Movie Title: Cliffhanger
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Writer: Michael France and Sylvester Stallone; based on a premise by John Long
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow, Michael Rooker, Janine Turner, Rex Linn, Caroline Goodall, Leon, Craig Fairbrass, Gregory Scott Cummins, Denis Forest, Michelle Joyner, Max Perlich, Paul Winfield, Ralph Waite, Bruce McGill
Review: When a mid-air heist goes bad and suitcases full of cash get scattered over a mountain range, criminal mastermind Qualen (John Lithgow) and his cohorts take a hostage and go on a frantic search for the ill-gotten gains. But they didn't count on expert climber Gabe Walker (Sylvester Stallone) to be hot on their trail.
Cliffhanger continues the unofficial "Die Hard on a..." series of films. This time it's "Die Hard on a Mountain" with Sylvester Stallone as our hero and the great John Lithgow as our Hans Gruber knockoff. What Cliffhanger lacks in originality it makes up for it ten-fold with the stunt work, Cinematography, and Editing. The climbing sequences are shot and edited so well that they made me incredibly nervous. I think I covered my eyes a time or two. I have a fear of heights and Cliffhanger poked and prodded that fear every chance it got.
I enjoyed it enough, but it didn't have the build or momentum that most of its action movies contemporaries. I know Cliffhanger is regarded as one of Stallone's best, but it just kind of left me hanging.
Fun Fact: Sylvester Stallone partly took on this project in an effort to help him conquer his fear of heights.