good back-story, and good acting

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Absolutely Fantastic

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A good survival film that's not as harrowing as a more exploitative film would have been. It's an interesting approach in that it cares less about the suffering of the people and more about the humanity and beauty found in the situation. In that way it can also be corny and by underselling the more painful moments it leads to less uplift later.The opening plane crash scene is still something to behold. All the interiors seemed to me to be practical effects and they looked great (exteriors were a CGI plane). I'm sure there are some who will say it hasn't aged well but that's only because what they're seeing isn't over- edited or shiny and everything is tangible and comprehensible which might be confusing, I guess, to some.

Superficially ALIVE follows the plot of most disaster movies. A plane crashes in the Andes, leaving the Uruguayan rugby team and their fellow-passengers stranded. Some are already dead; the survivors have to learn to cope with an adverse situation in which help never comes and they are left for dead. The plot has distinct echoes of classic ice-bound thrillers such as SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC (1948), especially when three members of the team (Josh Hamilton, John Hames Newton, and Ethan Hawke) volunteer to cross the mountains on their own, despite the potential risks involved.Yet Frank Marshall's film makes some serious points about the ways in which we can deal with traumatic situations. At the beginning the rugby team resemble any set of boisterous young men enjoying themselves, as they throw a ball about on the plane, make fun of the harassed cabin staff and willfully break the no-smoking rule. Once the disaster has happened, they are forced to learn the importance of true teamwork, where individuals have to sublimate their inclinations to the group ethic. It is not easy - especially for some of the team - but it is the only way to survive.As time passes, so the rugby players understand more about their lives. They try their best to survive using primitive materials (and even choosing to eat the dead, despite their religious scruples), but they come to realize that this might not be enough to guarantee their collective futures. Nonetheless they continue to work together; it is the act of doing that ensures their future, coupled with a belief that God might help them, should they pray fervently enough.The environment is not always friendly; sometimes it can destroy as well as support. The survivors have to cope with an avalanche that kills some of their number; but they come to realize that acceptance is an important strategy for survival. You have to take the rough with the smooth and try to move on, however painful that might be, while understanding that everyone around you shares that experience.Acceptance and action; community endeavor and mutual support; these are the qualities that ensure the future of at least some of the survivors, who admit at the same time that their lives are insignificant when compared with the universe around them. They have been brought together "by a grand experience," as the narrator (John Malkovich) tells us.

Alive is an immensely horrific true story that had the potential to become an amazing film. This film is not that amazing film. It does alright, its good but could have been told in a different, and in my opinion, a much better way.The acting was a balance, it was good at times but terrible at other points, lines were delivered rather unenthusiastically or annoyingly overly dramatic by many, but there is also some good acting thrown in, most notably from Ethan Hawke who luckily becomes stronger and more involved as the film proceeds.The way in which the cannibalism issue was handled was impressive, and I would suspect was also realistic. The first time is obviously the worst, morals are questioned as the team make what is a very, very difficult choice to make that was conveyed extremely well in this film. But after the first time it becomes much easier and even casual to some characters which I would believe to be true.My problem with this film was it's tone. The story is about a group of friends and relatives whose plane crashes, killing some while the extreme weather conditions of the Andes slowly kills the others, and how the survivors had to resort to eating their loved ones to stay alive. This is a very dark, disturbing and traumatic true event and I was hoping would spawn a similarly gritty drama that I feel would have more accurately reflected the experience of the rugby team. I found this film to contain a large amount of 90's cheese and to find Disney in the credits probably explains that. The tone and story didn't go together at all, the cheesy film of a nightmarish event is the on screen equivalent of mixing oil with water in my opinion.Overall Alive is an alright film, it tells the story quite well it just has the wrong tone and feel for the most part. I would be very interested to see this film remade, as it is a tremendous event and I believe given a much darker tone, could give life to the film that I believe this true story deserves.

I am approximately the same age as these men. I remember when this happened in 1972 thinking how awful it all was UNTIL I read the book and saw this film!! These were privileged yuppie kids with attitude who were on a winter jaunt while the rest of us were toiling at our 3 jobs to put ourselves through college! The great thing about the film is it doesn't smooth over their idiocy. Everyone in it is selfish. Everyone is egotistical. The pleasure is in watching them one by one bite it! So, if you like movies where horrible teenagers get torn apart by monsters (Jaws, Halloween, House) you'll enjoy this film! I can't think of a better group of selfish individuals to have something like this happen to!! Too bad any survived.