It's just so ludicrous that your jaw drops further with each melodramatic, illogical scene. Time is of the essence, but everyone continually stops for unnecessary soul searching, tentative romance, murderous sneakiness, ethnic zaniness (oh those wacky Aussies!), gratuitous death-defying action, whatever it takes to solve each person's life quest. And it doesn't even look that good. Admittedly, some mountain scenery is stunning, but most shots look like bad special effects blue-screened behind cheesy sets. Gritty realism is represented by gruesome injuries and sudden death; otherwise it's pure fantasy to watch all this shouting and exerting at such high altitudes ... where it's not even cold enough to freeze the tears streaming down everyone's cheeks. None of the actors have much to do besides hit their marks and emote on command. None of the action sequences, however awesome they may look, contains even a smidge of suspense. And despite all the moping, weeping, hugging and true confessions, the only moral seems to be that you should never climb K2 with a cylinder of unstable Pakistani nitro-glycerine.