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Altitude (2010)

Anchor Bay Entertainment
Blu-ray Disc Released: 10/26/2010

All Ratings out of

Movie:

Video:
1/2
Audio:

Extras:
1/2

Review by Mike Long, Posted on 10/23/2010

Growing up, I can remember that some movies had twist endings, and some of those were very famous for their twists. But, today, it seems that every move has a twist of some sort. It's gotten to the point that we going into the movie looking for the twist, and this can actually take us out of the movie. This has happened to me with movies like Shutter Island. (And there was a great joke about this on Parks & Recreation.) That's why it's still unique to watch a movie that does a plot shift. Unlike a plot twist, a plot shift occurs when a movie has presented itself about being about a certain thing or residing in a certain genre and then suddenly taking a turn into a totally new territory. This is just one of the things which make Altitude appealing.

As Altitude opens, we are introduced to Sara (Jessica Lowndes), a young woman who has just recently received her pilot's license. She is flying a group of her friends to a concert. Her boyfriend, Bruce (Landon Liboiron), is quiet and seems a bit nervous. Mel (Julianna Guill) is a bit flighty, and her boyfriend, Sal (Jake Weary), is a jerk who starts drinking before the plane even takes off. Sara's cousin, Cory (Ryan Donowho), is a musician who is nice, but clearly has a crush on Mel. The group piles into a small, crowded twin-engine plane, and after an assurance that Sara knows what she is doing, they are airborne. Once in the air, tensions begin to mount. Bruce's anxiety is palpable, and it's clear that Sal doesn't like him. Cory doesn't do much to hide his flirting with Mel. Things get worse when the plane approaches a storm, as Sara doesn't have the skill to fly through clouds. As she attempts to get over the storm, a system malfunction causes the plane to begin climbing. Sara tries to remain calm and regain control of the plane, but the others start to doubt her skills. As they confront this problem, they begin to realize that the storm may be the least of their worries.

While they aren't necessarily similar in quality, the narrative structure of Altitude reminded me of The Descent. As in Neil Marshall's modern classic, we have a group of friends going on a seemingly benign excursion. Suddenly, they find themselves in circumstances beyond their control and must fight to survive. And then, things get worse. That plot shift was a shocking body-blow in The Descent, as we thought we knew exactly what was going on, but then the movie not only presented a new threat, but changed genres as well. The shift isn't quite as effective in Altitude, as it isn't handled as adeptly, but it does demonstrate that the movie is playing by its own set of rules and we, like the passengers, are simply along for the ride.

Altitude also reminded me of the recently released Frozen, as it's clear that writer Paul A. Birkett made a list of all of the things which could go wrong aboard a small plane. The story makes great use of a the small, confined space from which the characters cannot escape. There is a nice mixture of inter-personal clashes and circumstantial events which keep the very on the edge of their seat. We aren't necessarily scared or worried, but there are several moments in the movie which will make you uncomfortable. As the story begins to morph into something else, some of the elements are predictable, while others are somewhat shocking. There are couple of good jump scares here and the story becomes a nice mixture of thriller, horror and sci-fi.

Kudos must also go to comic book artist turned director Kaare Andrews, who is making his feature-length debut here. The bulk of the film takes place on-board a very small space, so, thus, he isn't given much with which to work. In the extra features, we learn that most of the movie was shot using a mock-up plane and green-screen effects. Despite these limitation, Andrews manages to make the movie visually interesting and he keeps the camera moving during many shots. The visual effects are pretty good, and the designs for what occurs in the third act certainly aren't original, but they look good.

For a low-budget thriller from a first-time director and a writer whose credits include what looks like a bunch of SyFy movies, Altitude is a pretty good movie. The story takes a fairly familiar disaster movie/"What the hell are we going to do now? scenario and turns it on its ear. The result is a movie which yields suspense, some jumps and an ending which I found chilling. For this sort of film, the acting is pretty good. The only place where Altitude really slips up is in the pacing. When all is said and done, there isn't a ton of story here, and thus the movie is forced to stretch some things out to reach feature-film status. This leaves us with some scenes which are too long, and once we get a handle on what is happening, we must wait for the action to start. Still, in a world where it seems that sci-fi/horror films are a dime-a-dozen, it's nice to see one which stands out.

Altitude won't do anything for your fear of flying on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 28 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing only trace amounts of grain and no defects from the source material. This is one of those films which had a lot of post-production processing to render the visual effects and achieve a certain look, and that look is a bit dark at times, and the colors are slightly muted, as the movie is saturated in blues. The image does have a fairly good amount of detail and some of the shots show nice depth. The Disc carries a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 3.8 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. I don't run into many Dolby TrueHD tracks these days, but this is a fine example of one. The stereo effects are quite good, as we are aware of audio coming from the left or right of the screen. Once the plane leaves the ground, the surround sound effects are nearly constant, as we are engulfed in the sound of the plane and the storm. Some of these effects are notably well-placed in the rear speakers. The thunder provides nice subwoofer effects.

The Altitude Blu-ray Disc contains a few extras. We being with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Director Kaare Andrews. "Altitude: Behind the Scenes" (49 minutes) is a multi-part featurette which takes an in-depth look at the making of the film. Through exploring pre-production, production, and post-production, we learn how the project came together and how it was shot. We see how most of the film was shot in a studio using green-screen and how the actors were asked to react to nothing. Through on-set footage and comments from the filmmakers and cast, we get a clear view of what it took to make this movie. "Green Storm" (10 minutes) has Andrews walking us through how the visual effects were done by breaking down certain shots to illustrate how the green screen background and effects were combined to give the illusion of a plane flying through a storm. "Original Concepts Gallery" contains a slew of artwork (most of which appears to have been done by Andrews) which shows storyboards, creature concepts, and movie poster ideas. The final extra is the TRAILER for the film.

Review by Mike Long.  Copyright 2010.