Paul Andrews

(2012-04-29 21:23:00)

Predicable & lifeless slasher adventure film.

High Lane is set in the Croatian mountains where five friends decide itwould be a good idea to spend the day climbing sheer cliff faces &navigating across the hazardous terrain. Experienced climber Fred(Nicolas Giraud) is the main man but he manages to convince his fourfriends including his girlfriend Karine (Maud Wyler) to carry ondespite the mountain pass being closed & warning signs clearly visible,Fred's friends trust his judgement & decide to ignore the warnings. Afew hours into their climb the five get into trouble & things go frombad to worse as Fred is caught in a Bear trap & dragged off by someinbred mutant killer who then goes after the other five teens in afight for survival in the open wilderness who will win?This French production was directed by Abel Ferry & is best describedas some predictable & generic cross between the Sylvester Stalloneaction flick Cliffhanger (1993) & the backwoods brutality teen slasherWrong Turn (2003) without being nearly as good as either, shot underthe title Vertige this really is & plays out exactly as it sounds. Thescript is uneven, the first half of High Lane is devoted purely toclimbing cliff's & walking across perilous looking bridges & has anadventure film feel about it while the second half of the film switchesgears & turns into a teen slasher of the most generic kind with somemountain freak killer stalking & killing the teens off as the rockclimbing & adventure angle is totally dropped. With the usual clichГѓВ©dmix of annoying teen character's & a killer with no motivation orbackground whatsoever High Lane doesn't have a lot going for it apartfrom a reasonable pace & one or two nicely shot sequences. Charactermotivation & behaviour is difficult to understand at times, why did theone guy try to leave the other behind to be killed? Why did the guy letthe other go at the end & fall to his death? When Chloe feel down thepit why didn't she shout back up to her friends who were calling downto her? Why ignore all the warnings in the first place? Who was thekiller? Why did he kill? Who built his house? Why does he not get asingle line of dialogue in the entire film? As you might expect theteens are killed off by their own stupidity & the inbred killer untilonly one tough female survivor is left before a nothing sort of endingthat leaves literally everything up in the air & unresolved. A veryunsatisfying end to a very average & predictable teen slasher thattries to wrap itself up in an adventure film but both aspects comeacross as disappointing & High Lane ends up being neither one thing oranother.Filmed on location in Croatia by a French cast & crew this is dubbed &is currently available as a free instant download on Netflix which isthe only fate it really deserves as I wouldn't have liked to have spentmoney on it. There are a couple of decent moments like the rope bridgewalk but they are few & far between I'm afraid, the gore is fairlyrestrained with a leg caught in a Bear trap, a couple of people areshot with arrows, there's a decapitated head & a slit throat but notmuch else & even the killer is forgettable as he just looks a dirty oldman. The scenery & locations are nice to start off with as the makersuse lots of sheer cliffs but once the slasher aspect kicks in theaction switches to a standard woodland setting.Filmed in full 2:35:1 widescreen this looks nice enough as I have saidwith decent production values but there's nothing memorable here. Thefilm is badly dubbed throughout so it's hard to judge the acting but Idoubt it was great to begin with.High Lane is a throughly predictable, clichГѓВ©d & uninspired teen slasherthat throws in a few unrelated adventure film aspects that end upfeeling out of place with the two different genres never gelling intoanything particularly enjoyable. Sure it's competent & is't terriblebut I can't say I liked it that much. There are much better films outthere.

Claudio Carvalho

(2012-04-29 02:35:43)

