Brad Dourif steals the show whenever he's on screen and Donald Sutherland is watchable the rest of the time. All the stuff about the climbers is bunk.

What is this? I don't think that alpinist was so popular then or ever. But plus is that director done something with drama in this movie, and that is only positive with Sutherland in the movie.

This has three good things going for it: a brief cameo by Herzog himself in the beginning, a pretty good job by Sutherland in a minor role (he's just always fun to watch), and the last 20 minutes of breathtaking, suspenseful mountain climbing. Everything else is just blah. Blah performances of blah characters with blah dialogue in a blah setup for the ending. It's not even worth describing in detail... it's not horrible, it's just so pedestrian and pointless, there's no love or mystery to it.