User Reviews

I saw Summit Fever, starring Freddie Thorp-Overdrive, The Head Hunter; Mathilde Warnier-Spiral_tv, A Very Secret Service_tv; Michel Biel-Tomorrow is Ours_tv, Dunkirk and Ryan Phillippe-Big Sky_tv, MacGruber.

This is a cautionary tale for mountain climbers to be careful and know what they are getting into. Freddie and Michel are climbing buddies that decide they need to climb 3 mountains before they go back to their mundane, every day lives. The movie title-Summit Fever-refers to thrill seekers such as Freddie and Michel that like to push the limits while climbing. Ryan plays a more seasoned climber that joins their party and Mathilde is a skier that likes Freddie but prefers skiing to climbing-she doe not accompany them on their climb. It might have something to do with seeing several other climbers fall to their deaths before her friends start their ascent. The scenery with the mountains looks nice but not everyone makes it back down alive. A big storm hits during mid climb and adds to their problems.

It's rated R for language and has a running time of 1 hour & 55 minutes.

It's not one that I would buy on DVD but if you like climbing, it would be alright as a rental.

Seeing the reviews here I am amazed. I mean, the script (if you know nothing about climbing) is pretty bad. Just a quote:

"You look alike, the same big brown eyes.", talking about the main character and his dead sister. One shot later you can clearly see his eyes, which are blue.

Then the climbing. Oof. I've spend some time with people who breath climbing, by which I'm trying to say I know little from personal experience, but quite some from friends. Basics like saying "you want to reach the summit before sunset" is weird, since you'll be climbing during the hottest part of the day. People who do mountaineer start early, way early, to reach the summit as early as possible too.

Anyway, this film felt like it didn't research enough, didn't portrait the climbing community in a good way, whilst showing the worst part of climbing; death. To me it almost felt like a mockery, having known too many people who died climbing.

Girlfriend liked it, even though she knows about the same stuff I do, it didn't bother her and she really got in to it.

The ending, we both agreed, was kinda meh.

I think this movie is just, simply a bad movie. There's almost nothing about it which is good. Most of the acting is mediocre to bad, the dialogue is really bad. Really really bad. There are a few shots edited during intense scenes that are actually really good but don't let this kind of statement attract you into watching this, we're talking halves of seconds here. There is a moment in the movie, Spoiler alert at night, during a storm that a black figure is mimicing and then approaching our protagonist - a moment that was actually very scary and very unclear - like it was cut from a horror movie, but it had no payoff and it didn't fit.

All and all a waste of time.

The idea of the storyline is great. The reality of what happens is another matter. Yes it's a drama, but the reality of it all??

It starts of well! The climb of Dent du Geant on the fixed ropes is spot on.. the walk in from the Midi?? Climbers will want to watch it, but if you know the area and the climbs time scales, the lack of crowds! Getting the Summit of the Matterhorn all to yourself and 😳 all in 7 days! Yes they are supposed to be above average climbers, but Wow the must drive like F1 drivers.

The idea of sumittng the Blanc, and in a couple of hours ending up in the Cosmiques Hut is laughable.

All in all it's not a bad watch.. Are you a climber? It's a bit cringe worthy.

I really am trying to finish this movie. Is it this bad, or is it the dialog? The by the numbers character development?

Why is this movie so so boring. I've started/stop 4 times already. I am 2/3 done I think.... but I am so bored.

I will keep writing because I'm 333 characters short, but there's not much to say.

What is the purpose of the movie? Why was the American such an ass? Not that I wanted him to be funny, but shouldn't the local be the ass? Is there a local character? They seem to be all foreigners?

Maybe the one that died, but I believe he was Italian? I don't even know, because I couldn't care less for this people.

I'll try to forget the movie, then maybe I'll be able to finish it.

Don't mistake this for a good movie, even if you like mountain climbing, this lacks story, you could put the characters in any type of setting, they are that generic.

Great movie. Cringed alot. Squinted alot. Looked at my phone alot. Watched my wife cringing and squinting. In other words the action is realistic and the photography puts you on those cliffs. I suggest you have a blanket on hand. Wind. Wind. Wind. Snow. Snow. Snow. Then... Thunder and lightning! If you liked the Eiger Sanction-1975. If you liked "North Face-2008". If you liked Everest, Touching The Void and Beyond The Edge. You'll like this movie. If, like me, you're a child of the 1970s and popular folk music you'll get the irony of the closing credits song by Loudon Wainwright III-The Swiming Song 1973. I got it. Sang along. Perfect choice for a mountain climbing flick. Kudos to the clever producers.

I love mountain climbing movies. Not that I'm into mountain climbing, I actually need to employ panic suppression techniques when I climb onto the fifth rung of a ladder.

As far as movies go, real climbers seem to go for the documentary films that don't integrate a fictitious story, which sometimes can be rockier than the real rocks. In one list of the 20 best climbing movies, the ones I like appeared towards the bottom including "Vertical Limit" with everyone going crazy on K2.

But where films like "Vertical Limit" and "The Eiger Sanction" are about the adventure and the thrills, "Summit Fever" goes to the core of what makes people climb and often die doing it.

Michael (Freddie Thorpe) starts an internship in Dad's financial firm, but quickly realises that the adrenaline rush of falling share prices can't beat the adrenaline rush of falling off the Eiger. He accepts an invitation from his friend, Jean-Pierre (Michel Biel), to "swap suit and tie for ice axe and crampons" and join him and a group scaling the big three: The Matterhorn, The North Face of the Eiger and Mont Blanc.

We learn that the driving force of this fraternity of climbers is summed up in the old biblical phrase "...to eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die". Michael has reservations about the culture.

There are a lot of falls in this film and people die suddenly. The film looks amazingly real and some of the scenes are breathtaking. I wondered if this was an exaggeration, but no, apparently Mont Blanc is the most dangerous mountain in the world with an average of 100 fatalities per year compared to about 300 in total on Everest.

There is amazing sang-froid when someone spins off into the void after a rope snaps or they misjudge a leap to a ledge. "He died doing what he loved" is said often in the film, but as Michael points out to Jean-Pierre after he saw two of their friends fall, "Don't you get it, they died screaming".

Isabelle (Mathilde Warnier) who starts out as carefree as the rest also begins to have reservations when she falls for Michael. However he eventually goes in the opposite direction, accepting that climbing is engrained in his DNA.

The final sequence in the storm with the supernatural encounter seems an odd touch; the otherworld experience may have been best left to Michael Richard Plowman's evocative score, which defined the unspoken thoughts and emotions of the characters.

However the last scene between Isabelle and Michael makes up for any shortcomings when they make a decision that is at once bitter sweet, but inevitable.