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A very sweet and lovely feel-good movie that saved an otherwise bad evening with a bored Mrs. In the house. The underlying theme of defeating your odds and your doubts and rising - literally - above it all is inspiring and heart-warming. The cast does a good job and the cinematography is excellent, with some truly breathtaking scenery to feast your eyes on.

However... as far as cineastic storytelling is concerned, it does sadly leave a little too much to hope for. A lot of the back story is skimmed over, despite the fact that much of Samy's difficulties would have begun right there at home.

The love story that supposedly motivates him to climb the highest mountain for his sweetheart's sake doesn't exactly convince either; there isn't much chemistry between them, and their romance is only briefly and sketchily outlined. Ok, she's a beautiful girl, but why climb Mount Everest for her? You don't really get into Samy's feelings or desire, even though his attempts to hold her hand at the beginning are brilliantly filmed and heartbreaking.

It is a bit of a missed opportunity, but still worth a watch, especially for a cozy evening at home with your loved ones when there's little else to do.

Before going into the obvious, let me point out that as a purely cineastic experience, this film delivers in its own right. It has some really fine writing, dialogues, monologues, direction, and acting, notably in the third act which I won't go into here so as not to spoil it. But it's well worth a watch for its craftsmanship alone. Some of the scenes towards the very end are classic theatre, the kind a drama student would do well to study and act out.

The obvious, then, is the timeless message that sadly is as relevant in 2025 as it was in 1981. The names of the cults come and go, the way they operate remains the same. It's up to us, as always, to stop and think for ourselves and ask the awkward questions no matter how good something seems.

As a Christian, I disagree with those who might say that this movie portrays all religion as bunk. On the contrary, it contrasts the sound and loving Judaism of David's family, or the classic Christianity used to debunk the cult at the end, with the cult's usurpation and exploitation of people's natural religious longing, hijacking it for the sake of money and power.

Take two measures of Jurassic World, two of Jaws, one grunting Jason Statham, an assortment of worn-out tropes (terrified kids and cute little dogs in peril! What could go wrong?), and a large portion of kowtowing to the new global superpower China. Run in blender and season liberally with third-rate CGI. DO NOT under any circumstances add any script, acting, directing, plot, character development, adherence to laws of nature, or any other common ingredients from the world the rest of us live in. Serve cold.

Well, that's the recipe for this disaster of a movie that sets a new low, well below and beyond the depths at which, according to Meg2, massive prehistoric animals and villaneous human predators lurk.

I do agree that one needs to suspend one's disbelief when watching a movie. However, once things become as outrageous as in this case - see the Goofs section, which is only, ehrm, scraping the surface - I'm looking for a cringe cushion to cover my face with.

No, you cannot walk about the sea floor at 3 km depth. No, you cannot ascend from that depth wearing only a diving suit without exploding. No, pelagic dinosaurs from that abyss cannot suddenly roam about on an island, where a whole resort, in addition, has been built without dinosaurs and spoiled holidaymakers ever encountering each other. Oh, and where did that gigantic squid suddenly come from?

Give a flock of baboons a free supply of writing paper, ink, and LSD, and they'd be sure to come up with something more interesting than this waste of time. I'd watch such a movie any time over this tripe.