Gripped: Climbing the Killer Pillar

Look, it's a low-budget movie, we know that. It doesn't have the craziness of a movie like Cliffhanger, or the real world insanity of Free Solo.

But for a low budget movie, let's be fair. It's well done, it maintains tension all the way through, it looks gorgeous, and it's about as realistic as a movie like this really can be. (Sure the female lead has fewer upper body muscles than one would expect, on the other hand she is supposed to be just starting and basically a city girl, too naive to realize how dumb she is being.) I've seen plenty of much more expensive action movies that left me a lot more disappointed.

First, i am a rock climber. Everything related to climbing in this movie is beyond ridiculous and hilarious. There is so much so say about it that i will just pass because it is impossible to say how insanely irrealistic and awful.

But that is not why i pit a bad rating. No! It is because the entire movie is so bad EVEN if you completely disregard the « climbing » that again one is speechless: the clichés, the bad acting and plot, the relentless continuity errors, the shots that don't match, the real climbers with cheap wigs, and on an on and on. But it was a solid laugh!

Great scenery, acting and lessons to be learned throughout the movie.

A lovely romantic-drama. 10/10.

Oh man, what a ride. The characters are terribly one dimensional, all over place emotionally and act incomprehensibly. There's so much reused footage it seems like they're doing loops on the wall and anyone who's spent even a bit of time climbing will likely roll their eyes at the writer's attempts to cram as much jargon in as possible, regardless of whether it fits or even makes sense. You know how some films are so bad they're good? Yeah this isn't one of them, it's just bad. Avoid.

I have seen Amanda Maddox in a couple of Lifetime movies so I figured I would give this one a try. The moment when slimeball Bret tried to kiss Rose (Maddox) in his trailer I began to despise the movie. These types of PG TV movies are often put together hastily without a buildup. The way she fell for him by just seeing him and in the conversations mostly they talked about climbing, but not their own backgrounds, where they're from what they do for a living etc. Is just annoying which often happens in these stupid thrillers.

And as for Bret being an experienced outdoor rock climber and he falls and gets injured and Rose who has no outdoor experience all of a sudden becomes the hero in the movie is just stupid and far-fetched. I am not a rock climber but aren't rock climbers supposed to wear helmets, and not just bandanas?

Seriously the further the movie progressed the more I was rooting for both of them to fall off the cliff. Do not waste your time with this crap!