It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Finnish director Renny Harlin, whose career gradually nosedived after the massive financial disaster that was pirate adventure Cutthroat Island, really should have stuck to the freezing cold environment he clearly knew so well: having already scored a massive hit with his sub-zero Die Hard sequel in 1990, he had an even bigger box-office success with snow-bound action adventure Cliffhanger, which starred Sylvester Stallone as mountain ranger Gabe Walker, who unwittingly finds himself pitted against a ruthless gang of plane hijackers searching for their lost cargo of cash.Essentially Die Hard on a mountain, with Stallone's Walker the fly in the hijackers' ointment, the plot really isn't all that original, but there is so much else to enjoy about this slam-bang slice of '90s action: the spectacular, rugged, outdoor setting, marvellously captured by cinematographer Alex Thomson; the gratuitous, bloody, brutal violence; the entertaining performances—John Lithgow is a blast, relishing his role as loathsome leader of the baddies, Michael Rooker is as great as always as Gabe's pal Tucker, and Eastenders star Craig Fairbrass hams it up a treat as Cockney thug Delmar; and, last but not least, Harlin's faultless handling of the action, starting with a masterful exercise in tension that will cause vertigo sufferers to have sleepless nights, and finishing with a wonderfully overblown set-piece involving a helicopter hanging off a cliff-face.

Sylvester Stallone sort of fell out of favour at the Box Office (just slightly before Arnold Schwarzenegger did), so many see 'Cliffhanger' as a kind of 'come back' film. To be fair... it did produce Stallone's best returns in terms of revenue at the Box Office. It may not have the 'cult appeal' of Rambo, but it's still pretty good if you're into a solid little action film.As with the best films (and certainly the action-orientated ones) the plot is simple – a gang of bank robbers lose their loot while flying over an American mountain range. To get it back they kidnap the only man capable of scaling the treacherous terrain and try to force him to recover it for them. Unfortunately, the only man is Sly, and he's not going to make it easy for them.So, as many people have commented, it's basically 'Die Hard in the snow.' And that's a fair appraisal of the film, but, seeing as Die Hard was a classic, there are worse films to be based on. Plus Sly adds a natural A-list quality to the proceedings, making sure that no one ever thinks that this is nothing more than a glorified B-Movie. Plus you have John Lithgow (sporting a pretty decent British accent for some reason) as the head bank robber, who displays the menace that would also be present in later series of Dexter.It's a simple enough action film. It has all the thrills, kills and set-pieces that you'd expect from any action film that has been given a decent budget (and this one definitely has!). You don't really need to pay an awful lot of attention to the plot to enjoy it, just be in the mood for some harmless (well, not for the bank robbers anyway) fun and watch Sly do what he does best – kicking bad-guys' asses.Bonus points of having Michael Rooker (now better known as 'Merl' in The Walking Dead) as a good guy for a change!

I just did a long overdue re-watch of Cliffhanger and it stood up really well. Definitely one of Stallone's better (less cheesy) action flicks and seeing his body in its prime is pretty nice too :) That opening scene gets me every time but I enjoyed everything about this (even if you do have to suspend disbelief occasionally) The action, the stunts, the scenery, the cast. John Lithgow is great as the bad guy, although his British accent could use some work as it fades in and out, he seems to be relishing playing this character though. Also fun to see Michael Rooker from The Walking Dead in an earlier role, I had forgotten he was in this.The ending helicopter scene is still awesome as is the opening accident with the silly panicking girl on the zipline. Stallone caught under ice and climbing the rock face in a t-shirt during a blizzard... awesome. Many great and well done action scenes. 03.13(4)

The sweeping orchestral music (probably the highlight of the film) prepares us for an epic and exciting film and the opening scene does not disappoint. One may quibble as to how a girl who is afraid of heights manages to climb to the top of a high mountain. That said, her acting is almost perfect, with a look of genuine fear through-out. The whole scene with her swinging helpless on the line is grippingly (pun not intended) done and the outcome was a surprise to me, at least.Alas the film then falls more steeply than she does. A cast of cookie cutter homicidal villains make a failed (and very bloody) robbery of a plane and the booty is scattered over a mountain range. making it a bugger to retrieve. This crew of cut-out villains are led by John Lithgow (affecting a curious English accent which makes him sound like Stewie Griffin)and comprise two other genuine Brits, a black guy who looks strangely out of place, and an angry bald white man. They all hate each other and are quite prepared to murder each other in cold blood, so one wonders how they ever got together. This is clearly bad script writing 101, and one can imagine the script-writers (which include the great Stallone himself) saying "we must have conflict between the characters", but it is so overdone that it almost becomes comical.However there is so much swearing and gore that laughing is quite out of the question. Obviously Stallone swings in to save the day, although not without a number of innocents being mowed down.This is one of those movies where all the creativity goes into devising the most gruesome deaths possible and none goes into the script. The script is actually completely ludicrous, a mere peg to hang these gruesome scenes on. Possibly the most gory and ridiculous is the death of the black guy. In a display of superhuman strength, Stallone Clean and Jerks him to be impaled on a stalagmite.The final fight between Stallone and Lithgow is impressively shot.