Altitude [DVD]

Altitude is definitely an underrated film. It seems that a lot of people disliked it's time-travel, different dimension and supernatural themes as the first half seems like a normal realistic thriller. I actually really liked it, and I'll definitely watch it again. It's about a group of friends (one of which can fly a plane) decide to use a small plain to get to a concert in another country. Whilst in the air they discover some problems with the plain, get lost in a seemingly endless patch of fog and start fighting and arguing. The plane begins to fly downwards due to technical problems and they soon discover there is no ground...they seem to be in some sort of weird foggy dimension with no sign of land or escape from the fog. Then (as you can see from the cover) a giant tentacle monster starts to attack them. Not much is explained about the monster. You briefly see it's face at one point but you never really see how big it is or if it's flying or attached to the ground. There's some cool time travel and supernatural power twists which are significant to the film but I won't go into them to avoid spoiling the film. There's little gore but it could be found scary, depending on what sort of things scare you. It's very tense are has a dark feel to it.

The only things I didn't like were that one or two of the characters were a bit stereotypical and the main character was being pointlessly mean to her boyfriend. Also I was a bit disappointed by the ending, I thought it was a bit cheesy, unlike the rest of the film. Don't get me wrong, it was a good ending, but I can think of many ways it could have been improved. After the film ended I kept thinking about for the next day or two, and it still crosses my mind occasionally now due to the fact that so much is left unanswered and left to your own interpretation and ideas, which I think is really good. I don't think a sequel is necessary, but maybe a semi-sequel would be good? Like completely different story with different characters but maybe about the same monster or fog dimension that could explain more about the alternate world they were in or maybe about a relative to the boy which would explain more about him (you'll understand what I mean after watching the film). So overall, Altitude is a very unique and special film, that is not for everyone, but if you enjoy supernatural twists, giant monsters or weird crazy films then this is for you! 8/10

As one of other reviewers cleverly noticed, this little film could be easily mistaken for a slightly overextended episode of "Outer Limits". Five young people board a little plane to go on holidays. The girl who pilots, Sara (Jessica Lowndes), just got her licence and therefore she is quite happy that it will be a short flight and the weather is expected to be very good. But soon after the take off troubles begin, with the plane getting out of control and flying very high, into an unexpected stormy weather. And then REAL problems begin...

The story seems really like one of those described in "Outer Limits" series and even if at one moment things begin to look a little bit silly, ultimately everything is very cleverly explained and the solution is not stupid at all. There are some really scary moments and the dark storm cloud in which most of action takes place gives to this film a unique (and quite opressive) atmosphere. Last but not least, Jessica Lowndes is a very attractive young lady and she plays quite well.

The bad thing are the dialogs - they are really really poor. Other than Sara the "heroes" are rather pathetic and they act mostly stupidly. There is not much humor and many developments (not all) are quite predictable. And this film is definitely too long - cutting it down to 60 minutes would be a good thing.

All in all to my personal taste this is a little horror/SF film, to which I would rather give 2,5 stars if it was possible, as it is not very good. A thing to see once - and I would rent it rather than buy, as it may be hard to sell later.

I think people are taking this movie to seriously, it is over the top but all this movie is trying to be is fun. Its not trying to be the best film ever, The monster looks good in some places but it isnt shown that often which is a good thing because it makes it more interesting and the film didnt have a lot of money so if they kept showing it, it would have looked more cheap and fake. The film is slow in parts and does have a lot of talking, but about 40 minutes into the film it gets into it a lot more and becomes a lot more interesting as a story. It has some silly parts and thats why it has 3 stars which i still find a good amount of stars out of 5. The acting is quite good, but two of the characters are very annoying with the other 3 being good enough to watch. the cgi of the plane sometimes looks fake but is good enough for this type of movie. I enjoyed this film because i didnt take it seriously and it was something good to watch if you are into this type of film.