Empire UK

OUT NOW

American Ultra★★★ p.5 0

The D Train★★★ p.51

Everest ★★★ p.52

Hitman: Agent 47 ★★ p.4 0

Maze Runner:

The Scorch Trials ★★★ p.5 0

Sinister 2 ★★ p.43

The Visit ★★★ p.51

SEPTEMBER 25

Arcade Fire:

The Refl ektor Tapes ★★★ p.4 0

Lessons In Love ★★ p.42

Life ★★★ p.5 0

McFarland ★★★ p.4 8

Miss You Already ★★★ p.5 0

99 Homes ★★★★ p.42

SEPTEMBER 30

The Martian ★★★★ p.3 4

OCTOBER 2

By Our Selves ★★★★ p.4 6

The Intern ★★★ p.3 6

Letters To Max ★★★ p.4 6

Macbeth ★★★★★ p.4 6

3 1/2 Minutes Ten Bullets

★★★★ p.4 0

OCTOBER 8

Sicario ★★★★★ p.3 9

OCTOBER 9

I Believe In Miracles ★★★★ p.4 8

The Nightmare ★★★ p.4 4

Red Army ★★★★ p.43

We’ll Never Have Paris ★★ p.4 4

OCTOBER 12

Suffragette ★★★★ p.4 4

OCTOBER 16

Beasts Of No Nation ★★★★ p.4 8

Howl ★★★ p.5 0

The Lobster ★★★ p.43

Pan ★★★ p.3 6

The Program ★★★★ p.42

SuperBob ★★★★ p.4 0

OCTOBER 23

The Black Panthers:

Vanguard Of The Revolution

★★★ p.4 6

Listen To Me Marlon ★★★★ p.3 6

Mississippi Grind ★★★★ p.42

AST YEAR DRAMA-

documentary Beyond
The Edge recreated
Edmund Hillary’s
1953 ascent of Mount
Everest in spectacular
3D. This true-life
disaster movie plays like a downbeat
sequel to that heroic effort and one-ups it
with even more vertiginous stereoscopic
imagery of the highest place on Earth
using footage shot on the mountain along
with cleverly selected lookalike locales.
It’s almost an illustrated version of
a lecture delivered early on by a guide to
the perhaps-foolhardy tourist climbers:
the lower slopes of Everest marked by
deep shifting ice crevasses are technically
more dangerous to cross than the higher
stretches but the thin air and extreme
cold at the top are inimical to human
life. Nevertheless byte-sized character
infodumps explain why the likes of alpha

Everest

★★★
OUT NOW / CERT. 12A / 121 MINS.

DIRECTOR Baltasar Kormákur
CAST Jason Clarke Jake Gyllenhaal Josh
Brolin Keira Knightley Robin Wright

PLOT In 1996 experienced guide Rob Hall
(Jason Clarke) leads a group of climbers
up Mount Everest. But too many rival
amateur expeditions and bad weather
lead to an unprecedented disaster.

dog Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin) jolly

mailman Doug Hansen (John Hawkes)

and peak-collector Yasuko Namba (Naoko

Mori) are so keen to ‘summit’ Everest.

The story of the 1996 cluster-mess on

the slopes is fascinating but this telling

spreads the focus too widely and crams

in too many star names (though it’s

lesser-known performers like Jason

Clarke and Hawkes who carry the weight).

The fi lm fi nds room for contrasting

guides in laidback Scott Fischer (Jake

Gyllenhaal) and professional Rob Hall

(Clarke) waiting wives Jan Hall (Keira

Knightley pregnant and Kiwi-accented)

and Peach Weathers (Robin Wright

nervous in kitchen cutaways) and

mumsy base camp organiser Helen

Wilton (Emily Watson) and low-

temperature doctor Caroline Mackenzie

(Elizabeth Devicki). All have dramatic

tales but too many end up standing

around until the snow obscures them.

Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur

(Jar City) handles the crisis well and the

Nepalese mountains are endlessly

impressive but the drama falls between

soap and saga while having some odd

priorities about the real-life characters.

By contrast 127 Hours with its single

suff erer had much more dramatic force

though objectively the stakes were lower

in Danny Boyle’s fi lm. KIM NEWMAN

VERDICT Spectacular and well-acted this

suffers from much the same problem

as the situation it depicts — too many

people on the mountain and too many

threads to follow so that affecting

individual stories get lost in the snow.

Climb every mountain:

Jason Clarke is

climber Rob Hall.