Cliffhanger

Directed by Renny Harlin, Cliffhanger follows Sylvester Stallone’s Gabe Walker as he sets out to stop a band of ruthless criminals (led by John Lithgow’s Qualen) from escaping the Rocky Mountains with millions of dollars in stolen cash. Harlin, working from a script by Stallone and Michael France, does an absolutely fantastic job of immediately luring the viewer into the proceedings, as Cliffhanger kicks off with an enthralling sequence detailing a perilous rescue attempt within the aforementioned Rocky Mountains. It’s a spellbinding, almost iconic interlude that ultimately stands as the picture’s high water mark, with the movie, once the narrative proper kicks in, coming off as a decent (if rather familiar) piece of work that hits many of the expected thriller beats. There’s nevertheless little doubt that Harlin’s infused many of the movie’s larger-than-life set pieces with a hard-to-resist, violent sensibility, while the various performances certainly go a long way towards keeping things interesting from start to finish. (Stallone is typically strong as the movie’s conflicted protagonist, although it’s Lithgow’s scenery-chewing turn as the almost comically smug villain that remains a continuing highlight.) By the time the predictably overblown finale rolls around, Cliffhanger has surely confirmed its place as a better-than-average ’90s thriller that benefits substantially from its far-from-subtle approach (with this vibe reflected also in its occasionally eye-rolling emphasis on melodramatic character interactions).

*** out of ****