benway1

25 May 2012

unfortunately unwatchable

I was looking forward to watching this one, even a halfhearted blatantDescent/Wrong Turn ripoff could have worked if the whole thing wasn'tburied under such an annoying script. Starts of with some promisinglandscape shots but as soon as the climbing starts it turns out onemember of the group has vertigo. Sure there are worse ideas thanputting a guy with vertigo on a voluntary mountain hike but almost thewhole first half of the movie solely relies on that to create tensionand panic. Combined with the weak acting of this guy, the rest of thegroup (only the grumpy ex-boyfriend character was kinda neutral) andsome of the most uninspired by- the-numbers dangerous situations itonly takes about 20 minutes until I started to keep my fingers crossedfor them to die all at once within the next 5-10 minutes. Oh and andafter they completely lost it the Descent/Wrong Turn ripoff starts,emphasis more on the wrong turn side.

24 May 2012

The Low Road

When this movie concerns the perils of mountain climbing, it ascends to near excellence. The character infos are concise and pertinent, and the action gets quickly under way. There's plenty of vertiginous suspense, heart-pounding hazards, and sudden, gasp-inducing scares. But then the film descends into the abyss of slasher flickdom with its latest carnation of back-country, degenerate, slicer-dicer killer. The canny and deliberate characters shed about 30 IQ points apiece and become silly, screaming ninnies who run blindly through the dark, heedless of booby traps, precipices, and brutal, sadistic slayer. A non-French speaker scarcely needs subtitles as most of the dialogue devolves into little more than squalling and name-shrieking. The imperiled rapellers sink rapidly into petty squabbling and sexual competition, and fists sometimes fly with all the abandon of a 50's TV Western. Unfortunately, this film's climax comes early on, and it's--ahem--all downhill from there. Rescue scenes are over-edited, robbing the viewer of catharsis, and yet tedious displays of indecision and timidity go on and on. But the blood is, of course, boundless. And, apparently, so is the slasher, since the film's ending blurbs that over 3000 people have disappeared in the Balkans wilds!

23 May 2012

nice views

This review is from: High Lane (DVD) A group of friends go mountain climbing on a closed mountain and end up getting hunted. The first portion of the movie shows the friends climbing with nice shots landscape, mountains and ect. One member has a few near misses and some of the shots were shown looking down and had us on the edge of our seats (don't much care for heights). The rest of the movie is about the group fighting the hunter and needless to say he picks them off one by one. The only thing I didn't care for was at the very end...writing comes up explaining the missing hikers/campers in that region and also that the one hunting them was a victim. If he was a victim and knew his name it would have been nice to explain a bit more about him and what happened to him.

Scott Weinberg

22 May 2012

As unexpectedly entertaining as it is plainly beholden to several other suspense thrillers and horror flicks.

bmritter

20 May 2012

French movie that had something tries to be American C rate slasher

This movie started off excellent. The shots of the mountains and thebeauty of nature shown through that first half of the film was justamazing and breath taking !! This movie has one of my favorite Frenchactors Johan Libereau (Loic- or Luke)and the movie started outexciting, fresh, full of adventure, and was thrilling keeping mewanting more. When the leader (Fred) got caught in a bear trap I wastense with excitement, and wondered what they would do next. Then itwent down hill right after that, and it just plummeted. I quite caringabout the movie about 2 minutes after Fred got dragged away. It wentfrom a great cinematic French experience (despite the terrible Englishdubbing) to a terrible wannabe-American-terrible C rate horror film.Loic became really annoying and whinny, ruining the talents of Johan(Les Temoins,Douches Froides,Q,and Un Coeur Simple). The flashbacks ofChloe and Im assuming her brother or former patient didn't match withthe storyline in my opinion. Did I mention that the version I watchedhad terrible English dubbing ? The killer wasn't scary or intimidating,and the deaths the cast experience are ridiculous, especially Loic'sand Karines. This movie goes from epic to worthless in a 3 minute span,I would suggest only watching the first half and not disappointingyourself with the rest.

