Video summary
The reviewer begins by contrasting the disappointing slate of movies in August with the promising start of September, anchored by a review of the sequel *Fall 2: Dead Point*. While acknowledging that the first film was a beloved survival thriller featuring two women climbing Mount Kuan in Thailand, this installment introduces new characters to carry the torch. The protagonist is Jaxx Hunter, the estranged younger sister of the original blonde lead who passed away in the first movie. Jaxx is joined by Lucy, a college friend she barely knows, and together they attempt to summit the mountain to honor their deceased sibling. However, unlike typical disaster films where characters are trapped in caves or attacked by animals, this sequel focuses on two amateur climbers who decide to tackle a peak that has been closed to the public for thirty years, leading to a situation where they become stranded high above the ground with no easy way down.
The narrative structure of the film follows a somewhat predictable path for ninety percent of its runtime, depicting the women crying, falling, and struggling against broken bridges and precarious poles while trying to reach a backpack containing a walkie-talkie. The reviewer notes a significant departure from the first film in that these characters are not portrayed as professionals but rather as reckless amateurs who throw caution to the wind. While the story is largely by-the-book, the final ten percent of the movie introduces several "Looney Tunes" style twists and reveals that the reviewer found unnecessary and detrimental to the plot. Despite these gimmicky surprises failing to elevate the story, the reviewer admits to becoming surprisingly invested in the outcome during the climax, expressing genuine excitement for the possibilities presented in the film's conclusion.
Critically, the review highlights several areas where the sequel falls short compared to its predecessor, particularly regarding environmental realism and visual scale. The reviewer points out a lack of physical afflictions caused by the harsh mountain environment; unlike the first film where characters were blistered by the sun and struggling with dehydration, this version feels more like a Disney flick where injuries are minor scratches easily sustained on a bicycle ride. Additionally, the camera work often lacks the necessary scale to properly showcase the vastness of the mountain environment, keeping the perspective too close to the actors rather than pulling back to show their isolation. The music is described as generic and unremarkable, though not entirely offensive, while the acting chemistry between the two leads remains solid enough to carry the film despite these technical shortcomings. Ultimately, the reviewer concludes that while the movie has dumb twists and lacks the gritty realism of the original, it is still a decent enough survival thriller worth watching for fans of the genre.
Read the full video transcript
We're in September, and it's got to be
better than August because, oh my god, I
saw so many bad movies last month. It
was honestly disgusting. But don't
worry, September has already set the
tone with a film I watched last night
and reviewed called The Runner with Miss
Gal Gadot. That's right, she's back,
baby. And so is Fall 2. Okay, so maybe
September didn't start off great. The
Runner was absolute dog crap bad, but we
have a tried and true sequel here with
Fall 2, a movie I very much liked the
first time around. I enjoyed the crap
out of Fall. I'm a big fan of the
survival thriller genre. Anytime it's
kind of a man or woman versus all odds,
I'm in. So, hook on that climbing gear.
Climb the rung of those ladders cuz
we're going to the top of this mountain,
baby, for Fall 2.
Dead Point.
Weird. It's a weird subtitle, but it has
something to do with climbing, I'm told.
Let's get into it.
This will be a spoiler-free review,
although people sometimes get upset with
me. They come to me, tears in their eyes
as they often do, and say, "Sir Adam,
sir,
why did you have spoilers in your
spoiler-free video?" And I I I say to
them, "Listen, peasant. Begone." But
then I may, as they're walking away in
shame, go, "Um did you not think I was
going to talk about the fact that two
ladies are climbing a mountain? That is
the plot to the film." Like, sometimes a
spoiler for one person is not for
another. So, tread [ __ ] lightly,
okay? I'm going to be very vague though
with everything. Like I said, I really
liked Fall 1. So, what do we have for
Fall 2? Well, we have a sequel with new
characters. That said, I was actually
impressed and shocked that they do
piggyback off of the plot of the first
movie in some capacity because, remember
Big Boobs McGee from the first film?
This is a highbrow channel by the way.
The blonde chick with the the push-up
bra and the fantastic rack who died
spoiler in the first movie, her sister
is taking over in this one. Her kind of
estranged sister to the audience cuz we
had no idea she had one to my
recollection. Yeah, she's going to be in
this one. She's very much grieving the
loss of her older sister and a new girl
comes into her life that was a good
friend of her sis. Little sis's name is
Jaxx Hunter. That's a badass name.
That's pretty solid. And Jaxx here just
wants to grieve alone. She just wants to
cry into a pillow. Unfortunately for
her, that's not going to last long
because Lucy, a friend from college, is
going to enter the picture and say,
"Listen, [ __ ] It's time to pick
yourself up and go climb a mountain with
me." And that's exactly what they're
going to do. These two adventurous types
are going to go climb Mount Kuan in
Thailand as one does. You know, just one
time I want to see a movie that takes
place in Thailand where it's not just a
miserable experience where they're
trapped in a cave or they're falling off
the sides of cliffs or there's animals
attacking them. Can we just have a movie
about like a chess master hanging out
living his best life? I feel like the
Taiwanese people are not being
represented to their fullest form.