Breathless Beginning and Unoriginal Development and Conclusion

The teenagers Fred (Nicolas Giraud), his girlfriend Karine (Maud Wyler)and their friends Chloe (Fanny Valette), William (RaphaГѓВ«l Lenglet) eLuke (Johan LibГѓВ©reau) travel to Croatia to climb and hike along theday. They find the starting point closed with rocks but the experiencedclimber Fred convinces the others, including the coward Luke that has acrush on Chloe and wants to be close to her, to cross the tractclimbing the mountain. Along their journey, they realize that the trailis more dangerous than they thought: the rope bridge collapses aftertheir crossing and the handle in the mountain is busted. Fred climbswith Karine to help their friends but he is wounded in a bear trap.Karine uses a rope to bring their friends to the top, but they do notfind Fred that has disappeared. When Chloe falls in a hole with a trap,they question what do people hunt in that isolated spot. When theydiscover the truth, their entertainment turns into a fight to survive."Vertige" has a breathless beginning with the adventure of the group offive friends in the Balkans. In the first half of this movie, the plotis very tense and I do not know how far the actors and actresses haveclimbed or crossed the rope bridge in times of CGI, but the result iseffective with excellent scenes and camera work and I was nervous withthe situation of the poor guys. Unfortunately the second part of thestory is a violent collection of clichГѓВ©s "ГѓВ  la The Texas ChainsawMassacre" and many other sub-products of the slash genre. Luke is anannoying character and the final decision of Chloe with the fate ofAnton is simply ridiculous. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Vertigem" ("Vertigo")

benway1

(2012-04-28 22:05:14)

unfortunately unwatchable

I was looking forward to watching this one, even a halfhearted blatantDescent/Wrong Turn ripoff could have worked if the whole thing wasn'tburied under such an annoying script. Starts of with some promisinglandscape shots but as soon as the climbing starts it turns out onemember of the group has vertigo. Sure there are worse ideas thanputting a guy with vertigo on a voluntary mountain hike but almost thewhole first half of the movie solely relies on that to create tensionand panic. Combined with the weak acting of this guy, the rest of thegroup (only the grumpy ex-boyfriend character was kinda neutral) andsome of the most uninspired by- the-numbers dangerous situations itonly takes about 20 minutes until I started to keep my fingers crossedfor them to die all at once within the next 5-10 minutes. Oh and andafter they completely lost it the Descent/Wrong Turn ripoff starts,emphasis more on the wrong turn side.

myself_shubham

(2012-04-28 10:01:29)

definitely one time watch

this movie is different from gore movies like wrong turn,hostel wheremain focus is on gory effects,the camera work is excellent,breathlessstarting.you will be eager to know what will come next.you will likethe scenic beauty.there is no point in the movie where you getbore.Those who expected an intense mountaineer feature may be mixed upand feel disappointed by the second half. The mixture of both genres isvery particular and I personally equally adored both halves but thisexperimental idea is rather courageous and might not sell well. It canbe considered as a mistake from a commercial point of view. From anartistic point of view, the idea is worth it and turns out to be ratherintriguing. i personally recommend to watch this movie.but the endingcan be improved.

collipal-1

(2012-04-20 05:28:23)

A mediocre film, but at least it is not boring

I did not know anything about Vertige before watching it, except forthe fact that it was a French horror movie. After having watched themovie, I can say that I found it to be a rehash of various NorthAmerican movies from the genre, something which is exacerbated by theprefabricated characters and predictable clichГѓВ©s. However, that did notavoid me from being moderately entertained with this film.The part of Vertige dedicated to the mountaineering is well filmed, andI guess that the fans of that sport will find it much more excitingthan I did. The Croatian landscapes are so amazing that I would like tovisit them only for the views (let's accept it, I even feel vertigowhen I am climbing stairs, so the only mountaineering I could do wouldbe from a helicopter). However, when we reach to the top of themountain, it seems that another movie begins, and we are in front of atypical story about "young people lost in the woods". Nevertheless, the movie kept me moderately entertained as I previouslysaid, mainly because of Abel Ferry's dynamic direction. As for theactors, they did not have too much substantial material to work with,and they do what they can with their roles. In conclusion, I can giveVertige a slight recommendation despite its various fails.

dschmeding

(2012-04-19 18:15:05)

Wrong turn in the mountains

The basic plot of Vertige is pretty lame and worn off considering thatwe are talking about a group of five mountain climbers who take anadventurous hike on a mountain path that goes overboard and turns intoa fight for survival.Its like Wrong Turn if you replace the woods with mountains. At firstyou think it could go a different direction because the first halfworks pretty well as a kind of adventure movie with mountain climbers.You get some pretty impressive climbing sequences with lines snappingand nice action mixed with beautiful landscape shots and some nicecamera-work... as well as a pretty hot female lead actress (althoughshe chose a pretty strange dress for that trip that gives the viewersome pretty nice views of her mountains too). As soon as the movieturns to be a survival horror with some mountain hillbilly maniac whohunts climbers it goes overboard. There is no resolution of the obscureguy hunting the climbers and the flashback sequences about somemishappenings in the life of the female lead who seems to be a doctorare pretty meaningless and cheap.Vertige is a typical style over substance movie with a giant letdown inthe end and a plot that is as paper thin as the clichГѓВ©d characterdevelopment. Anyone who has high hopes for another great french horrormovie should stay away from this. The action sequences are really goodbut i doubt thats enough for a feature movie. first turns out closedand on further investigation becomes quite stressful when bridges breakand cables burst.