kluseba

19 May 2012

Cliffhanger meets The Hills Have Eyes

"Vertige" is a very entertaining movie with a lot of intense suspensein the first half that is comparable to "Cliffhanger". Apart of somegeneric character plays, the first half especially convinces with aninteresting camera work that perfectly captures the vertigo and thefears of of one of the characters. By watching these scenes you reallycan identify with the character and you won't feel at ease as well. Youfeel as if you were climbing up the mountains of Croatia and sufferingfrom vertigo for real. The first half also shows us many greatlandscapes captured by a very good camera work once again.The second part of the movie turns from a suspenseful action drama intoa solid horror movie that can be compared to the legendary "The HillsHave Eyes". The transition is well developed enough to not feel like asudden rupture but it might still mislead some people. Those whoexpected an intense mountaineer feature may be mixed up and feeldisappointed by the second half. Those who awaited a rather genericadult horror movie might already get confused by the first half of themovie. The mixture of both genres is very particular and I personallyequally adored both halves but this experimental idea is rathercourageous and might not sell well. It can be considered as a mistakefrom a commercial point of view. From an artistic point of view, theidea is worth it and turns out to be rather intriguing.In this second part of the movie, there are some gore and splatterscenes but fortunately the movie rather focuses on the atmosphere andthe fate of the characters than on a generic slaughter fest. Thenegative thing is that the fate of the main villain is not explainedand the screenwriters could have created a few better ideas and a moreprofound character. On the other side, even though the movie has aradical change of style and genre, the flick is very dynamical and willkeep you on the edge of your seat until the end even though there areno big twists or surprises in the movie that might push this flickabove average. The ending is a little bit too generic and has some veryweak and random explanations for what we have seen in about ninetyminutes.There is a lot of potential in this feature and it's surelyentertaining but it could have been better with an additional runningtime of maybe ten minutes and an improved ending. If you see this moviefor a cheap price or if it is shown on television, don't hesitate tobuy or watch this but don't spend more money on it and don't expectanything outstanding.

19 May 2012

Great Thriller!

This movie was great! In short, a group of kids go mountain climbing/hiking in the Balkans. Along the way, they, not surprisingly, get hunted, and the story revolves around how well they either evade capture or deal with their adversary (trying to avoid spoiler). Again, it was great. First of all, the camera work of the beginning 1/2 of the film as they hike/mountain climb was outstanding. I'm sure there was a lot of computer graphics, but it never felt that way. Its conceivable they actually did the stunts themselves. Either way, the shots are great, and the tension as they do challenging moves it outstanding. For fans of mountain climbing and advanced hiking, these scenes alone are worth the ride. Then we get to the adversarial part. While this movie is a French analogue of the all too repeated West Virginia mutant gone bad story, it doesn't feel formulaic or tired. Perhaps there isn't that much new in this story compared to the genre of deep woods hikers meets crazy killer, but it feels fresh. Hard to articulate why, but it was really enjoyable. Please understand the film is in french and subtitled with English. Highly recommended.

Robin Clifford

19 May 2012

The story...wanders into routine horror territory when the monster, named Anton, begins his reign of terror using bear trap and cross bow to capture and kill his victims.