Either that or that place is just a
hellscape trying to kill you at all
turns. Anyway, that's what it is doing
here. The ladies are going to make it
there. They're going to meet up with
who's going to take them to the top of
this thing, but on the way shit's going
to go south and they're going to get
separated. And that's as much as I'm
going to say about the story. The rest
of the time we got our two ladies way up
high stuck between a rock and a [ __ ]
place because they have no way to get
down. On one end, you got a little
rickety bridge that's completely broken.
On the other end are just a few poles
jutted out of the mountain, some rungs
that they need to possibly climb across
to get to a backpack that contains a
walkie-talkie that maybe can reach the
outside world again. Pins and needles.
Seeing if they can make this happen,
Captain. So, from a story standpoint,
this is pretty paint-by-numbers for 90%
of the film. You got the girls
surviving, they're crying a lot, they're
falling, they're being kind of pathetic.
I will say the one thing that separates
this from the first film in a bad way is
neither of these two seem to be
professionals at all. They just kind of
said, "Fuck it. Let's throw caution to
the wind and go climb this scary-ass
thing that's been closed to the public
for three decades." What? So, it was a
little hard to wrap my [ __ ] around that
concept. Um but regardless, they they
did it because, you know, they want to
pay respects to the sister and and learn
to move on in life. The last 10% that I
want to point out about the story is
things go very Looney Tunes. Listen, the
first movie had a big twist that I
thought was really cool and creative and
it was done in a different movie not
that long either before or after called
48 Meters Down, I believe. I don't know.
One of them did it first. Who cares?
This movie takes that idea and it does
it like three or four times with very
little effect or it actually was a
hindrance on the movie. I found some of
these little reveals that they would
sprinkle in like, "Aha! I bet you didn't
think that was going to happen. Ho ho! I
bet you didn't see that coming." And I
thought,
"Okay, well, that was just kind of That
doesn't change or elevate the story in
any way or that was just outright stupid
and unnecessary." Because everything is
so kind of by the book and what you've
seen from a bunch of different survival
films, the Looney Tunes stuff was
actually a welcome treat and I could not
believe how invested I was in the last
couple minutes of this movie. I won't
say anything more. Just I'm very curious
about it and excited. I didn't think I
would be excited for the possibilities
of more fall movies. This movie's PG-13,
not really bloody, not a lot of deaths
or anything. Again, it's it's pretty
much just two women just like in the
first film. I don't know if that's
necessarily something they have to stick
with on formatting. Like you could have
eight people trapped, you could have a
couple guys in the mix. To be fair,
it was it was very nice looking at these
women, especially later in the film
where in order to be strong and
independent or wait, what's the term we
use in Hollywood? OH YES, A STRONG
FEMALE
And for a film about climbing a mountain
and surviving, quite frankly, it's about
time. [laughter] It is a requirement
that the hot female lead strip down as
the movie progresses, that way she's
able to freely move around and the
camera can frame up the ass and all the
appendages appropriately. And I have to
say,
she takes after her sister. As for the
performances between the two leads, I
thought they did a fine job. They had a
good rapport, there was a good
chemistry. Something else that I found
lacking in this film compared to the
first one were the environmental
elements. And I'm not talking about the
mountain, that's fine. What I'm talking
about is the lack of any physical
afflictions going on because of rain,
because of dehydration, because of the
sun beating down on them, because of the
fact that they're up very high and it
would be hard to breathe, it would be
cold at night. None of that seems to
really play a part outside of once in a
while being short of breath and using
that little air container. But in the
first film, they're [ __ ] frying under
that sun, they're blistering up. they're
getting destroyed. By the end of this
movie, it felt more like a Disney flick
where, you know, they got some soot on
their face and maybe a little bit of
cuts, scratches and bruises, but
otherwise,
I I feel like I would have got that if
I'd have rolled down a little hill on my
bike. Ow, ow, ow, you know, into the
bramble. Oh, oh, I got scratched up
here. What happened to you? There is
some decent camera work going on. They
they do what they can, you know,
you have to make it believable that
they're they're way up high on these
little bridges. So, there's only so many
things they can do with the camera. I do
think there was a a lack of scale a lot
of the times where you would see the
ladies on the mountain and the camera
would be pulled back. There wasn't a ton
of that. In the first movie I thought
they did a better job up on that tower
really showcasing the whole environment.
There are definitely scenes in here,
just not as much as I was hoping for. It
feels a little bit closer most of the
time. Music, unfortunately,
you know, it's fine. It's it's kind of
stock. It makes itself present here and
there, but there's nothing incredibly
wowing in that department. Yeah, I don't
I don't have any real qualms about it.
It's kind of stupid for sure. again, the
the twists and turns get really dumb,
but I am a sucker for the survival
stuff. I think they have a good template
here and they're they're definitely
running with it. I did like the
callbacks to the first movie and how
they kind of weave it into this
narrative. That stuff worked for me.
It's it's good enough. It's good enough
to check out. And hopefully, you check
out future reviews by me by hitting that
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right, that's all I got for you. Let me
know if you saw the movie in the
comments below. Like the video, hype it
if you want on YouTube. And hopefully, I
see you [music] next time. There's
always going to be another mountain.
Thanks [music] again for watching the
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