The Mountain Between Us 2017

     This film is based on a novel by Charles Martin.  Ben Bass and Alex Martin are both trying to get flights out of Boise Airport.  All the flights are cancelled due to an incoming storm.  Ben is scheduled the next morning for emergency surgery on a young boy.  Alex is getting married the next day.  They meet Walter, he’s a local private pilot and he will get them out for $800 each.  Shortly after takeoff, Walter suffers a stroke and the plane crashes.  Ben and Alex are stranded amid snowy mountains.  Walter died, Ben has facial contusions and Alex has a broken leg.  Walter’s dog, a yellow lab also survived.  A plane goes by overhead and they shoot a flare but it isn’t seen.  What is their best chance for survival, walk out or stay with the plane?  

     There is really nothing new about this film?  It seems more like an expensive Hallmark movie?  If you have big stars in the lead roles, you need to bulk up the screenplay!!  The scenery is very rugged and beautiful and I can imagine how cold it must have been in this area.  Winslet and Elba do have chemistry together and you don’t know throughout the film if they will survive.  Raleigh and Austin played the yellow lab called Walter’s Dog.  3* (This movie is OK)

112 min, Action directed by Hany Abu-Assad with Idris Elba, Kate Winslet, Beau Bridges, Dermont Mulroney, Linda Sorensen, Vincent Gale, Marci T. House, Dania Nassar, Lee Majdoub, Andres Joseph, Nacny Sivak.

Note:  Imdb 6.4 out of 10, 40% critic 48% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon Video 3.8* out of 5* with 723 reviews, Metacritic 48 out of 100 with 37 critics 5 out of 10 with 71 reviews,

Special Note:  Filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and London, England, UK for re-shoots.  Most of the filming was on the border of Alberta and British Columbia.  There were very cold temperatures with tough and harsh filming conditions.  There was a 40- minute drive to reach the base camp for the film.  If conditions permitted a helicopter was used.   The budget for this film was $35 million and the gross worldwide was $62.3 million.  There was a delay in production to allow Kate Winslet to attend a memorial service for Alan Rickman.  Originally Michael Fassbender and Margot Robbie were set to play Ben and Alex.  Charlie Hunnam and Rosamund Pike replaced them but they both dropped out.  The book has 4.7* out of 5* with 1625 reviews on Amazon.