daver6

17 May 2012

Entertaining - SPOILERS

I watch many horror films on the Horror channel and most are dreadful(e.g. Camel Spiders) whilst a few are genuinely entertaining - this tomy mind is one of the entertainers; even with sub-titles! Basically thefirst half is a tense climbing film and the second half is abetter-than-average slasher film.The Good: 1. The acting was excellent, scenery stunning, the climbingwell filmed and, refreshingly, the characters were not a bunch ofannoyingly moronic teens drinking and partying themselves to an earlygrave; although I did find Luke irritating at times and ratherimmaturely (but manfully) I thought Chloe extremely sexy with herlow-cut top and kept hoping for more......2. I find sheer drops and hanging over precipices bowel loosening sofor me this film gains credit for delivering two types of scares: thehanging-from-a-rope-over-a-2,000ft-drop type and thesomeone-is-hunting-me type; though the first scared me more.3. The fight scenes on 'the rock' were bloody, brutal and thecharacters looked as if they were fighting for their lives (apart fromitem 2 in the 'mildly annoying' below).4. The use of sound to induce dread; the dentist drill as the firstgirl was killed, the sound of steel instrument being drawn and the thudof bodies as the two climbers hung in the cellar.The Mildly Annoying: 1. Why was Fred running through the trees when hewas caught in the trap? Why did he not immediately throw down the ropeto the climbers below? 2. An inability to finish the job. Both Luke andChloe die because they were not willing to kill the killer. Luke hadthe advantage when he was hitting the killer on the head with a stone.Why throw away that advantage (literally) and crawl to the edge of theprecipice? Chloe decided to show compassion and leave the killer alivebehind her.3. Is it likely that the killer could loosen or cut a steel cable(carrying Chloe) with what looked like a small home-made knife? Overall a superior film of its genre and well worth a watch.

collipal-1

17 May 2012

A mediocre film, but at least it is not boring

I did not know anything about Vertige before watching it, except forthe fact that it was a French horror movie. After having watched themovie, I can say that I found it to be a rehash of various NorthAmerican movies from the genre, something which is exacerbated by theprefabricated characters and predictable clichés. However, that did notavoid me from being moderately entertained with this film.The part of Vertige dedicated to the mountaineering is well filmed, andI guess that the fans of that sport will find it much more excitingthan I did. The Croatian landscapes are so amazing that I would like tovisit them only for the views (let's accept it, I even feel vertigowhen I am climbing stairs, so the only mountaineering I could do wouldbe from a helicopter). However, when we reach to the top of themountain, it seems that another movie begins, and we are in front of atypical story about "young people lost in the woods". Nevertheless, the movie kept me moderately entertained as I previouslysaid, mainly because of Abel Ferry's dynamic direction. As for theactors, they did not have too much substantial material to work with,and they do what they can with their roles. In conclusion, I can giveVertige a slight recommendation despite its various fails.

Paul Andrews

14 May 2012

Predicable lifeless slasher adventure film.

High Lane is set in the Croatian mountains where five friends decide itwould be a good idea to spend the day climbing sheer cliff faces &navigating across the hazardous terrain. Experienced climber Fred(Nicolas Giraud) is the main man but he manages to convince his fourfriends including his girlfriend Karine (Maud Wyler) to carry ondespite the mountain pass being closed & warning signs clearly visible,Fred's friends trust his judgement & decide to ignore the warnings. Afew hours into their climb the five get into trouble & things go frombad to worse as Fred is caught in a Bear trap & dragged off by someinbred mutant killer who then goes after the other five teens in afight for survival in the open wilderness who will win?This French production was directed by Abel Ferry & is best describedas some predictable & generic cross between the Sylvester Stalloneaction flick Cliffhanger (1993) & the backwoods brutality teen slasherWrong Turn (2003) without being nearly as good as either, shot underthe title Vertige this really is & plays out exactly as it sounds. Thescript is uneven, the first half of High Lane is devoted purely toclimbing cliff's & walking across perilous looking bridges & has anadventure film feel about it while the second half of the film switchesgears & turns into a teen slasher of the most generic kind with somemountain freak killer stalking & killing the teens off as the rockclimbing & adventure angle is totally dropped. With the usual clichédmix of annoying teen character's & a killer with no motivation orbackground whatsoever High Lane doesn't have a lot going for it apartfrom a reasonable pace & one or two nicely shot sequences. Charactermotivation & behaviour is difficult to understand at times, why did theone guy try to leave the other behind to be killed? Why did the guy letthe other go at the end & fall to his death? When Chloe feel down thepit why didn't she shout back up to her friends who were calling downto her? Why ignore all the warnings in the first place? Who was thekiller? Why did he kill? Who built his house? Why does he not get asingle line of dialogue in the entire film? As you might expect theteens are killed off by their own stupidity & the inbred killer untilonly one tough female survivor is left before a nothing sort of endingthat leaves literally everything up in the air & unresolved. A veryunsatisfying end to a very average & predictable teen slasher thattries to wrap itself up in an adventure film but both aspects comeacross as disappointing & High Lane ends up being neither one thing oranother.Filmed on location in Croatia by a French cast & crew this is dubbed &is currently available as a free instant download on Netflix which isthe only fate it really deserves as I wouldn't have liked to have spentmoney on it. There are a couple of decent moments like the rope bridgewalk but they are few & far between I'm afraid, the gore is fairlyrestrained with a leg caught in a Bear trap, a couple of people areshot with arrows, there's a decapitated head & a slit throat but notmuch else & even the killer is forgettable as he just looks a dirty oldman. The scenery & locations are nice to start off with as the makersuse lots of sheer cliffs but once the slasher aspect kicks in theaction switches to a standard woodland setting.Filmed in full 2:35:1 widescreen this looks nice enough as I have saidwith decent production values but there's nothing memorable here. Thefilm is badly dubbed throughout so it's hard to judge the acting but Idoubt it was great to begin with.High Lane is a throughly predictable, clichéd & uninspired teen slasherthat throws in a few unrelated adventure film aspects that end upfeeling out of place with the two different genres never gelling intoanything particularly enjoyable. Sure it's competent & is't terriblebut I can't say I liked it that much. There are much better films outthere.

