Cliffhanger

No way was this his decline.

IMDB shows you perfectly clear where it started.

It's still pretty fucking bad.

I still really enjoy Cliffhanger. It has one of the better rogues gallery out of the 90s action films. I think '96 and Daylight is when the descent actually started. Daylight was more of that lame-action, touchy feely crap that started to come out when the balls to the wall and cheesy action films of the late 80s/early 90s started to wane.

'Cliffhanger' is a guilty pleasure. It's totally excessive in everything: vulgar language, violence, blood, and scenery chewing. If you can buy into the preposterous premise of the film, it can be an entertaining experience. Otherwise, you'd better turn it off after the great opening sequence.

Yeah this wasn't his decline, really. What fucked him up was how he didn't use the momentum from Cop Land to do more interesting things. Unless that's what he thought he was doing with Antz.

I think Cliffhanger is a very solid action-adventure picture. Probably the best of the Die Hard ripoffs, in my opinion. The novel setting and spectacular cinematography really give it a special feel. I love Lithgow's over-the-top villainy and his nonsensical one-liners.

"You want to kill me, don't you Tucker? - Well take a number and get in line."

...Uh, what?

Although I really like Assassins and don't hate Daylight, I would say that this is definitely his last great action picture before the eventual fall from grace.

My admiration of Cliffhanger is already well-documented on these boards but I'll reiterate anyway... Best Trailer Of All Time and My Favorite Final Boss Death Of All Time.

I think it was addressed in the movie, but how is the whole hesit aspect not completely stupid. The plan to steal $1000 bills. Those bills aren't even legal tender.

We're holding ANTZ up now as some major cinematic failure for Stallone? It's a cartoon.

The decline had already started. It started with Rambo III, but there would be occasional bits of brightness like this movie and to some extent Demolition Man. I don't even need to bring up Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, do I?

Judge Dredd wasn't exactly well recieved, opening with a whimper in the summer of '95.

Copland was suppose to be a comeback picture, but then again a year before Daylight was being touted (by Stallone, anyway) as a new era Stallone picture.

I actually like his prison picture Lock Up more than I do most of his nineties output. To the topic at hand, I like Cliffhanger. There's no need to analyze the flick, it's Die Hard on a Mountain, with John Lithgow in cartoon villain mode, and I think he's great in this fashion. Sly is outshined by his costars, especially by Michael Rooker, but even the bland Janine Turner shows more life than him here.

EDIT: Or what Erix said.

Ever since I first saw it in the dollar cinema, every time I see the movie, it's still sad to see Ralph Waite die.

I brought up Antz to illustrate that maybe Stallone saw that as one more step in taking his career in a new direction after Cop Land. I actually like it. The animation is ugly as fuck. But it has a terrific voice cast and a witty script.

Afraid I can't join you there... Because, if you look at it, the guy is smiling even as they're shooting him.

And, if you ask me, that banana eating a monkey painting is enough to merit euthanasia. But that's just me. He didn't deserve to die in that fashion. I'll give you that. He was just trying to help.

To add something to my earlier post, Stallone has always been fighting an uphill battle with quality. As Devin has pointed out, he historically can't seem to make three good movies in a row. You get Nighthawks and First Blood, then he hits you with Rhinestone. You get Rambo II and Rocky IV, then you get Over the Top.

I don't want to bring up Cobra. I know it gets love because it's so ridiculous, but it's hard for me to enjoy it- it's really not that much fun.

Awesome movie. Renny Harlin is highly underrated. Though Mindhunters and Cleaner kind of suck.

C'mon Keith, no love for Brian Thompson and his lady cop girlfriend, Lee Garlington? I'd have loved to have seen more of them together. "My Life With The Night Slasher."

'Cutthroat Island' isn't a work of art either. Apart from the final explosion, the film is utter and complete shit.

He's a McTiernan wannabe who is generally able to get the job done. He occasionally comes up with a finished product that is quite extraordinary ('The Long Kiss Goodnight'). Me, I'm a secret fan of 'The Adventures of Ford Fairlane'

No. The movie's too mean spirited to be fun. It's also too poorly made to make the meanness interesting.

By the way, Cliffhanger came out in '93, so I don't think that it could mark the beginning of a late 90's decline. Stallone had several years there to make movies that are actually genuinely terrible.

How can you not be a fan of Ford Fairlane?

Qualen. Eric Qualen.



It was such a hit they made a video game.

The only reason to ever sit through 'Cutthroat Island': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvj8rvvcNsU

It's one of the best explosions ever captured on film.

So what? Last Action Hero got a game. And both of them were utter shit.

My Dad got me the Last Action Hero game for my Snes Christmas of '95 or '96 can't really remember. The beginning was hard as shit.

I had that game... For the Sega CD. If you were going to get a version of it, that was the one to get. It included horrendously grainy widescreen footage of the film in between levels and it also had the really exciting "Fake 3D" snowboarding stages.

I eventually mastered both those ridiculously hard fucking stages and the game itself.

But my nuts are probably still bruised from all the times I accidentally punched them in frustration.

Sipping on that hater-rade.

CLIFFHANGER box office
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=cliffhanger.htm

LAST ACTION HERO was real utter shit and mighty Al Leong couldn't help.

That Cliffhanger game, the SNES and Genesis at least, was a pain in the ass. I don't think I mastered more than three levels before getting angry and quitting.

Ford Fairlane I still find fun, but I have trouble finishing the thing anymore. I wish that Gilbert Gottfried had more screentime.

I had Cliffhanger for SNES and I still remember the awful, cheesy version of the main theme at the beginning. The game itself sucked to boot.