baba44713

(2012-04-19 07:54:19)

Unwatchable dreck

When I heard about some french horror situated in Croatia, I wasoverjoyed. Beautiful Croatian scenery combined with exciting climbingscenes coupled with a classic slasher plot line.. perfect movie for theSunday night.Boy, was I wrong.First of all, yes, I knew beforehand that the movie was an utter ripoffof Descent/Wrong Turn. However I like both of those movies and am notnecessarily against ripping off if it is done well - after all, it'shard to film a slasher flick and be original. Unfortunately, Vertigedoes it anything BUT well.Right off the bat, we are introduced to the most unlikeable bunch offuture cannon fodder you have ever seen. It doesn't help that they areas one-dimensional as possible - you have a "climber", "climber'sgirlfriend", a girl who is a "doctor", "doctor's hunky ex-boyfriend"and "doctor's current vertigo-ridden boyfriend". This is as far as themovie goes with characterizations. Oh, and I forgot, they are alsoutter morons with a survival instinct of a lobotomized dodo. It alsodoesn't help that the actors portraying those characters, are, well,let's say that they should perhaps try to find some other ventures inthe future. Especially the vertigo guy who constantly mixes "beingscared" expression with the "heavily constipated" one.After realizing that, barring some miracle, I'm stuck with these folksfor an hour and a half, I at least settled in the notion that I will belooking at some nice Risnjak scenery. Tough luck - whoever made thisflick probably chose "Croatia" and "Risnjak" purely because they soundsorta exotic - the scenery doesn't look anything like Croatia'sNational Park of the same name - strike two. But there's the plot, right? *Sigh*. Our gang decides to go via some"closed down" route with the "longest footbridge in Europe". By theway, Croatians have built this longest footbridge as a part of theroute that goes absolutely nowhere. This is a plot point.Once they cross the footbridge, it falls apart despite being clearlyshown as made from shiny new parts and having at least five redundantsafety wires. Well, that's Croatians for you, not only do they buildEurope's longest footbridges to nowhere, they also create bridgesupport points out of legos and spit.This is the first half of the movie, with the thrills mostly having todo with the oh-so-irritating vertigo guy hyperventilating and fallingover ledges (remember, legos and spit). The second half introduces someinsane Croat called Anton Zukarech (which sounds as Croatian as "JohnWayne", but I digress). This guy starts killing the poor French idiots,because, uh, well, just because. And it's hard NOT to root for himbecause our hikers do all but tattoo "cut here" lines on their necksand bicker about who gets to bite the dust first.The rest of the movie is mostly listening to groans and screams,watching our heroes acting like idiots some more for the plot to plodforward, witnessing painfully obvious continuity mistakes (trivia fact:in Croatia it takes ten minutes to go from midnight to high noon) andGod is this movie ever going to end.. Anton, man, what's taking you solong?After the last scene (groan), cue the final insult - the director choseto inform us that there are "3270 unexplained disappearances in theBalkans". I don't even have to check for the fact that this talentlesshack pulled this number out of his ass, mostly because "Balkans" isprobably the hardest geographical region to define and would hardly beused in any statistics. I guess he didn't want to anger the Croats toomuch and blatantly fabricate some statistical data about imaginarydisappearances in Croatia itself. Too late, he already angered not justCroats but everyone else duped into seeing this dreck.I have utterly disliked this movie. There are no scares, no thrills,there is some gore if you are into that sort of thing, but most of thetime the movie is nearly unwatchable. The protagonists are paper-thincharacters who are so unbelievably irritating you are actively rootingfor Anton to put them out of their misery, which cannot happen soonenough. Seriously, seeing this movie through in one sitting is anexercise in masochism.I give it a 2/10, mostly because it's short and some of the scenery isnice (although it's not Croatia but French Alps). But you are SO betteroff watching Descent or Wrong Turn instead. Or any other Americanslasher B-movie for that matter.P.S. In the last five years, 1,457 French doctors had random flashbacksthat have had nothing to do with anything whatsoever.

