Summit

PG 13 102 min

I was going to do all Oscar nominees but we’ll have time to finish those up before the big day so here’s something current and apparently popular.

This is a run of the mill action heist flick starring Sam Worthington. You’ll remember him or at least the FX from AVATAR but probably not from this one.

Actually MAN ON A LEDGE will probably be forgotten pretty soon. Oh it’s not terrible but as I say it’s run of the mill.

Here’s the deal.

Honest cop Nick Cassidy is in prison after being accused of the theft of a multi-million dollar diamond. His story of being drugged and framed isn’t getting any traction and now the appeals are over.

While on a short visit to his father’s funeral Nick hijacks his estranged brother’s car and makes an escape. Demoralized and distraught Nick makes his way to a downtown hotel, writes a suicide note proclaiming his innocence and climbs out onto the ledge.

He demands a certain crisis manager, an outsider cop (Elizabeth Banks) to handle the negation seemingly because her presence will draw a bigger crowd.

Amidst the wisecracking cops on the scene we start to get the feeling that there’s something rotten here. All this time his brother and that brothers hot girlfriend are executing a daring and complicated heist from the very building owned by the same magnate that sent Nick up!

There’s plenty of skullduggery to go around and I won’t spoil it for you.

The cast which includes Edward Burns Ed Harris and Bill Paxton do as well as possible with the mediocre material but it just never really gets rolling.

It’s hard to imagine the brother and girlfriend actually pulling off such an extremely intricate job. Hell it’d be a chore for the mission impossible team… Besides the whole operation tends to drag in spots.

I guess the biggest problem is that it seems the ending is just too cookie cutter.

It seems like with a little thought it might have been turned into a bigger surprise.

Anyway it’s not particularly boring and it is some fun but it wouldn’t kill ya to wait for the DVD.

C+

WSS

Email westsidesteve@aol.com