Claudio Carvalho

13 May 2012

Breathless Beginning and Unoriginal Development and Conclusion

The teenagers Fred (Nicolas Giraud), his girlfriend Karine (Maud Wyler)and their friends Chloe (Fanny Valette), William (Raphaël Lenglet) eLuke (Johan Libéreau) travel to Croatia to climb and hike along theday. They find the starting point closed with rocks but the experiencedclimber Fred convinces the others, including the coward Luke that has acrush on Chloe and wants to be close to her, to cross the tractclimbing the mountain. Along their journey, they realize that the trailis more dangerous than they thought: the rope bridge collapses aftertheir crossing and the handle in the mountain is busted. Fred climbswith Karine to help their friends but he is wounded in a bear trap.Karine uses a rope to bring their friends to the top, but they do notfind Fred that has disappeared. When Chloe falls in a hole with a trap,they question what do people hunt in that isolated spot. When theydiscover the truth, their entertainment turns into a fight to survive."Vertige" has a breathless beginning with the adventure of the group offive friends in the Balkans. In the first half of this movie, the plotis very tense and I do not know how far the actors and actresses haveclimbed or crossed the rope bridge in times of CGI, but the result iseffective with excellent scenes and camera work and I was nervous withthe situation of the poor guys. Unfortunately the second part of thestory is a violent collection of clichés "à la The Texas ChainsawMassacre" and many other sub-products of the slash genre. Luke is anannoying character and the final decision of Chloe with the fate ofAnton is simply ridiculous. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Vertigem" ("Vertigo")

12 May 2012

First half-hour is worth it, forget the rest.

