Don't Look Down

I love and admire Richard Branson. He is so inspirational. I read his book and quiet a bit about him, about his entrepreneurial achievements, adventures, fearlessness, PR, team spirit.. Honestly, the movie isn't perfect and there is way too much focus on the hot air balloon flying.. I would actually prefer to see more about other adventures. But I really admire, that Sir Richard Branson, even after a fail, he keeps looking forward and can always bounce back to the top.. He is one of the people I would really love to meet in person.

Do you have a love for hot air balloons? Do you have a deep interest in PR and advertising?

If you don't answer an enthusiastic "YES" to both of those questions - skip this. You'll fall asleep. I watched this thinking Richard Branson was a unique guy - this should be interesting. I also love adventure stories. I didn't expect to end up so bored.

It seemed to drag on and on. Richard Branson basically just talks about his adventures in hot air balloons attempting to break records - simply for the sake of publicity to help grow his Virgin brand. It soon seems clear he was annoyed by the Gulf War overshadowing his record attempt (at the time), so clearly loved the idea of this documentary to rectify that.

Had this been about Richard Branson's general life, it probably would've been more interesting. The only time I was pulled out of my bored daze, was when he began talking about near-death experiences. These seem to be scattered throughout the documentary, often showing a complete incompetence with the stunts. You can't help but ask yourself "Why?" - especially when he didn't have to be doing this stuff.

Boring, overlong and basically a promo piece for brand Branson. This could've easily been a 20 minute segment on 60 Minutes instead.