K2

This abyssal action adventure details the efforts of two American buddies to scale the world's second highest peak. Roddam's intentions are made clear early on: climbing as metaphor - take risks! you've only got one shot in life! go for the dream! The film opens with drunken jock-lawyer Taylor (Biehn) in post-party garb scaling the outside walls of his erstwhile climbing chum's apartment building. Will his scientist mate Harold (Craven) - he's the married, sensitive type - team up for the big one? Much philosophical debating later, Who's-a-Wimp Harry is in. The rest is snowbound, rope-and-piton daredevil drivel. On trip one (Alaska) two dorks die. Trip two involves much palaver with porters, challenges from old rivals, and beyond-the-cliché dialogue. Cinematographer Gabriel Beristain does wonders filming the mountain landscapes of Pakistan and British Columbia.