Vertige (Abel Ferry, 2009)The first thirty minutes of Vertige, released in America as High Lane, are by far the movie's best and scariest. At that point, this is a very simple man vs. nature plot, in which Fred (Taken's Nicolas Giraud), a climber who also seems to be one of those go-go-go self-help gurus, and his girlfriend Karine (Low Life's Maud Wyler) take a trio of others for a climb on what, Fred tells us enthusiastically, is the highest, longest (read: most grueling) climb in Europe. We're told it's somewhere in Croatia, though I can't remember where for the life of me (it has been noted on the IMDB discussion boards that it is, in fact, an agglomeration of at least two different climb sites). You know this is going to go wrong when they see a sign saying in no uncertain terms the site is closed for repairs and Fred ignores it. Just to add to the doomy feeling is the fact that our other trio is all full of scary baggage: Karine's friend Chloe (La Petite Jerusalem's Fanny Valette) is a doctor who just had something nasty happen to her at work, though what it was is only gradually revealed throughout the film. Along with her is old boyfriend Guillaume (Les Bleus' Raphael Lenglet), pretty much the epitome of the ruggedly-handsome athletic type, and geeky new boyfriend Loic (Cold Showers' Johan Libereau), who's pretty much the opposite. This is a movie that, given that premise, needs not one more thing other than good acting and a competent director to make it gripping.And for those first thirty minutes, that's exactly what you get, as Loic overestimates his endurance (and underestimates his fear of heights), the group encounter increasingly dangerous situations while thousands of feet in the air, and things in general spiral out of control.Then you hit the half-hour mark, and the movie becomes, in essence, The Ascent with a strong flavor of Deliverance. At which point you know pretty much everything that's going to happen and stop caring about any of it. Okay, you probably can't predict some of the more idiotic character choices, but, you know.Okay, maybe it's not that bad. (Yes, it is, but I'll play devil's advocate for a minute.) You've seen The Descent, you've seen Wrong Turn, you've seen The Hills Have Eyes (hopefully the original and not the hideous remake), you've seen Deliverance, you've seen a dozen or two other films like this, and if you've been following my reviews for at least a few years you've hopefully seen a smattering of really, really good French horror flicks while avoiding their bad ones. And then you come to Vertige and... well, I won't blame you if you actually do watch it, because that first half-hour is something else. But once you get to the point where the movie turns from man vs. nature thriller into dumb slasher flick, you'll start wondering, since you've seen all those other movies, why you're watching this, which is as cavalier in its borrowing from other movies as it is in its blending of climb sites. This is nothing new under the sun, Jack. **

12 May 2012

Youll love the first half, but the second half disappoints

High Lane (original title: Vertige) tries to pack the action and thrills of two different horror films into one. The first half of the film is a true winner, especially effective for those of us with a deathly fear of heights; the second half isn't bad, either, with its liberal dose of gore and a splash or two of victims behaving badly, but it's definitely a step down from all that has come before. The real bad guy of the film is rather generic and boring, but the film makes up for this somewhat by the villainy that sometimes emerges from characters we are supposed to be rooting for - and I think that's a nice touch indeed. Just when you start thinking a certain character isn't a complete douche after all, he proves you wrong.So, five friends decide to do some rock climbing and aerial sightseeing in the Croatian mountains. Actually, it's two couples plus a former boyfriend of one of the girls (who somehow managed to invite himself along for the trip). The presence of her ex Guillaume doesn't seem to bother Chloe (Fanny Valette) too much, but current boyfriend Loic clearly isn't happy about it at all. Heck, Chloe's the only reason he's here to risk his life climbing mountains to begin with, and now this ex-boyfriend shows up and puts him to shame in every way possible (heck, Loic even makes me look like a manly man). Now, Fred and Karine (Maud Wyler) are all about the adventure. Given the fact that they are French, they are incredibly brave. While most people with half a brain would turn back when they see that the trail is closed, Fred talks everyone into climbing a sheer rock face and doing what they came to do. It turns out that the trail was closed for a reason, so the group has quite an adventure on their hands. Prepare for a great mix of beautiful scenery (but it's not Croatian, as the movie was filmed in the French Alps) and harrowing action shots that will have my fellow acrophobics squirming in their seats. If High Lane had just stuck to this nothing-but-a-rope-between-you-and-a-big-sharp-rock-thousands-of-feet-below premise, it could well have been an incredibly intense and effective thriller - unfortunately, the story morphs completely at the mid-way point into just another Wrong Turn copy-cat, leaving most of the chills and thrills behind. Yes, the special effects and the gore are well-done, but the villain is bland and the action far too generic. The only suspense or surprise comes when a character does something really stupid or downright vindictive. I liked the ending, though, as it did at least show a tiny bit of originality.The first half of High Lane is A-level work, but the second half deserves several comments in red ink. It's unfortunate because everything (except the dubbing) was going so well. There is also the matter of Chloe's flashbacks to a traumatic event in her life, which only works to a certain degree and could (perhaps should) have been removed from the plot, but I can live with that. High Lane isn't all it could have been, but it's still an impressive and sometimes quite thrilling horror offering from director Abel Ferry. I hear that Fanny Valette is a real up-and-coming actress in Europe, as well.

