EVEREST

 Everest, perhaps one of the most hostile environments on earth for a human being. As a character in the movie puts it, ‘the human body was simply not built to function at the cruising altitude of a 747’. Everest is perhaps the ultimate challenge for any mountaineer, the top of the world with no higher to go; that is pure adrenaline, and a sense of accomplishment. That is why a group of adventure seekers have gathered at base camp in the summer of 96; to take a shot at the King of all mountains.

Based on a true story, Everest is the tale of this group of adventurers led by the Adventure Consultant who are attempting to go for the summit on May 10 1996. Among the group is a lot of mountaineering experience, some very serious causes and emotions. But scaling the King of all mountains is no mean task and we all know that. Problems are compounded because the Adventure Consultants are not the only group going up the mountain, there are others and that means a slow wait along many treacherous passages while everyone gets through.

Before going to watch Everest, you have to get one thing clear. It is not the regular Hollywood mountaineering movie. We have seen movies like Cliffhanger and Vertical Limit. Everest is nothing like any of them. A regular mountaineering flick would typically involve avalanches, broken ropes, people hanging off cliffs and a lot of heroic rescues. While all that is entertaining, it need not be real. Everest tries to keep it real, as real as cinema can afford to. There are none of the regular thrills set up for us. Instead we are shown the slow grind that mountaineering is, almost as everything is in slow motion. Legs start getting heavy, head starts getting dizzy, eyes don’t see too well, hands don’t grip too strong, and you begin to wonder why you are even up here. That is what mountaineering is all about, and that is what Everest shows you, the battle with one’s own body, the importance of knowing when your body tells you that you cannot push any further; it is about knowing one’s limits and stretching them while still staying alive. In cinematic terms of pace and editing, this is more like Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours.

Everest surprises you by taking you to the summit almost around the halfway point. Going by the normal graph of a Hollywood entertainer, you would expect that to be held back for the home stretch. But, Everest is different. There is no triumphant background music, no panoramic aerial shots, the reaching of the summit is shown as just another event, the mountain is quiet, the cold wind blows and the climbers hardly have the energy to stand. One more thing Everest shows you very clearly is the importance of sticking to the deadlines that are set on a mountain. And then of course, the movie also shows you that once you are on the mountain you are at its mercy, the mountain makes the rules.

In a movie where most central characters are always wearing thick coats and goggles the actors don’t seem that important. But Jason Clarke does come across as the earnest guide who wants to get everyone back alive, and Jake Gylenhall has a few good moments as the mountaineer who just won’t give up. Keira Knightley gets precious little time but manages to form a strong emotional hook for Jason’s character. And one really wonders what Sam Worthington is doing in this movie!

 Everest doesn’t try the usual tricks to excite you, it doesn’t intend to. It does not try to entertain, thrill or enthrall you. It wants to provide a real look into what a mountaineer’s challenges can be. Of course, if you have watched enough Hollywood movies you might be able to predict the characters that are going to get into trouble. But that apart, there is nothing typically Hollywood about Everest. It is slow, it is deliberate, it is never over the top, it is neither pop corn cinema nor a connoisseur’s delight – somewhere in between!  

A real look into a mountaineer’s challenges!

2.5/5

Hitman: Agent 47

Remorseless, emotionless, heartless, soulless, fearless, etc. etc. etc. assassins! Killing machines made by crazy scientists who want to push the limits of manipulation. Does that sound familiar? Well, Universal Soldier, Bourne etc. in a long list of movies that have used this template to render their protagonists invincible; just a notch below making a Superhero film. Perhaps the real original in this genre is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  You are told right at the beginning of the Agent 47 about a military program which wanted to make ultra-efficient killing machines who have no trace of emotion. Yawn…you begin to think because you know exactly where such films head. But, every now and then films do come along which make us believe that a director and an editor put together can rescue a yawn-inducing premise. Agent 47 falls into that category.

Because it is adapted from a video game, the action is relentless and the settings have a sleek and surreal feeling to them at many times, as if you are in an imaginary digital world rather than the real one. The storyline is not much of a surprise here because we almost know beforehand how things are going to pan out. The only major surprise comes somewhere in the first half hour where we have a brief passage wondering who is really the good guy. Once that is sorted out we have a long stretch of action sequences interspersed with a few quiet moments. Shooters pop out of all corners, the antagonists seem to be all powerful lords and they can go to any end to get what they want, except they do not fully know what they are after.

Agent 47 remains true to its inspiration. It maintains that video game feel of continuous action, non-stop shooting and swanky sets. There is almost zero novelty per se in the actual plot and the action is generic at best. Rupert Friend has to play the remorseless assassin. The only thing different from other similar characters that have been played before is that he does not have mental turmoil of scars of a violent career. He is very much the calculative agent who is out on a mission. But, there are moments where his face betrays a bit of emotion. Hannah Ware looks vulnerable but instinctive at the same time, which is what is required. Zachary Quinto looks more like a soft romantic hero rather than an engineered being who is impermeable to artillery.

All said and done, the director and editor somehow manage to make it a sequence of action set pieces that does not allow boredom to set it for any prolonged period. No surprises, nothing new, but a watchable series of fights with swanky sets and fast cars!

Watchable action set piece!

2/5