Cliffhanger
Sly's action comeback after trying his hand at comedy (he dropped out of a John Hughes movie that would've paired him with John Candy). The production form this movie would make for a fun documentary. This was when everybody was trying to do "Die Hard in X" (like Die Hard on a boat or Die Hard in a theme park). Well this was originally "Die Hard in a hurricane" before production went over budget and the cast and crew jumped ship to make "Die Hard on a mountain", which also ended up going over budget too. To the point where the movie killed at the box office yet somehow the studio barely saw any gross. Go figure. And who better to direct than the man behind the second Die Hard (and fourth Freddy Krueger)?
On its own the movie is a decent, sometimes exciting action thriller about a series of highly ridiculous scenarios that are shot as realistically as possible, including what is apparently the most expensive aerial stunt in movie history (a dude actually rappels between two flying planes - eat your heart out, Nolan). There're also a couple of gnarly kills whenever simply throwing a bad guy off a cliff won't do, like Sly suplexing someone into a stalactite (the hanging down kind) and riding another poor bastard downhill like a sleigh while grinding his face against the mountainside.
But if I have to compare it to Die Hard - yeah, no. The writing and the editing aren't anywhere near that level. There's a lot of downtime between the big set-pieces that feels like the movie's looking for ways to kill time. Scenes drag and repeat. There's a lot o pointless bickering and in-fighting that doesn't pay off. The editing also is very spotty. Characters disappear for huge chunks of the movie, then reappear inexplicably (or don't). POV is divides across several characters and there's no rhyme or reason as to where someone might show up next. And at one point Sly pulls out a gun I'm not sure where the hell he got it from.
Ultimately though it's also missing a sense of humor (Sly is such a badass he doesn't need one, basically) and a better rapport between the hero and the villain, who is doing the same Euro trash shtick Gruber did but the contrast with the hero's cowboy antics simply isn't there.
Also I can't believe this is where that scene from Ace Ventura 2 comes from.