(2012-04-18 21:33:56)

Climbing The Mountains Of Madness...

HIGH LANE (aka: VERTIGE) is about a group of rock climbers who venture into the Croatian mountains. All is well until horrible "accidents" befall them, and they begin running into a series of deadly traps. HIGH LANE is a DESCENT / WRONG TURN-type hybrid. I liked most of this movie, right up to the point when the feral madman is revealed. Yes, he's "bonkers". He just isn't all that terrifying. His lair is rather creepy, but nothing we haven't grown to expect from these sort of guys. Still, HL is worth a peek...

Robin Clifford

(2012-04-10 19:57:50)

The story...wanders into routine horror territory when the monster, named Anton, begins his reign of terror using bear trap and cross bow to capture and kill his victims.

quinnox-1

(2012-04-10 10:38:26)

An excellent first half of suspense/drama before turning into a cruddy horror film

For the first half of the movie it was an interesting and good suspensestory, about a group of carefree youthful friends who go on a mountainclimbing adventure, and the obstacles they encounter on their moreperilous than anticipated day trip. Disregarding that the route theywant to climb is closed, they boldly and perhaps foolishly, go on andstart their climb.This is where the movie is well done, with breathtaking and scarycamera shots of the ground far below as they make their way across thinprecarious ledges on the mountainside and the sense of danger isprominent and sustained, until finally they end up at a rickety anddangerous looking rope bridge they must cross. All this is interestingto watch, especially for those who like outdoors adventures, added tothis is a character who is more timid than the others in the group andis scared of heights, who has troubles navigating these perils whichadds more tension to these scenes.However, after they cross the rope bridge, which ends up being athrilling and tense scene, the movie turns into a stupid generic horrorfilm of a backwoods crazed maniac who lives on the mountain and hebegins to hunt them down. The killer is not scary at all, and played bya guy who looks like some goof ball lumberjack and its quitedisappointing when he is revealed. The characters also start to makereally dumb decisions as is typical in horror movies, and basically theentire second half of the movie is a total dud, and can be skippedwithout missing anything good.So I think this movie is actually worth seeing for the first halfalone, which was surprisingly gripping when it involved the human dramaof navigating a difficult mountain climb.

Mike McGranaghan

(2012-04-10 03:43:20)

An exercise in screw tightening, with the viewer (like the characters themselves) being bombarded with one gasp-inducing thing after another.

(2012-04-09 15:39:47)

nice views

This review is from: High Lane (DVD) A group of friends go mountain climbing on a closed mountain and end up getting hunted. The first portion of the movie shows the friends climbing with nice shots landscape, mountains and ect. One member has a few near misses and some of the shots were shown looking down and had us on the edge of our seats (don't much care for heights). The rest of the movie is about the group fighting the hunter and needless to say he picks them off one by one. The only thing I didn't care for was at the very end...writing comes up explaining the missing hikers/campers in that region and also that the one hunting them was a victim. If he was a victim and knew his name it would have been nice to explain a bit more about him and what happened to him.

kluseba

(2012-04-03 01:33:19)

"Cliffhanger" meets "The Hills Have Eyes"

