6 Below: Miracle on the Mountain (2017) Reviews

• Survival drama takes Blue Square route

  TwistedMango2017-10-24

  A former pro-hockey player must fend for himself after becoming stranded on a mountain Josh Hartnett may be the George Raft of this generation, known by the roles turned down. More than ten years since he passed up opportunities to play Spiderman, Batman, and Superman, Hartnett is Eric LeMarque. A former pro hockey player, LeMarque has struggled with retirement and is facing a drugs charge when he goes up the mountain with his snowboard. A reckless decision to take an unsupervised course during a storm leaves LeMarque stranded and exposed to the elements. A lasting problem of 6 Below is how rote the plot is; there is not a single moment in the film that comes as a real surprise. The film's subtitle Miracle on the Mountain belies the fact that this is not to be a tragedy, and that we the audience are going through the motions of Josh Hartnett feeling cold for ninety minutes. Director Scott Waugh makes heavy use of GoPros and drones for filming snowboarding shots, yet however he captures the shots there is rarely an inventiveness on screen. The persistent whiteness of the mountain over-saturates the eyes, and the constant choral drowns the ears. This is a shame as Waugh uses his experience with stuntwork and directing Need For Speed to assemble a number of the set pieces with aplomb. Most notably this includes helicopter search and rescue sequences in which Sarah (Sarah Dumont) at base camp comes tantalisingly close to finding LeMarque. There are a few points of immersion in the story, notably a moment that ignited my own greatest fears when LeMarque falls through ice. Yet as a character LeMarque doesn't confront his situation with any particular imagination. He's never forced into the horrifying self-sacrifice of Aron Ralston (James Franco) in 127 Hours, and nor does the film have the terrifying resourcefulness and consuming morbidity of Touching the Void. LeMarque suffers because he has to, in a manner often no more engaging than a rat on a sinking ship. If the bulk of the mountainside action is taking a blue square route, this is an improvement on the flashbacks dotted throughout the film. As with the mountainside, its all filmed flatly, both visually and thematically. The domineering father and long-suffering mother are familiar tropes, and how this relationship might evolve as LeMarque grows up isn't explored. In the drive to tell an all- American tale of redemption 6 Below also leaves out interesting tidbits, such as the real life LeMarque using his dual citizenship to represent France in the '94 Olympics.  A point of connection as LeMarque wastes away on the mountain should be mother Susan (Mira Sorvino) who clearly loves him very much, but she has come across as so soppy and one-dimensional it's hard to avoid a vague irritation with her. I was more interested by Sarah and the mountain operation, and would hope to see Dumont in expanded roles in the future. If you're a lover of inspirational memes or fancy the idea of Josh Hartnett nibbling bits of himself, this film is for you. Otherwise 6 Below will provide you with very little sustenance. christophermarchant.wordpress.com @BrianInvincible

• Utter drivel.

  barberic-695-5741352018-07-31

  The whole movie is ridiculous. If you know anything about survival in extreme conditions you will know what I mean. As this movie was such a disaster I doubt you will be making another one but if you do make sure you hire a survival expert that actually knows what he / she is talking about. Apart from that, the movie is as gripping as watching grass grow on the tundra. We will not be watching this one again in the future.

• Snowed under

  Prismark102018-04-03

  6 Below is based on a true story of Eric LeMarque (Josh Harnett) an ex ice hockey player, crystal meth addict who goes snowboarding and is ill prepared. He gets lost in the mountains when a blizzard approaches and has to fight for survival. There are flashbacks to his boyhood travails and disputes with his ice hockey team. His mother figures that something is wrong and tries to get a search and rescue operation in motion. The director has toned down the faith based elements of LeMarque's story but he has also toned down any excitement. It is flatly directed and it has little tension or energy. It certainly is no 127 Hours.

• Movie is ridiculous!

  blownwideopen2018-12-30

  Obviously the "true story" this movie was based on must have been pretty dull. Otherwise, they wouldn't have found the need to fill it in with such ridiculous nonsense. I won't give spoilers but will just say that the scenes and situations depicted as part of the character's "survival" are completely unrealistic and quite likely even impossible. Also, I feel the need to point out something else ridiculous and not believable. Josh Hartnett is 40 years old ... So having his mother being portrayed by very youthful looking 51 year old Mira Sorvino is just stupid!

• This could have been a really good B list movie...

  sugar_n_spice_makes_ever2018-04-04

  I really wanted to enjoy this movie, but my gosh, the pace is awfully slow. I can enjoy movies without all the top notch stars and CGI effects because it's the storyline of the drama & acting that I'm observing, but this was just a good ol' snore fest. The story is one of those inspirational "finding yourself and not giving up" and I usually really like those sort of true stories but I just couldn't get into this. I remember looking up and it had finished; Couldn't really recall what had happened. It was boring, unfortunately.