“Altitude” is a popcorn action/hijacking film that people may get the wrong idea through the cover and think that this is primarily a Dolph Lungren action film, but in truth, this is an action film where Denise Richards is the main protagonist and the main antagonist is Greer Grammer. A decent but “so cheesy that it will make you laugh” type of hijacking film.
TITLE: Altitude
FILM RELEASE: 2016
DURATION: 88 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, 2:40:1, English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Subtitles: English and Spanish
COMPANY: Lionsgate
RATED: R (Language and Some Violence)
RELEASE DATE: June 20, 2017
Directed by Alex Merkin
Story by Tyler W. Konney, Jesse Mittelstadt, Richard Switzer
Screenplay by Jesse Mittelstadt
Produced by Joanthan Delponte, Phillip B. Goldfine, Tyler W. Konney, John Landolfi, Chad Law, Jared Safier, Richard Switzer
Executive Producer: David Allen, Michael Bien, RJ Burne, Brandon Burrows, Jason Cherubini, Alexander Ferguson, Milan Friedrich, Mickey Gooch Jr., Hans Hernke, Joanna Koss, Alex Lebovici, Jordan Yale Levine, Jonathan Lipnicki, Michael Maccini, James Macmillan, Timothy Marlowe, Chad Oliver, Jason Owalabi, Courtney Lauren Penn, Steve Ponce, Nick Reed, Benjamin Sacks, Mike Santoro, John Sword, Randy Wayne
Co-Executive Producer: Ryan King Persaud, George Saunders
Associate Producer: Brnnan Dyson, David Gere, Neville Headley, Erik Johnson, Joel Paul Reisig, Dennis Switzer
Music by Bobby Tahouri
Cinematography by Dane Lawing
Edited by Alex Merkin
Casting by Amey Rene
Production Design by Shannon Muldoon, Alex Napiwocki
Costume Design by Corey Czerwinski, Tomika Smalls, Elke Van der Steen
Starring:
Dolph Lundren as Matthew Sharpe
Denise Richards as Gretchen Blair
Jonathan Lipnicki as Rick
Greer Grammer as Sadie
John Posey as Pilot
Jordi Vilasuso as Luke Byres
Chuck Liddell as Rawbones
Chelsea Edmundson as Clare
Kirk Barker as Terry
 FBI agent (Denise Richards) is offered millions to help a thief survive when his ex-partners (Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Liddell, and Greer Grammer) hijack his plane.
From Alex Merkin, director of “This Moder Man is Beat”, “Across the Hall”, “House of Bodies” comes his action thriller, “Altitude”.
Starring Dolph Lundgren (“The Expendables”, “Universal Soldier”, “Rocky IV”), Denise Richards (“Starship Troopers”, “The World is Not Enough”, “Wild Things”), Greer Grammer (“Deadly Sorority”, “Emma’s Chance”), Jonathan Lipnicki (“Jerry Maguire”, “Stuart Little” films), Jordi Vilasuso (“This Modern Man is Beat”, “The Invitation”, “All My Children”), Chelsea Edmundson (“Daylight’s End”, “Isolation”), Kirk Barker (“Arthur & Merline”, “A Prince for Christmas”) and UFC star Chuck Liddell (“Drillbit Taylor”).
And now”Altitude” will be released on Blu-ray courtesy of Lions Gate.
The film begins with FBI Agent Gretchen Blair (portrayed by Denise Richards) not following orders during a hostage attempt. While securing the hostage taker, because she didn’t listen to orders, she is demoted and sent to Washington D.C. to work a desk job.
Upset about the whole situation, Gretchen takes the flight to DC and sits next to a wealthy businessman named Terry (portrayed by Kirk Barker). When Terry sees Matthew Sharpe (portrayed by Dolph Lundgren) on the flight, he knows he is in big trouble.
Terry immediately offers Gretchen a business proposal, millions of dollars if she is able to make sure he survives the entire flight. He tells her that there are people that will hijack the plane.
Gretchen doesn’t believe any of Terry’s claims and warns him that the claims he is making, she will report him to authorities.
Meanwhile, one of the flight attendants Sadie (portrayed by Greer Grammer) starts murdering the other flight attendants and pilots and the terrorits take over the flight. She and Matthew tie Terry in the back and try to extract information where he may be keeping what they are looking for.
As Gretchen notices something awry going on, she discovers the dead flight attendant and realizes that Terry’s claim may be true. She immediately tries to find what these terrorists are looking for and together with the air marshal on the flight, Luke Byres (portrayed by Jordi Vilasuso), they both go to look for what may be hidden on the plane, meanwhile trying to protect Terry from those looking for him.
But in order to protect the people on plane, will FBI Agent Blair choose to side with the enemy to protect the people on the plane, or will she protect Terry, so she can make money from the deal?
VIDEO:
“Altitude” is presented in 1080p High Definition (2:40:1 aspect ratio). Featuring close-ups with very good detail, the film is well-lit and close-ups show good detail. I didn’t notice any major artifacts, banding or issues with picture quality during my viewing of the film.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Altitude” is presented in English and Spanish 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. The film is primarily dialogue and music-driven with surround sound use during fight scenes which takes places sporadically through the film.
Subtitles are in English SDH and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Altitude” comes with a trailer.
EXTRAS:
“Altitude” comes with both a Blu-ray and an Ultraviolet Digital HD code.
For the past few years, Lionsgate has been releasing films featuring major action stars from the ’80s and ’90s. While these action stars continue to bring in an audience for the home video market, may it be Dolph Lungren, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Stephen Seagal, Bruce Willis, Nicolas Cage to name a few, we are seeing how stories manage to incorporate these action stars but with limited time. And at the same time, giving other talents screen time and opportunities to become action stars.
And this is the case with Alex Merkin’s “Altitude”. With Dolph Lungren being the primary antagonist (who has limited time), while also including UFC fighter Chuck Liddell, the film is giving Bond girl, actress Denise Richards a chance to return to her roots to action films since her films, “Starship Troopers” (1997) and “The World is Not Enough” (1999).
The film also gives actress Greer Grammer a chance to step out of her teenage actress roles and a chance to play a deadly assassin with a good amount of action scenes. Which is quite surprising for me as a reviewer, since the last time I watched Greer Grammer in a film was a teenager working community service hours bonding with a horse in the 2016 film “Emma’s Chance”. But I’ll give Grammer the benefit of the doubt, because she does a great job in an antagonist role and taking on a role that is so different from anything she has done in the past.
For the most part, while this is a plane hijacking film, it’s nowhere as entertaining compared to films such as “Air Force One” or “Flightplan”. In fact, the film incorporates plenty of comedy as former child-star Jonathan Lipnicki (from “Jerry Maguire” and the “Stuart Little” films) plays the dancing flight attendant and immediately you know he’s probably going to be the first one killed in this film.
And you have a scene where Dolph Lungren as Matthew Sharpe is trying to land the plane and while Greer Grammer’s Sadie takes the passenger seat, the harsh landing equates to the two having sex.
And how they end up rescuing the passengers on the airplane and how the film ends… Definitely cheesy.
As for the film on Blu-ray, closeups show great detail, lossless audio is primarily dialogue and music-driven with ambiance being used for the surround channels. There are no special features, so this is a barebones Blu-ray release. But you do get an Ultraviolet code included with the Blu-ray release.
Overall, “Altitude” is a popcorn action/hijacking film that people may get the wrong idea through the cover and think that this is primarily a Dolph Lungren action film, but in truth, this is an action film where Denise Richards is the main protagonist and the main antagonist is Greer Grammer. A decent but “so cheesy that it will make you laugh” type of hijacking film.
