trigger an avalanche. While Hal is forced to continue helping, Gabe meets up with Jessie and the two of them play cat and mouse with the hijackers in an attempt to get to the cash first and save Hal.When one thinks of action movies that usually means either lots of shooting or martial arts; this manages to be different. There is some shooting and fighting but much of the best action is provided by our protagonists struggling against the rugged mountain environment. There is also the spectacular hijack sequence where a character uses a rope to move between two planes in flight. The scenes on the mountains look great; it looks as though the characters are really precarious positions rather than obvious green screen shots. The film gets off to a great start with the shocking death of Gabe's friend then gets even more exciting when the main story get underway. Sylvester Stallone does an impressive job as Gabe and is ably supported by Michael Rooker and Janine Turner as fellow good guys Hal and Jessie. The bad guys are pretty impressive too; most notably John Lithgow who is delightfully over the top as Qualen, the psychotic leader of the villains. Some of the action is quite brutal; surprisingly so as I'd previously only seen the heavily cut UK VHS release which is less violent and much less sweary than the uncut version. Overall I heartily recommend this to anybody wanting a fine action movie which features great stunts rather than obvious CGI.

I saw this movie recently and wow it's still amazing Stallone is great as usual, Michael Rooker and even John Lithgow as the bad guy? it works. I still don't understand how this director went from this movie which is very very good and directed Legend of Hercules? I mean how? how did this happened? Anyways like i said on the summary Cliffhanger is an action packed adventure that will keep you at the edge of your seat and especially if you haven't seen the behind the scenes footage please do because it will take your breath away i mean it. The movie starts with a bang and also ends with another big bang 1993 was a great year for Stallone i guess he made this and then Demolition Man another classic movie.

The sweeping orchestral music (probably the highlight of the film) prepares us for an epic and exciting film and the opening scene does not disappoint. One may quibble as to how a girl who is afraid of heights manages to climb to the top of a high mountain. That said, her acting is almost perfect, with a look of genuine fear through-out. The whole scene with her swinging helpless on the line is grippingly (pun not intended) done and the outcome was a surprise to me, at least.Alas the film then falls more steeply than she does. A cast of cookie cutter homicidal villains make a failed (and very bloody) robbery of a plane and the booty is scattered over a mountain range. making it a bugger to retrieve. This crew of cut-out villains are led by John Lithgow (affecting a curious English accent which makes him sound like Stewie Griffin)and comprise two other genuine Brits, a black guy who looks strangely out of place, and an angry bald white man. They all hate each other and are quite prepared to murder each other in cold blood, so one wonders how they ever got together. This is clearly bad script writing 101, and one can imagine the script-writers (which include the great Stallone himself) saying "we must have conflict between the characters", but it is so overdone that it almost becomes comical.However there is so much swearing and gore that laughing is quite out of the question. Obviously Stallone swings in to save the day, although not without a number of innocents being mowed down.This is one of those movies where all the creativity goes into devising the most gruesome deaths possible and none goes into the script. The script is actually completely ludicrous, a mere peg to hang these gruesome scenes on. Possibly the most gory and ridiculous is the death of the black guy. In a display of superhuman strength, Stallone Clean and Jerks him to be impaled on a stalagmite.The final fight between Stallone and Lithgow is impressively shot.

This is undoubtedly the best movie of Renny Harlin , one of the best masterpieces of action films of the nineties, is one of my favorite movies, this is a perfect example of a great adventure film , excellent performances from the entire cast , great cinematography by Alex Thomson, beautiful music by Trevor Jones, special edition of Frank J. Urioste , and wonderful script.The beginning of the film offers us an unforgettable tragic drama, then we displayed a thrilling aerial assault , and what follows is the struggle for survival , the struggle of good against evil, cruel villains, heroes realistic , shocking scenes of fights and scenes of well-performed deaths; the whole movie is original and very creative , this film production is a gift for lovers of action cinema , the film offers very good sound and special effects.The actors bring their emotions interesting characters, for example, Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow, Michael Rooker, Janine Turner, Rex Linn, Caroline Goodall ... this film conveys energy , the entire set is admirable, the result is high entertainment power.