"Vertige" is a very entertaining movie with a lot of intense suspensein the first half that is comparable to "Cliffhanger". Apart of somegeneric character plays, the first half especially convinces with aninteresting camera work that perfectly captures the vertigo and thefears of of one of the characters. By watching these scenes you reallycan identify with the character and you won't feel at ease as well. Youfeel as if you were climbing up the mountains of Croatia and sufferingfrom vertigo for real. The first half also shows us many greatlandscapes captured by a very good camera work once again.The second part of the movie turns from a suspenseful action drama intoa solid horror movie that can be compared to the legendary "The HillsHave Eyes". The transition is well developed enough to not feel like asudden rupture but it might still mislead some people. Those whoexpected an intense mountaineer feature may be mixed up and feeldisappointed by the second half. Those who awaited a rather genericadult horror movie might already get confused by the first half of themovie. The mixture of both genres is very particular and I personallyequally adored both halves but this experimental idea is rathercourageous and might not sell well. It can be considered as a mistakefrom a commercial point of view. From an artistic point of view, theidea is worth it and turns out to be rather intriguing.In this second part of the movie, there are some gore and splatterscenes but fortunately the movie rather focuses on the atmosphere andthe fate of the characters than on a generic slaughter fest. Thenegative thing is that the fate of the main villain is not explainedand the screenwriters could have created a few better ideas and a moreprofound character. On the other side, even though the movie has aradical change of style and genre, the flick is very dynamical and willkeep you on the edge of your seat until the end even though there areno big twists or surprises in the movie that might push this flickabove average. The ending is a little bit too generic and has some veryweak and random explanations for what we have seen in about ninetyminutes.There is a lot of potential in this feature and it's surelyentertaining but it could have been better with an additional runningtime of maybe ten minutes and an improved ending. If you see this moviefor a cheap price or if it is shown on television, don't hesitate tobuy or watch this but don't spend more money on it and don't expectanything outstanding.

(2012-04-02 12:58:16)

Great Thriller!

This movie was great! In short, a group of kids go mountain climbing/hiking in the Balkans. Along the way, they, not surprisingly, get hunted, and the story revolves around how well they either evade capture or deal with their adversary (trying to avoid spoiler). Again, it was great. First of all, the camera work of the beginning 1/2 of the film as they hike/mountain climb was outstanding. I'm sure there was a lot of computer graphics, but it never felt that way. Its conceivable they actually did the stunts themselves. Either way, the shots are great, and the tension as they do challenging moves it outstanding. For fans of mountain climbing and advanced hiking, these scenes alone are worth the ride. Then we get to the adversarial part. While this movie is a French analogue of the all too repeated West Virginia mutant gone bad story, it doesn't feel formulaic or tired. Perhaps there isn't that much new in this story compared to the genre of deep woods hikers meets crazy killer, but it feels fresh. Hard to articulate why, but it was really enjoyable. Please understand the film is in french and subtitled with English. Highly recommended.

(2012-04-01 09:08:59)

First half-hour is worth it, forget the rest.

Vertige (Abel Ferry, 2009)The first thirty minutes of Vertige, released in America as High Lane, are by far the movie's best and scariest. At that point, this is a very simple man vs. nature plot, in which Fred (Taken's Nicolas Giraud), a climber who also seems to be one of those go-go-go self-help gurus, and his girlfriend Karine (Low Life's Maud Wyler) take a trio of others for a climb on what, Fred tells us enthusiastically, is the highest, longest (read: most grueling) climb in Europe. We're told it's somewhere in Croatia, though I can't remember where for the life of me (it has been noted on the IMDB discussion boards that it is, in fact, an agglomeration of at least two different climb sites). You know this is going to go wrong when they see a sign saying in no uncertain terms the site is closed for repairs and Fred ignores it. Just to add to the doomy feeling is the fact that our other trio is all full of scary baggage: Karine's friend Chloe (La Petite Jerusalem's Fanny Valette) is a doctor who just had something nasty happen to her at work, though what it was is only gradually revealed throughout the film. Along with her is old boyfriend Guillaume (Les Bleus' Raphael Lenglet), pretty much the epitome of the ruggedly-handsome athletic type, and geeky new boyfriend Loic (Cold Showers' Johan Libereau), who's pretty much the opposite. This is a movie that, given that premise, needs not one more thing other than good acting and a competent director to make it gripping.And for those first thirty minutes, that's exactly what you get, as Loic overestimates his endurance (and underestimates his fear of heights), the group encounter increasingly dangerous situations while thousands of feet in the air, and things in general spiral out of control.Then you hit the half-hour mark, and the movie becomes, in essence, The Ascent with a strong flavor of Deliverance. At which point you know pretty much everything that's going to happen and stop caring about any of it. Okay, you probably can't predict some of the more idiotic character choices, but, you know.Okay, maybe it's not that bad. (Yes, it is, but I'll play devil's advocate for a minute.) You've seen The Descent, you've seen Wrong Turn, you've seen The Hills Have Eyes (hopefully the original and not the hideous remake), you've seen Deliverance, you've seen a dozen or two other films like this, and if you've been following my reviews for at least a few years you've hopefully seen a smattering of really, really good French horror flicks while avoiding their bad ones. And then you come to Vertige and... well, I won't blame you if you actually do watch it, because that first half-hour is something else. But once you get to the point where the movie turns from man vs. nature thriller into dumb slasher flick, you'll start wondering, since you've seen all those other movies, why you're watching this, which is as cavalier in its borrowing from other movies as it is in its blending of climb sites. This is nothing new under the sun, Jack. **

