Cliffhanger [4k UHD + Blu-ray]

Great movie with solid plot line from beginning to end. If you are a Stellone fan you'll love this movie

Critics of this movie say this movie is just "Die Hard on a snowy mountain". Ok, so what's wrong with that? Cliffhanger is a very well-made movie with awesome old-school special effects made with models and sets, incredible stunts, instead of cheap CGI (computer generated imagery). The movie has its flaws, no doubt. It is unfortunate that early in the movie there is a very suspenseful scene and one of the characters is reacting with a grin on his face. If I were the director, I would have cut out that scene or re-shoot it. If you pay attention to expression on that character's face, it is incongruous to what's going on in the scene. I think in a previous scene, the character is exerting some effort and that's why he has a grimace in his face but then it appears to turn into a grin. Other than that, there are some other scenes which are typical to action movies, not entirely logical, but then it is expected of action movies to have certain scenes that defy logic. It really depends on your threshold of tolerance for such scenes. Personally, I think the movie still works in general, interrupted by some irrational scenes here and there. I love John Lithgow as the bad guy. I think he is fantastic. Critics are not happy with his accent but given his acting skills, I think his accent is negligible. Slyvester Stallone also does a great job. If you like action movies, (i.e. Die Hard), I think you will enjoy Cliffhanger. There are special features (feature commentary by the director and by the technical crew) but they are on the Blu-ray disc and not on the 4K disc. I wish they were on the 4K disc. However, the production companies often do not add the special features onto the 4K disc and rather include a Blu-ray edition disc which contains the special features.

When I first watched this long ago, I didn't even know who John Lithgow was and seeing him at that time made me really hate his character, which means, now in hindsight that the actor did an awesome job in this film. Re-watching it today reveals some other actors as well like Michael Rooker, famous I suppose from "Guardians of the Galaxy", and he's the exact same presentation here in this rather old movie. All of the cast give good performances and the writing is better than expected. The special effects are quite convincing as you really believe the girl falls and dies in the beginning. The rest of the movie was enjoyable especially with John playing the antagonist is nearly sociopathic in his decision making. The supporting bad guys also bring something to the movie. All in all, better than I remember it being.

very solid movie...I give it 4 stars...

I was always waiting for this to go down in price, but I ended up getting it because it was about as low as I'll ever see it - and I should have gotten it sooner! I always loved this film and I consider it to be Stallone's overall best, and a nice bridge from his 70's days into - getting old! The picture quality back on cable was great, as was to switch to DVD, BD and now 4K! 4K discs like "Animal House" are dark and dingy, but "Cliffhanger" gives you the picture quality that you expect and the Atmos track that is about as good as it get's right now! The picture is as sharp and clean as you recall - but better on 4K! It is bright, with color strong and impactful (especially on the red helicopter and skin tones!), there is minute grain, but all details come in to POWERFUL detail and degrees! You can see snow crystals, leather sheen, mixed eye colors, detailed landscapes and the color looks like WHITE snow! This is like a snapshot in time, as it is nearly perfect! The sound! Man, this Atmos soundtrack is the Atmos that finally puts your system to WORK! Before I got this, "The Incredible Hulk" had one of the more apparent Atmos/DTS-X tracks! Most others you had to wonder if it was really Atmos or if Atmos was even about anything. I knew that once given time, producers would put Atmos/DTS-X tracks to work! Unlike most Atmos titles, this one works all fours corners of the height speakers and given the locale of the film, it keeps them working to give you the sense of height and being in the mountains with wind, snow and rocks. This Atmos soundtrack is the first (that I've had) that actually EVELOPES you in a DOME OF SOUND - in EACH, discrete speaker with PRECISION! Keep in mind that this is not made for the theaters, this Atmos was made for your home theater, and it does not seem slapped together - this is a MASTERPIECE or sound! Whoever did this, needs to be hired by everyone else! THIS is how you do ATMOS/DTS-X!!! Not to mention, the sound was level, loud but CLEAN! There is a reason that reviewers call this a REFERENCE disc! Once I heard the first effects, I knew that this was a reference disc! As of now, there is no equal! Audio: 5 Video: 4.75 4K Quality: 5 If you were like me and were a little disappointed with your height system setup and thought that it was a novelty or a gimmick to sell equipment, after you put THIS disc in - your made will be changed and blown! There have been great 5.1 and 7.1 titles, but this is the first 4K Atmos/DTS-X titles that literally surrounds you at all times and puts you in a dome of sound! Give whoever did it an Oscar! As for the disc itself, I do not like Amazon (and now another retailer) who reseal USED discs and sell them as new! Sell them as USED like you are supposed to do, with lower prices. We can tell because they are not new, the wrapping is not official and something else, which I won't say.

I was a big fan of Stallone back in his heyday, I recall this film from that time period. It was a great action flick then and it still holds up today. Very edge of your seat, and if you are interested in great views, there's a lot of them here. This is the first film of its kind to use rock climbing as a backdrop and it was actually filmed in the Dolomites in Italy. I also watch pretty much anything with rock climbing in it. The film has aged very well and doesn't really date itself too much except the lack of CG special effects and stunts -- these are all done the old fashioned way, which a lot of us prefer. For me, nothing ruins a good story faster than adding a bunch of digitized content. Back in the day, making a film like this was very costly and blowing things up is a lost art. A lot of people saying it's just Die Hard in the snow -- first, it made a lot more at the box office than Die Hard -- a lot more. I'm not a Bruce Willis fan by any stretch, but I did see DH and anyone who thinks Cliffhanger is similar must have only seen 2 action flicks in their life. I mean, why don't we say this is Rambo on a mountain. Oh, wait, it kind of was!

The disk arrived in good shape

Very action packed movie! Lithgow is such a great actor! Pick this up in 4K!