trashgang

09 May 2012

The French Descent

What is it with France lately. Really, they are making flicks I reallylike. I remember a time when they only made blah blah movies. If youhave seen The Descent then this one is one you are going to like, onlythey don't descent but they climb. A bunch of friends are out for ahike and by doing that they would like to climb some mountains. Butthey are unlucky. The pass to the mountains is closed but hey, it's ahorror so they ignore it and start climbing. The shots made whileclimbing are fabulous. If you have fear of heights than you will haveit in some shots. But of course something goes wrong. They are makingtoo many risks and happen to become isolated on a rock. And from thereon the f lick really starts. I can only tell you that it's going torock (what's in a name) hard and typical for a french movie there is nohappy ending. The blood flows frequently and sometimes even gory. Themovie also is here and there really brutal. I just can understand whynobody is talking about this flick. It's just great, the only thing Idon't get is the flashes our main actress gets from a hospital. Butafter all, this one is straight in your face...another gem from France

09 May 2012

Climbing The Mountains Of Madness...

HIGH LANE (aka: VERTIGE) is about a group of rock climbers who venture into the Croatian mountains. All is well until horrible "accidents" befall them, and they begin running into a series of deadly traps. HIGH LANE is a DESCENT / WRONG TURN-type hybrid. I liked most of this movie, right up to the point when the feral madman is revealed. Yes, he's "bonkers". He just isn't all that terrifying. His lair is rather creepy, but nothing we haven't grown to expect from these sort of guys. Still, HL is worth a peek...

David Nusair

08 May 2012

...[The] wire-bridge scene alone justifies the movie's existence.

dschmeding

07 May 2012

Wrong turn in the mountains

The basic plot of Vertige is pretty lame and worn off considering thatwe are talking about a group of five mountain climbers who take anadventurous hike on a mountain path that goes overboard and turns intoa fight for survival.Its like Wrong Turn if you replace the woods with mountains. At firstyou think it could go a different direction because the first halfworks pretty well as a kind of adventure movie with mountain climbers.You get some pretty impressive climbing sequences with lines snappingand nice action mixed with beautiful landscape shots and some nicecamera-work... as well as a pretty hot female lead actress (althoughshe chose a pretty strange dress for that trip that gives the viewersome pretty nice views of her mountains too). As soon as the movieturns to be a survival horror with some mountain hillbilly maniac whohunts climbers it goes overboard. There is no resolution of the obscureguy hunting the climbers and the flashback sequences about somemishappenings in the life of the female lead who seems to be a doctorare pretty meaningless and cheap.Vertige is a typical style over substance movie with a giant letdown inthe end and a plot that is as paper thin as the clichéd characterdevelopment. Anyone who has high hopes for another great french horrormovie should stay away from this. The action sequences are really goodbut i doubt thats enough for a feature movie. first turns out closedand on further investigation becomes quite stressful when bridges breakand cables burst.

movieman_kev

05 May 2012

Turn it off after 25 minutes and youll be better off

A group of friends go on what was supposed to be a nice mountainclimbing expedition/vacation in Croatia,, but when unforeseen equipmentproblems arise it has everyone feeling a bit on edge (pardon the pun) This film actually had a rather promising start. The scenery wasbeautiful, the fist action sequence was thrilling and I started to gethopes for this film. Shame on me, for no sooner than I was getting goodwill that the film took a drastic Wrong Turn and became a lame cheapHills Have Eyes clone. Between that sad turn of events coupled with anover reliance on one particular song, the taste for this film soured.My Grade: D+

Laura Clifford

05 May 2012

...completely falls apart, even in its end credits which state over 3,200 people have gone missing in this area, presumably all tracked down by cannibals or checked into the wrong hostel.