skiendog-1

(2012-03-31 20:52:03)

Young friends venture out on afternoon mountaineering trip, that turns very bad.

Descent meets Vertical Limit. Awesome cinematography, great directing, and great acting actuallymakes up for a corny plot and poor character development. Young friendsventure out on afternoon mountaineering trip, that turns very bad. Iwatched the Netflix version, and I think it was dubbed into English. Ifso, it was done very well. After 10 minutes in, I completely forgotabout the fact that it was dubbed. Overall, a solid 8-9. Yes, it'smissing character development, and the plot is corny. But, there'snever a dull moment in the whole movie, and it will have you grippingat your seat. Combine that with the BEAUTIFUL cinematography, and it'sa must-see.

movieman_kev

(2012-03-23 22:04:25)

Turn it off after 25 minutes and you'll be better off

A group of friends go on what was supposed to be a nice mountainclimbing expedition/vacation in Croatia,, but when unforeseen equipmentproblems arise it has everyone feeling a bit on edge (pardon the pun) This film actually had a rather promising start. The scenery wasbeautiful, the fist action sequence was thrilling and I started to gethopes for this film. Shame on me, for no sooner than I was getting goodwill that the film took a drastic Wrong Turn and became a lame cheapHills Have Eyes clone. Between that sad turn of events coupled with anover reliance on one particular song, the taste for this film soured.My Grade: D+

David Nusair

(2012-03-23 11:36:56)

...[The] wire-bridge scene alone justifies the movie's existence.

(2012-03-19 09:43:31)

It's in english too!

This review is from: High Lane (DVD) Contrary to what some reviewers have stated there is the option to set this movie to french AND english. IT's a great movie. Cliffhanger meets Wrong Turn. Any horror fans out there shouldn't miss this one if you have up to this point. It's more than worth a buy.I lost interest hearing that it was ONLY in french and buyers beware, that is not the case at all! Just check it out.

(2012-03-18 23:37:43)

High Lane

"High Lane" was directed by Abel Ferry and stars Fanny Valette (ChloГѓВ©), Johan LibГѓВ©reau (LoГЇc), RaphaГ«l Lenglet (Guillaume), Nicolas Giraud (Fred), and Maud Wyler (Karine) as a group of friends (two couples and a fifth wheel) who decide to go mountain climbing on a mountain closed for repairs and end up getting hunted by a deranged killer.The climbers see that the pass is closed but go anyway, a classic beginning to a nature horror movie where nature enthusiasts bite off more than they can chew. It seems like it will be easy going since this mountain is equipped for safe climbing complete with ladder rungs wedged deep into the mountain and steel safety cords to hook onto. Everyone is wearing safety harnesses with double lanyard hooks so this should be simple, right?The first setback besides the pass being closed is that LoГЇc clearly has a fear of heights combined with vertigo that he is attempting to hide from the group to keep his pride intact in front of his girlfriend, ChloГѓВ©'s ex, Guilliaume who is still in love with her. The action begins fast and one accident after another occurs until it becomes clear these are not just accidents and someone is out to get these hikers.I already have a pretty established fear of heights so watching even the "fun" portions of their trip was enough to tie my stomach in knots. The movie gets more intense as every worse case scenario begins to enfold on them. The tension between the ex-boyfriend and the new boyfriend is heated up by the stress of trying to find a way out despite losing group members. It is a shorter film, only one hour and twenty minutes so there is no wasted screen time dwelling on talking about feelings or back story when the situation is so much more dire than that. This is a terrifying movie that tensed me up considerably throughout!!Bonus Features:A trailer.