Final Ascent

I thought the De Niro/Pacino faceoff in Heat was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see two of our premier actors engage in a mano-a-mano display of their craft--until now. Watching Muldoon and Sabato exchange lines in their sinisterly similar monotone, one recalls perhaps Olivier and Barrymore treading the boards at the Old Vic. A critic (I believe it was Pauline Kael) once said of Muldoon: "He has all the emotional range of a piece of oak furniture." And yet here Sabato matches him in the lumber department, splinter for splinter.

Final Ascent is a remake of Cliffhanger, except without any of the good parts. And if it seems merely mediocre, wait until the last act when it enters the realm of the truly terrible. Watch as our heroine parachutes hundreds of feet off of a mountain, and then climbs approximately twelve feet back up the same mountain to save the character that had been standing right next to her. Watch her climb 10,000 feet in the snow with no gloves and never once give any indication that it's cold. And watch as another character is buried underneath an avalanche, and yet emerges without a trace of snow on him.

The other big reason to watch this movie is Heidi Noelle Lenhart. She runs around a lot and seems very serious about something (maybe a relationship) but I wasn't sure what she was carrying on about because she's just so cute. Her little nose gets so red and runny that you just want to tell her, "Stop chasing the bad people, go back to the lodge, wrap yourself up in a blanket and have a nice warm brandy or maybe some Rumple Minz. And for gosh sakes put some gloves on."

Final Ascent is above all a film for fans of great acting. And just as De Niro one-upped his rival in the hearts of most moviegoers, here it is Muldoon who emerges victorious: he is perhaps the least expressive actor of his generation. Sabato should keep Muldoon around as a sidekick (maybe they could remake an old Bob Hope/Bing Crosby "Road" movie?), because he comes off like Michael Caine by comparison. Muldoon sums it up best when he comes down with altitude sickness and pukes: "What's the matter, you've never thrown up before?" Yes we have Pat. Yes we have.

This is a seriously bad film. Everyone concerned must have worked very hard to make it this dreadful. It's a long time since I've seen actors perched on the top of a plastic rock in a studio trying frantically to convince us that they're on the top of a high mountain despite the cheap backdrop that tells us otherwise. The plot was horribly familiar, a group of crooks chasing the missing loot from the robbery that went wrong while a saintly father, who needed a good haircut, tried to save his one surviving daughter from the clutches of the desperados. His youngest daughter was killed falling three feet off the plastic rock right at the start of the film, which gave me the first good laugh of the evening. The actors had terrible dialogue, and did their best to match it with their acting efforts. What saved this dire movie was the fact that it was so unintentionally funny. Strong men were falling to their knees with altitude sickness as they strolled up a gentle slope that I could manage, and so could my old dog. Then, suddenly, they'd be scaling a mountain face with snow on the ground, only to emerge into a flat grassy space with no sign of the snow. A massive avalanche was avoided by one of the characters with a small jump to his left, but then it couldn't have been as bad as it looked because it didn't take a single bush or tree with it as it passed. The father and his daughter were meant to be keeping one step ahead of the gang of crooks at one stage, but ended up about two feet away from them, eyeballing the chief villain through a clump of grasses in a lake. Luckily they were able to duck beneath the water just as his beady eyes lighted on them, and despite some awe-inspiring double takes from the daughter's boyfriend, the villain decided he hadn't seen anything after all. I rather wish I hadn't.

I recently watched this film and enjoyed the tension and clever plot developments that keep the viewer nervous that beautiful heroine Heidi Noelle Lenhart will fall into the hands of Pat Muldoon, the villain. The acting by some of the supporting characters could have been better. It seems as though the writers had defined characterizations that the actors could not quite manage to pull off. The father has this accent and poor line delivery that really get in the way of understanding what he is saying. But, Antonio Sabato is a hunk and provides constant eye candy for all the female audience members. I thought that David W. Smith's directing was terribly inconsistent. The production value was fair, since it was clear the filmmaker was not working with Hollywood's big budgets. Ultimately, I recommend this picture for those who can appreciate a good story that has only average production value.

This film was tense and exciting, especially for fans of "Cliffhanger." This film focuses more on a relationship between a father and a daughter. Although the directing of key action sequences seemed a bit too low budget, the drama itself was great. I enjoyed Heidi Noelle Lenhart and thought that Sabato, Jr was good as well. The bad guy gets altitude sickness but is so greedy that he keeps climbing. Avarice gets the better of him. A very satisfying ending that leaves me hoping for a sequel. The only real flaw here is the lack of big budget effects that could have elevated this picture to the next level. I give this a high rating based on the characters and the story.

Our family has experienced the loss of a loved one leaving a strained relationship between my daughter and my husband. I found the relationship between the father and daughter in "Final Ascent" to be so accurate that I was brought to tears. I enjoyed the plot and the action just fine, but the relationship between the father and daughter really rang true in a way that I haven't really seen since "Ordinary People." This film really moved me. Great family movie!