"It's the sickest thing, y'see years ago I'm in Jersey. I meet this girl, she's a total pig, but I fucked her."

Gottfried got killed off way too early in the movie. Fairlane owns.

booty time!

Michael Rooker sells it though.

"This man never hurt anybody!"
*Lithgow adjusts his leather gloves*
"Oh, how touching."

Got that right. Hell, if you told me there was to have been a prequel featuring a young Amos traveling the country, singing Bootytime U.S.A. and solving murders. My ass would have been in the seat.

I sing "Booty Time, Booty Time, Across the USA!" all the time. FF is an underrated gem.

Cliffhanger is great. Fantastic opening scene. Super-cool plane to plane midair heist. Juiciest squibs since Robocop. Upwards impalement of Leon. The list goes on. I can't understand how anyone could not enjoy this for what it is.

Good drinking game: Shots after every time Rex Linn says "Goddammit!"

The treasury agent who looks like Peter Gabriel is my second favorite kill in the movie. It's a spectacular movie moment... The way you actually get to see him screaming inside the plane as it explodes.

Renny Harlin made up for his unsatisfying Col. Stewart comeuppance in Die Hard 2 by stuffing this flick with satisfying kills, if you ask me.

Loathe as I am to admit it, this was a staple of my childhood and it's still a film I can revisit and get some enjoyment out of. It's got a great set of villains, some brilliant setpieces, and it's ridiculously violent. It's the kind of visceral, batshit insane,well shot, bloody, movie that makes you realise how lame most other B-Action movies actually are. And how totally lame their fans are.

Lithgow's delivery of "Kill a man, they call you a murderer. Kill a hundred, they call you a conqueror. GO FIGGAH" was a high school quotable. Particularly the GO FIGGAH.

Stallone murdering a guy by choosing to skim under the surface of a frozen pond was one of the first times I questioned a films internal logic. I also think that the co-pilot getting a silenced pistol to the head was one of the most vicious looking headshots of the 90s.

What was the deal with the moments when the film went silent whilst people got executed, never got the intention behind that

Sigh.

Anyway, yeah. I'm glad you like Cliffhanger Spike. It's an entertaining little picture.

Jeez, for a bunch of people who spend all their time making ironic jokes about bad production values, cheesy one liners, and weird subtexts you guys are awfully thin skinned.

It's not that I'm specifically offended or anything. I just think it tiresome that you somehow find a way in every thread to insult an entire group of people just because there are a handful of that clique that you don't like.

Granted, this thread is about an action movie. But still...

It doesn't really matter, though. Feel free to go about your day in peace.

Still one of my favourite groups of villains ever. Lithgow can't match Rickman, but his entire crew all have such unique personalities that it doesn't matter.

It's an amazingly shot movie. One of the reasons I never particularly cared for Die Hard 2 was because of how drab it looked, but in this Harlin probably created one of the best shot action films of the 90s. It just looks gorgeous at times and all of the stuff with the planes still looks really impressive even today.

Love the score and use of silence too, in fact it's probably Harlin's best film.

Good that you picked up on the reason for the use of silence. Interestingly, it doesn't come off as pretentious and it works quite well as a punctuation.

Renny Harlin's best film is probably The Long Kiss Goodnight. But I agree that this is great and a better-looking picture than Die Hard 2.

God, I haven't seen the Long Kiss Goodnight since I was 12. Guess I should add it to my rental queue as I remember really liking it.

Gotta say, the Blu Ray looks amazing.

Erix, Die Hard 2 is better than...Die Hard, easilly better than Cliffhanger, and worlds apart from...The Long Kiss Goodnight. I do enjoy all of them though.

Glad this thread was bumped, because earlier in the week I was watching an episode of MacGyver where he and his best friend are rock climbing, and since MacGyver is new to it, he's taking it slow, while she ascends higher. She loses her grip, and falls. She's held on by one of the straps, which then snaps, and falls to her death. This all happens at the beginning, and the rest of the episode deals with MacGyver blaming himself for her death (she had been interested in him, and he referred to her as his "best friend", but didn't want to get into a relationship with her) which he believes lead to her accidental death.

His arch nemesis Murdoc shows up at the remote cabin that MacGyver is staying at, and MacGyver and a female co-worker of his who had shown up at the cabin to help him get out of his depressive funk have to scale the same mountain ledge where his "best friend" died, and he of course gets the chance to save her, thus bringing him out of his depression.

Episode really reminded me a lot of Cliffhanger. I wonder if the writer watched this episode and got some ideas from it.

It's called "The Widowmaker", and here's the link to the full episode on IMDB for the curious: http://www.imdb.com/video/cbs/vi2610497305/

Just one question... Does Murdock die in that episode for the 50th time?

This film was the last known sighting of Janine Turner, man, did I have a crush on her.

The opening almost gave me a panic attack, the rest of it almost gave me a nap.

Yes, Erix, Murdoc dies for like the 50th time while shouting "MacGyver!!!!!" at the top of his lungs.

Too bad MacGyver didn't have a cool one liner to say like "SEASON'S OVER, ASSHOLE!" Although since its tv he probably would have just said "SEASON'S OVER, MURDOC!"

Saw this as a kid. The most memorable line for me was something about 'treating the BITCH RRRIGHT!"

What the hell is going on here?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOW1rhZCTmg

Watched this again last weekend. Three great set pieces surrounded by sadistic garbage is what I saw. Marvellous score and cinematography almost makes up for it.

I don't know, but the guy with the flight suit is smiling his ass off after she drops.