Not even bad in a good way

Let's be realistic.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Krakauer's book is a riveting assessment of how mountains change us, test us, and best us. Unfortunately, these filmmakers were bested by Everest, too. The film was plagued by poor scripting; directing/editing that did little more than offer the chronology of this awful disaster; and it was devoid of either subtext or dramatic tension since we all know the outcome of that particularly disastrous season on Everest. I had high hopes when I set out to watch it, given the good performances I'd seen in the past of Peter Horton (thirtysomething), Nathaniel Parker (The Inspector Lynley Series), and Christopher McDonald (Requiem for a Dream). Stick with the book -- it's a super fast read, and a textured, wonderful, poignant, adrenalin-filled ride!

This movie is a disgrace to everyone who was on the mountain in May of 1996. After reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer then watching the movie I can say that the movie is almost nothing like the book. The movie paints Scott Fischer as a reckless person, determined to get his people to the top no matter what, makes for great story telling, unfortunately for this movie completely false. He was a very experienced climber and knew the risks of climbing. Fischer did care about his people and did not take unnecessary risks. He wanted his people to get down alive instead of dying on the mountain. Anatoli is painted as a person who doesn't care about anyone but himself, if he only cared about himself then why did he risk his life to save the people he did. Rob is some cautious noble person in this movie, while he was cautions he did not argue with Fischer in the book as he did in the movie. Worst of all is Jon himself. What two bit actor did they hire to play him?! He was terrible, not to mention Jon was not awake at the time the people were dying. He had gone back to the tent and slept throughout the night. He never was on the radio and if I remember correctly camp 4 did not have a radio, but rather they tried to get one from the South African team but were unsuccessful. So Hall was talking to base camp instead. Krakauer was not awake and was not a player in the climax of the book. This is the most disrespectful thing in the entire movie. This movie was a rushed movie and was made simply to make money off of a horrible tragedy.

The book in which this film is based was a good read because of the events it described in the adventure of climbing the highest mountain on earth, Mount Everest, in the Himalayas. This version of the novel has a look that said "Movie of the Week" all over it. The direction, by Robert Markowitz, tries to involve us in the adventure, but it doesn't quite succeeds.The film has an episodic look. Almost every scene ends in a fade out in order to move to the next person being portrayed. There are things that don't make much sense, like watching an experienced climber, like Rob Hall, taking off his gloves in that kind of environment. Also, the pathologist Beck Weathers is seen without that protection and hat, suffering from frostbite as he makes an amazing descent into the camp.The ensemble cast do a passable job about the expedition.

Tragic but true story about the disastrous mountain climbing expedition of Mount. Everest in the spring of 1996. Two teams assemble at the foot of Everest headed by world renowned mountain climbers Rob Hall and Scott Fischer with a group of armatures climbers who paid as much as $65,000.00 apiece for the opportunity to scale the highest point on earth; the 29,028 foot five and a half mile high Mount. Everest.Slowly moving up Everest's snowy slopes the teams reach Camp #3 which is just under what is called the "Death Zone" 26,000 feet up where you can't can't survive without an oxygen mask for any long period of time. What these dizzying heights do is cause your lungs to work four times as hard pumping the same amount of air that they normally get at sea level.The brain then swells up causing unbelievably painful headaches with the lungs filling up with liquid, that if not immediately attended to, can drown you. Then your body becomes so starved for nutrients that it starts to literally feed on itself. This is what happens to a mountain climber reaching these heights, +20,000 feet, who's not fully aware and prepared for the reception that he'll get up there from Mother Nature.Going towards the Everest summit in sub-freezing weather the men, and women, of the expedition scale the dangerous "Hillery Step" which is the last step to climb before reaching the very top. Told by Scott that if it's 2:00PM to immediately start back down, even if the climbers are within 50 yards of the summit, his words are ignored. The climbers instead of turning back after the dreaded 2:00PM deadline keep climbing and one by one they all reach the top of Everest between the 2;00PM cut-off point until as late as 4;45PM which turned out to be a fatal mistake on their part. Earlier on the climb at camp #1 Sherpa guide Ang Dorge spotted two of the climbers, a man and woman, embracing outside their tent and got very upset feeling that they, not being married, were very disrespectful to the mountain and that it would lead to an angry response from Everest. Being told by climber and writer Jon Krakaur that it's not unusual for an unmarried couple to have relations back home in America. Jon is reminded by Ang Dorge that their in Napal not in America and what he's saying has nothing to do with native superstitions but that it's based experience and reality. Later when the climbers make their chilling decent from the mountain they find out just how real Ang Dorge's words really were.Leaving late in the afternoon to climb down the mountain, after planting flags and taking photos on Everest's summit, an unexpected storm kicked up and engulfed the entire summit area in darkness with 70 MPH winds and wind-chill temperatures of under -100 degrees. A number of the climbers started getting lost in the snowstorm and then ended up freezing to death. Among those who perished in the snows of Everest were the two team leaders of the exportation Scott Fischer and Rob Hall. The story of the climb is told to us in flashback by the author of the book "Into Thin Air: Death on Everest" writer Jon Krakaur who also was on the expedition but unlike some of his fellow mountain climbers lived to tell, as well as write, about it.