Man on a Ledge

Like Ronseal this film does exactly what it says on the tin. It's about a man on a ledge. And that is about it really as the actual story and the actions of the characters are too stupid for words. Bloke gets sent to prison for 25 years for stealing Ed Harris stuff and over a couple of years conceives a brilliant and cunning plan to prove his innocence based on a series of utterly ridiculous assumptions that leave plot holes wider than the Grand Canyon. He stands on a ledge and distracts a particularly bored New York on what must have been a pretty dull day whilst his brother tries to prove his innocence with a sexy Latina babe with enormous earrings. The whole plan is daft even for Hollywood and consists of blowing a hole in a skyscraper roof and defeating some hi tech security with a skate board a and fire extinguisher. It depends totally in the naivety of a woman negotiator, the utter stupidity of the NYPD and the crassness of New Yorkers who seemed to enjoy watching a man on a ledge hoping to see him jump. Even going as far as chanting 'Jump' at one point. But Sam Worthington wins them over by doing a few acrobatics and throwing money at them as Billy Elliot dances his way through a series of unbelievable Mission Impossible style situations to expose the evil Ed Harris with the aid of a 'magic bag' that contains everything you need to carry out an Impossible Mission. From skateboard, invisibility cloak, sexy attire for his assistant and a portable diamond drill which I know for a fact is a rather heavy piece of equipment but the magic bag makes it all light as a feather until he needs it. The plot is stupid enough but we never learn anything about the characters. Why is Ed so evil. What was the back story about the diamond? We will never know as it's just mentioned in passing. The ending is absolutely stupid as the NYPD show how they are slightly less professional then the Keystone Cops and Evil Ed does the stupidest thing ever shown in a movie to allow Sam to win the day. The crowd turn their jeers to cheers and we meet Sam now released in a bar and learn that the whole film hung on one incident that was frankly impossible without the collusion of whole departments of New Yorks administration which render the whole premise of the film completely ridiculous because it could never happen. Yes there is a bit of fun in it and a tiny speck of excitement but overall it was dumb even by Hollywood standards.

Man on a Ledge is a very exciting and refreshing movie. It is set in a very good scene, and has a really interesting story. Some things could have gone deeper, and other things could have been more developed. I gave it 7 out of 10, because it is not a movie that will be known throughout time, it has it qualities but in some ways it is not original enough for people to cherish it on a higher level. If you've been watching bad movies recently, you would love this one since it is a good addition to any movie collection, even though it could have been better.

Okay, I didn't know what to expect when I watched this. And, after about fifteen minutes, the jury was still out. A man, played by Sam Worthington, climbs out onto a hotel ledge and threatens to jump. We don't know why yet. Hopefully we will. So I watched on. I guess the closest film like this was probably Phone Booth, i.e. it's primarily set in one, very public, location. However, Man on a Ledge is definitely different. Without giving too much away, the 'man' is on a mission and there are enough different locations in and around the building to hopefully not bore the viewer. There's action, conspiracies, baddies and everything you'd probably expect. Basically, it's a thriller and not a bad one at that. I didn't expect to like it. I'm not a fan of Sam Worthington generally and I thought the 'on a ledge' idea was a bit gimmicky and couldn't see where they were going to go with it. Now, on reflection, I'm glad I didn't know too much about the plot. I was pleasantly surprised. Not a classic, but certainly good enough to entertain (although you may have to suspend your disbelief to fully appreciate it - there were parts that may not quite have happened that way in real life - the heroes were pretty lucky in places, but isn't that why we watch films?). http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

I expected more, much more from this film, but it didn't deliver. I don't write bad reviews, because I'm a cinema-lover and I tend to catch the spirit of a film...in fact it's my very first bad review ever... but I need to say something about Man on a Ledge. It has a good cast, but someway the actors played their roles in such a foolish way... like they were attached to the script so much, there's no originality in their actings.. it's kind of weird, because I've seen other movies with Edward Burns, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, Sam Worthington, that made me relie on their capabilities, but on "Man on a ledge", the acting is a complete flaw. I hated the argument, that plot never goes in a known direction (you got SWAT, idyllic Hollywood style witnesses of the "suicidal" event, lawyers and negotiators going around with no clear intentions and poor plot development) I hated the directing so much, that I'd better stop watching this boring, little clichéed stuff. In fact, you'll never compromise with this film. That's its worst flaw; you never feel attached to any of the characters. The "humour touches" are a bit naive and dull, it's really boring sometimes. We have no real entertaining, it's a big deception overall... for those who go for thrillers, avoid this crap. There are no memorable moments, it really sucked all the time. Flat actors, poor plot lines, incredible and deeply arguable wasting of acting talents and plot holes that will make you think if is it really necessary to write a critique about this awful film. Sadly, someone has to say it, Man on a Ledge is a BLUFF.