What is it about mountain movies? You would think that dangling by your fingertips from a sheer cliff several thousand feet in the air would be enough to generate suspense in a film. But no. Filmmakers always insist on adding in explosives.

A few years ago, Armageddon (admittedly, not a rock climbing movie, but about a big rock nonetheless) made the mistake of introducing the tired "which wire to cut on the bomb" device, seemingly completely oblivious that it was a movie about a giant asteroid about to crash into the Earth.

Vertical Limit also makes this blunder by resting at least half of the suspense of the film on the fact that everyone climbing the mountain has nitroglycerin strapped onto their backs. Furthermore, this is a special blend of nitro that tends to explode only when directed by the screenwriter. Specifically, we're made to believe that when this stuff heats up, it blows up. This would be an acceptable conceit, but only if the film is willing to stick by it. Once the danger is presented to the cast, they scramble to get into the shade and cover the nitro with snow. After that, however, they continue their trek in direct sunlight with no further mention of keeping the nitro cool.

I don't want to imply that Vertical Limit is entirely a bad film. It does work fairly well in the cheap thrills department. It's problem lies in the fact that it tries so hard to be more than it is and that's where it fails. The movie has us with the avalanches, the cliff hanging, the falls and the realities of trying to survive on K-2. The tension between the main characters even works dramatically, with one group scrambling to rescue another group who, themselves are trying to survive in an unsurvivable environment. It didn't need to manipulate us with explosions and transparent villainous subplots.

The basic plot is that a rich airline owner hires guides to take him to the top of K-2 so that he can film one of his planes flying overhead for a commercial. Things go wrong during the ascent and they are trapped in a cave with only a few hours to live. The brother (Chris O'Donnell) of one of the guides is determined to climb the mountain and rescue his sister (Robin Tunney). The catch is that he hasn't climbed a mountain in years, ever since he was forced to sacrifice his father to save he and his sister in another climbing accident.

There really aren't any surprises in this plot, so that leaves it up to the scenery and special effects to provide all of the thrills. For the most part, they deliver. As I said, all of the elements are there for good, mindless action. The movie falters when it tries to force suspense in areas where it simply isn't needed.