Summit Fever

Ok, this isn't a masterpiece. But negativity it gets is totally undeserved. I mean, if you just want a simple movie to pass some time, I can totally recommend it. If you are a climber and have been to Chamonix yourself - even more so, since it is realistic enough to bring some memories back.

Acting and story are fine. Sure, there was a couple of times when I rolled my eyes and scoffed, but "a couple of times" is actually quite good by my standards. I mean, take almost any Oscar-winning blockbuster with some insane budget and it will be yet another mind-numbingly stupid piece of crap. Yet people still like it somehow, it will have 7+ score on IMDB and might even become a classic.

Now, here is a pretty solid drama/adventure movie. Honestly, I was even touched by it. Is it plausible? Well, yeah, as I've said, there are some questionable moments, technical stuff being done incorrectly, totally unrealistic timing and such, but given how bad climbing/mountaineering is usually represented in the movies - wow, this one is actually super realistic. Usually it doesn't even make sense what gear they use, and here they even manage to use it correctly most of the time. Places are totally real, scenery is real and recognizable, dangers are (mostly) real.

All in all, if you've never been to mountains - it's a nothing out of ordinary drama, don't expect anything special and you won't be disappointed. It surely isn't awful. And if you've been there yourself, you may as well appreciate how familiar all of this is instead of complaining over relatively minor details.

And, once again: this is NOT a masterpiece. Normally, I wouldn't even bother to comment, but it just felt so unjust that it currently has IMDB rating of below 5, while being a better adventure and love story than 90% of all Hollywood.

In this era, only the movies with heavy CGI get the good ratings.

Movies where Actors stay safe in a studio and everything else is made of fiction.

This movie is great, climbing is real, the snow is real, the mountains are real.

It's not a blockbuser , it's not gonna win academy awards. But it's got emotion it's got great mountain views,it has tension and it has a simple,but good story.

Hands down to the producer and all the actors, they have made a great job and I'm sure it wasn't an easy one

I love mountain climbing films so I said I'll give it a try. Ryan Philippe was the only actor I knew , although I don't know the other ones, I really liked them and they all made a great contribution to this. Freddie Thorp is a young actor but he sure is talented.

Definitely worth watching this!

In my opinion, the most glaring part of this movie is the one black character, Rudi, that appears in the beginning of the movie as part of the group, but then suddenly disappears, appearing only in the background until the last half of the film, and then disappears again. He's the only character whose story never gets fleshed out in any way, and never gets an official ending. Sad to see tokenism is still alive and well.

Other than that, it's an engaging film, the climbing scenes are done very well, and I found the lead actor particularly talented. However, one other oddity of this film were the touches of old school nods such as the disposable camera, the film camera, the 1950s looking radio, etc.. If you enjoy films about climbing and climbers, you'll probably enjoy this film.

SUMMIT FEVER is one of the more disappointing mountaineering films out there, mainly because it has no real plot. At least thrillers like CLIFFHANGER and A LONELY PLACE TO DIE (which director Julian Gilbey also made) had thriller plots with a mountaineering backdrop, which gave them drive and narrative coherency. Here, we just get a group of dull young friends (and added Hollywood star Ryan Philippe for name value) who decide to go climb a few mountains. Tragedy strikes on occasion, but it's not very thrilling or indeed involving. Gilbey obviously has a real-life passion for mountaineering but I do wonder if this would have just worked better as a documentary.

The writers, producers, and directors put a lot of love into this movie. The actors were excellent and the climbers were superb. The story line was actually great... a lot of characters you really feel for in the end. The shots were amazing, really took my breath away. For any climbers out there, they actually had real climbers doing crazy stuff; awesome to see. In most climbing movies, the story lines are cheesy and just TOO fictional; they also usually have non-climbers trying to act out climbing scenes and it just looks BAD. Definitely NOT the case in Summit Fever. You can tell the actors actually trained in the sport before climbing, and the stunt doubles were real pros. Plus the stories of love and friendship were genuine and real. Icing on the cake was the super 8 film video at the end. Overall the movie was beautiful and acting was phenomenal!