Gripped: Climbing the Killer Pillar

Oh man, what a ride. The characters are terribly one dimensional, all over place emotionally and act incomprehensibly. There's so much reused footage it seems like they're doing loops on the wall and anyone who's spent even a bit of time climbing will likely roll their eyes at the writer's attempts to cram as much jargon in as possible, regardless of whether it fits or even makes sense. You know how some films are so bad they're good? Yeah this isn't one of them, it's just bad. Avoid.

This movie is like the skin that forms over pudding. You know what I'm talking about. Either you love pudding skin or you hate it. I waited and waited for this movie to be OK, but it did not happen. Because this movie is silly and dumb and the musical score made feel a sensation quite like marbles slamming against my skull.

Then the movie ended.

Decent enough action climbing movie. Great cinematography and scenery. Technically well done, at least in my opinion. I'm no climber. On the downside the female lead's motivation to try something extreme is a little like watching a horror movie knowing the characters will stick their head into the maw of a monster even though it makes no sense. Movie people being movie people. But, we finished it and pretty much enjoyed it and liked the characters well enough. Not great but decent. And, if you like climbing scenery, etc., it's even better.

Look, it's a low-budget movie, we know that. It doesn't have the craziness of a movie like Cliffhanger, or the real world insanity of Free Solo.

But for a low budget movie, let's be fair. It's well done, it maintains tension all the way through, it looks gorgeous, and it's about as realistic as a movie like this really can be. (Sure the female lead has fewer upper body muscles than one would expect, on the other hand she is supposed to be just starting and basically a city girl, too naive to realize how dumb she is being.) I've seen plenty of much more expensive action movies that left me a lot more disappointed.

The characters were likable and you got a sense of romance developing here. Would of liked the storyline to include the other characters and what they got up to. Could have made a series out of this easy.

Pitty that the overuse of the same footage of the rock dominated the half the film. hmm... i thought they just did that bit etc.

If youre looking for something like the gritty thrills of "Everest" and "oh my god!" then this isnt it. Darn shame there wasnt enough danger, otherwise this film would have been great. Also hero guy was bit of a wuss and felt like giving him a slap in the end lol. Should have fallen off, had dilema and have her lose a finger or something.

Anyway, lovely scenery... expansive.

p.s. film producers, make this into a series with the same actors and start again!