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Click above to purchase "Extreme Limits" at amazon.com
Extreme Limits
review by Ren C.
Rated R
Studio: Fox
Running Time: 93 minutes
Starring Treat Williams, Julie St. Claire
Written by Steve Latshaw
Directed by Jay Andrews
Retail Price: $34.98
Features: Audio Commentary, Photo Gallery,
Biographies, Theatrical Trailer
Specs: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, English Dolby
Digital 5.1, English Dolby Surround, English Closed
Captions, English Subtitles, Spanish Subtitles, Chapter
Search
Released: August 7th, 2001
There are certain movies where it is obvious that an
honest effort has been put into the movie, and despite the
best efforts of cast, crew, and everyone else involved,
things just didn't come together. This is not one of those
movies. This falls under the textbook definition of B movie,
looking like it was made for all of about twelve dollars.
The plot, such as it is, is mindboggling, and the actors
look like they are reading their lines off a cue card. To
give the movie some credit, it is able to steal from some of
the best, both figuratively, and in the cases of the stock
footage, literally.
The movie opens with Hunter (John Beck) and his daughter
Nadia (Julie St. Claire) in Moscow, on a search for the
mythic Tesla Ray. This weapon is supposedly more powerful
than a nuclear bomb and is responsible for the destruction
of a half million acres of trees in Siberia in the 1950s. Of
course, the ray is found, and we are given a demonstration
when Hunter has to stop the terrorists who want to steal the
ray. If at around this point you're waiting for Harrison
Ford to show up, it's completely understandable.
Having attained the ray, it must now be returned to
America into the waiting hands of the CIA. Of course, first
Hunter and Nadia must get onto a plane with a bunch of
"C-list American celebrities", their words, not mine.
Amongst these C-list celebrities are pretty much every
stereotype that you've come to expect, including the drugged
out supermodel, and the Hollywood bitch. Now, if you can't
figure out from here what happens next on the plane, I don't
think you've ever seen an action movie. In which case, don't
start with this one. Please, go rent "Die Hard 2", you'll
thank me later.
I don't think I'll be spoiling anything for anyone to
skipping ahead to after the inevitable plane crash. The
objective here is for Nadia to get the ray back into
American hands before it is stolen by generic evil terrorist
Buck (Hannes Jaenickie). Meanwhile, the passengers on the
plane have to try and survive the extreme cold, and bear
attacks. No, that is not a misprint, bear attacks.
I don't think that it is possible for me to say enough
bad things about this movie. The one plus that I noticed was
that it is just hovering on that line between "so bad it's
good" and "so bad you should never watch under any
circumstances." There are several points in the movie that
were unintentionally funny, including the fact that
terrorists are chasing these people who are in possession of
the most powerful weapon in the world, so why would no one
think to use it? It's the major plot holes like this that
irked me; of course, they had to fight for space on the list
with everything else about this movie that irked me.
It's a fairly mixed bag here, actually. Those scenes
specifically shot for the movie look fairly good; while
those "lifted" from other movies look like stock footage
from 1972. The new portions of the movie are very clear with
good color tones, if occasionally hazy. There is no
oversaturation and blemishes are minimal enough so as not to
be distracting. However, scenes from such movies as
"Cliffhanger" used in this movie look only slightly better
than terrible with blemishes seemingly all over the print.
It provides for a very distracting watching experience, and
one that is very schizophrenic.
The Dolby 5.1 track actually sounds really good, with
effects and the very nice score coming through well.
Dialogue, such as it is, comes through clearly and sounds
crisp. The track is especially good when compared to the
subpar video quality. Also included is a Dolby 2.0 track,
along with English and Spanish subtitles and English closed
captions.
This is one of those movies where a special edition would
seem like overkill, so the features that Fox has supplied
are just right. Without question the most enjoyable feature
is the Audio Commentary with director Jay Andrews,
actress Julie St. Claire and cinematographer Andrea
Rossotto. I think that this may well be my new favorite
commentary, as the three spend the entire length of the
movie doing little besides cracking on every aspect of the
movie. This movie is BAD, and these three know it. Andrews
is especially funny as he admits to ripping off Renny
Harlin-literally, having problems with the actors and hating
the locations. This is when he is not hitting on St. Claire,
with her threatening to hit him in return. This is one of
those movies where the only purpose is to make fun of it,
and thankfully, this commentary does just that.
Also included is the Theatrical Trailer, which
more accurately seems like a home video trailer,
Biographies of some of the major players, and a
Photo Gallery of what seems like publicity stills
prepared for the film.
I'm a little torn about this. There is no question that
this is a B-level, absolutely horrible movie. Watching the
movie by itself I would have no hesitation in giving it a
big thumbs down. The video, as I said, is slipshod, and the
audio is only standard. The retail price is outrageous, and
I'm not exactly sure who Fox is marketing this to. I have to
say though, if you enjoy commentaries at all, give this
movie a rental, and prepare to be entertained. In fact,
don't watch the movie on its own, just with commentary, it's
easier that way.
 (1.5/5 - NOT included in
final score)
 (3/5)
 (4/5)
 (2.5/5)
 (2/5,
NOT an average)
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