wes-connors In a flashback to 1954 Bhutan, a Himalayan mountain group suffers though terrifying tragedy. It looks like a man is sucked into a black hole, but this is incorrect; rewinding, this is actually our first look at one of the movie's monsters. Presently, another crew has followed this 1954 group up the mountain. They have been lost for four weeks. Colorado climbing school teacher Aaron Douglas (as Ward Donovan) is asked to lead a rescue expedition. The expert climber declines as he has retired and put on a little weight. However, wealthy financier Andrew Airlie (as Walter Burton) persuades Mr. Douglas to change his mind, after noting that Douglas's ex-girlfriend Emmanuelle Vaugier (as Kate Pratt) is among the missing...Accompanying Douglas on his rescue crew are handsome young Torrance Coombs (as Chance) and sexy doctor Crystal Lowe (as Nina Preston). Mysteriously popping pills, Mr. Airlie manages to include his wise-guy son Paul Campbell (as Tyler). They have ulterior motives. A lot of "Killer Mountain" doesn't make a lot of sense, but it manages to surprise you, just a little. After a laborious amount of running time, there are some good low-budget action. Sheldon Wilson and Peter Sullivan also score with star Douglas – note how he taps his stomach when initially declining to go on the expedition – and a few of his sporting players. Especially noteworthy is the interplay between the co-stars.***** Killer Mountain (8/27/11) Sheldon Wilson ~ Aaron Douglas, Torrance Coombs, Paul Campbell, Emmanuelle Vaugier

Sean Kaye Get a hot chick, in this case Emmanuelle Vaugier (she was on 2 1/2 men and is a hotty), add some dudes, go to some place remote, (in this case an abandoned mine shaft in the Vancouver area), introduce some blood thirsty CGI creatures that will kill them off, one by one until the end when there's only 1 guy and the hot chick left, have them suddenly hold hands before the credits roll (because they have fallen in love while fighting to survive), then have them walking away from the camera making jokes and planning their future together. That's it, formulaic trash and it's all the same. "Tasmanian Devils" had the exact same ending. Only watch this if you're ill and stuck in bed or really have nothing else to do.

katcocat Why shoot on location when there's a perfectly good version of Photoshop available? Anyone who's hoping to see some cool shots of impossible to climb mountains is going to be very disappointed with this film. Anyone who's hoping for a realistic male lead who's an expert at climbing is going to be very surprised. The lead in this film doesn't look like he ever climbs the stairs let alone a mountain. They did a bit better with the female lead but not by much and the only other woman in the film played a doctor who appeared to be easily frightened. Not sure what she was doing there in the first place, you'd have thought they'd have written a character made of sterner stuff. It starts off bad and goes downhill from there. Don't waste any money on it.

Chris Seaton Staying home for the recent storm, I decided to check out Syfy's Saturday night movie to see if it might be another schlock masterpiece like SHARKTOPUS or MEGA PYTHON VS. GATOROID. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to see a movie that actually took itself, and its monsters, seriously.KILLER MOUNTAIN is about a mountain climber (Chief Tyrol from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) who goes to rescue his missing girlfriend from a forbidden mountain. Once he and his fellow climbers (including hottie Crystal Lowe from FINAL DESTINATION 3) get to the top, they realize that the whole thing was a ruse. The reason goal of the mission was to uncover a "fountain of youth" (or something) that a greedy corporate type wants to use to cure himself and then sell on the open market. It turns out that the mountain is really the hidden location of Shangri-La (they call it Shambala).The cool part is that Shangri-La isn't the mystical city we've seen before time and time again. In this version, Shangri-La is an abandoned, underground alien city that is home to hungry alien monsters that are bent on protecting it.The most interesting thing about KILLER MOUNTAIN is that the creatures aren't the sole focus of the story. It's actually an adventure film first, creature film second, which I liked. There's some twists and turns and it's never boring. And they managed to stick in a couple of GALACTICA references which is always fun.What's not so good about it is some questionable CGI... it's the only thing that makes the movie look low budget. Bad FX aside, KILLER MOUNTAIN is definitely worth checking out if you're sick of the same ol' campy creature stuff.