Top of the World

Dennis Hopper to Peter Weller "Do you know who I am?" Weller "Yea the Jesus of craps". So it goes with witty dialog the best part of what is essentially a bad film. To enjoy "Top of the World" you have to ignore the plot, chases, shoot outs, and explosions. Instead focus on the often biting and amusing vocal bantering. With a frantic pace, the movie is only a couple minutes from the next priceless exchange of words. The list of character actors here is impressive, including Ed Lauter, Joe Pantoliano, Martin Kove, Peter Coyote, and David Alan Grier, among others. I say this. Go in expecting bad, and then simply be surprised how much there is to like. - MERK

This film is like the proverbial curate's egg: good in parts. The three leading actors are superb, and there is plenty of (admittedly sometimes violent) action throughout. But the plot is so generic and you spend the whole movie wondering if this is it, will it get any better. Sadly, It doesn't. The Hoover Dam sequence is exciting, though. Definitely worth it for the leading actors, especially Tia Carrere, and the stunts!

This film is without doubt the most insignificant movie I've ever seen. Peter Weller did a very good job on keeping his face in exactly the same shape the whole movie. I don't think I've seen that done before, maybe except in a Chuck Norris movie. The cutting of the movie looked like the guy who did it, got drunk, fell asleep, and then when he woke up just cut the whole film into random strips and taped it together again. Besides I really never figured out what Dennis Hopper's character was named. I think I counted at least 4 different names. Last a sudden sunrise really nailed my feeling towards the whole movie, it sucked! All in all I would say the only good thing about this movie is that it only wasted 95 min of my life.

In TOP OF THE WORLD, ex-con, Ray (Peter Weller) and his soon-to-be ex-wife, Rebecca (Tia Carrere), head to Las Vegas for one final blast before their impending divorce. After winning big at the casino, everything seems great, until a gang of criminals moves in to poop on the party! Now, Ray must rise to the occasion.

Sound familiar? Well, that's no surprise, since this movie follows the same formula as every other post-DIE HARD, action movie of the 1980's-90's! Be it located in a high-rise, a train, a ship at sea, or a casino, it's always about the same. Endless gunfire, explosions, and impossible, unbelievable action sequences all go off like so many firecrackers.

The hero must overcome unfathomable odds to take on the bad guys, a group that is always outfitted like a small army, and usually led by an odious thug.

Unfortunately, such a film requires a Bruce Willis, a Stallone, or, of course, an Arnold to pull it off! In a pinch, perhaps Chuck Norris or Steven Segal. Weller just doesn't have the moxie! Make no mistake, he was fantastic in ROBOCOP! This just isn't his forte.

Without that uber-charismatic, or ultra-manly hero, it all crumbles into blandness, no matter how many lives are lost...

Good-looking production values here; obviously this thing had a middling decent budget, well used by an efficient, professional director (Sidney J. Furie). Unfortunately, nothing - and I mean NOTHING - here seemed completely new or original. EVERYTHING is a recycled cliché of the crime / revenge drama genre. Disgraced ex-cop (Weller) looking for answers among the crooks who framed him arrives in Las Vegas. He is also trying to reconnect with his estranged ex-wife (Carrere). Did I mention the crime boss who has a grudge against him (Hopper)? The problem isn't any one of these elements, it's all of them. There is just nothing new here. Peter Weller can carry a picture, and Tia Carrere makes a gorgeous object of desire and longing, plus Dennis Hopper makes a good villain, but we have seen them all do that before. The script gives them no new business, and over-familiar character types to work with. Every plot twist has been used before, every segment has a familiar feel to it. Las Vegas looks great and is well used visually as a setting, but I already mentioned that this is a professional, slick looking production. I found myself almost shouting at the screen to give me something I hadn't seen before. Didn't happen. Tia Carrere's cheekbones were the only things that kept me watching all the way to the end.

Not bad at all, but unless you are completely new to the crime drama genre, you will be hard pressed to find anything much entertaining here.