Sam on a Ledge

Man on a ledge...let me first say that they stole this idea from me...though my story was named 'Man in a Fridge', or something like that.  Actually, it's all a stinking lie, I never thought up a story like this.  Though I do like the title...I think that the guy who made this should hook up with the guys who made 'Snakes on a Plane' and then keep making movies...'Lobster in a basket'...'Painting in a toilet'...'Nun in a bar'...

Anyhow, this movie is basically part Negotiator, part The Score.  It's a heist movie and hostage negotiation drama rolled up into one.  Was it ludicrous?  Yes, there were parts of made me say "uh-huh".  Such as Sam Worthington's car being rear-ended by a train and he escapes without a scratch (though that's a movie thing). Ed Harris' character framing Sam for stealing a diamond just so he could collect on the insurance money and keep himself out of bankruptcy (framing a man for theft and ruining his life or simply selling the diamond for the cash...hmmm...).  The insane lengths the burgulars had to go to break into Harris' vault and yet the ease in which they got into his personal office...(uh-huh). 

You may think I don't like this movie, but it isn't true.  I did like it.  I like heist movies in general, usually (with some exceptions...Oceans Eleven and The Italian Job come to mind) and I love cat-and-mouse negotiation movies, which this also had, but I have to say that instead of splitting their attention and giving us 2 decent parts to the movie instead of concentrating on one and giving us one great movie is a definite miss.  There was some nice suspense though and the acting was good, there's an all-star cast with a lot of familiar faces.

As for twists and turns, there was really only one thing I didn't call and it didn't really matter in the big scheme of things.  If you're someone who has seen a lot of these types of movies, there's nothing really new for you here, it's all been covered in better movies, but it's not bad for what it is and at least it was a 90 minute time-waster that didn't piss me off. 

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

- Stephenstein