Mike Potts
Reviewed: 06 February 2005
Genuine laugh-out-loud mountaineering film
Hilarious.
Remarkably well made for 'home production'
Very accessible - most certainly not elitist
Did I mention it was quite funny?
This is the story of 3 amateur climbers/mountaineers from Burnley who go to Bolivia in search of mountains. Whilst generally messing about and being daft, they still manage to climb Huayna Potosi and Pequenyo Alpamayo.
This is a top DVD, whether you aspire to climb mountains or not. I was worried that 3 northern blokes mucking about would be funny for about two minutes. You know what it's like when you go away for a weekend, have an ace time, and then try and describe it to other people later on - or make your own home videos? It's always a lot funnier at the time and a wee bit tedious afterwards. This film isn't (apart from the subtitles) and remains humorous - and a little moving at the end - and interesting, and even informative. The clever graphics and above average sound track certainly help and you end up thinking 'Yeah - I could do that'.
This is a lot better than your standard climbing video fare of 5-stone whippets with odd hair, doing V15 boulder problems to a crashing techno-industrial cacophony.
Maybe I'll have to watch it again because Gaz 'Scouse Wookie' Howell seems to disappear about 2/3 of the way through.
Includes 'bonus' (?) feature about climbing in Utah. Hmm...
