Alright people, the winter is imminent & for those of you not heading out for the season you ill need some good ski porn to keep you amused, so here are some reviews of this seasons ski flicks
War: by PBP
Usual PBP standards here, awsome cinamatography, the have put this movie together really well with some very creative editing.
The soundtrack is defintly more rock than hip-hop which I like.
The focus is definatly shifting to the back country, taking the park tricks & dong them off big booters into pow. Lots of switch pow landings. There are some amazing time lapses in some of the secions which relly add to the slickness of this movie.
Standout segments:
JP Auclair - really cleaverly put together segment. A good mix of big mountain, back country booters & urban rails.
Zack Davison - Firt time I have seen him ski & the boy has skills
Candide - Alwys awsome to watch, some of the jumps he does in this segment are HUGE! Plus his world record tree jib 23ft+
Seth boy - Only a coule of big tricks this year - he seems to be concentrating on much more technical lines, but skiing thm at hugo speeds, real good to watch.
Pep - Real good to see pep back with a solid segment after all is injury probs. This guy is one of my fav skiers. Crazy switch landings in the pow & he just mkes Chads gap look like it ain't no thing ( wasn't long ago when we were all amazed by candid's d-pin over it. Now they make it look super easy. Andy Mahre manages t do a switch zero spin over it)
+ You get to see the huge jump that put Dumont out, he over shoots it so much.
All in all a real good movie but you will need to watch it heaps to fully appreciate it.
Star, Skis & Hucks - Chainsaw Productions
The second offering from Brad Holmes production company, Chainsaw Productions. It has been a while since I have seen Brad Holmes, but the boy still rips.
The move has a story running through it based around Starskis (Holmes)& Hucks (Morrison)2 bad cops who have to find the golden skis which were stolen from the Ski Museam by the Morbid Midnight Monoskiing Maliti lead by Glen plake, the resulting chase lets you see plake monoskiing & morrision on a snow scooter in strech pants. Shaun Palmer also akes an appearance as the cheif
The movie is ok Holmes & Morrisions segments are by far the best, they both just cherge the big mountain.
Lots of shots from New Zealand.
Michelle Palker also has a good segment, throing don in the backcountry aswell as the park. (She is one of K2s pro chiks is you haven't heard of her)
Also includes a snowboard segment by Any Finch hich is OK but I'd rather have had another skier in there.
All in all it's ok, the story is funny the first time but after that it just gets in the way & morrison, the boy can ski but his acting is, well just wait till you see. It's well put together though with good scenery shots & time lapses but it wouldn't be my firt choice this year.
Nice one Mitch, cheers for that, I've just got a load of DVDs from http://www.x-tremevideo.com which I'll stick up a review on once I get a chance to watch them.
Some good titles in there though.
Hit List from MSP
War from Poor Boyz
Pop Yer Bottlez the Tanner and CR
Shanghai Six by Level 1
Whiteshine by Plehouse
Echo from Team 13
Bar Code by Focus
All in all a lot to get through but I reckon I can handle it.
Some nice stuff to review before the snow falls.
This message has been edited by benthorburn on Oct 24, 2005 11:31 AM
JJ (no login)
mmmm
October 28 2005, 3:56 AM
Looking forward to yout reviews. Its good to see such a cross section of the market getting covered. I think i'll hold off getting myself some new ski porn untill the review. If i can wait. Might just get one of the safe bets for now and put the others on my christmas list.
This years offering comes on 2 DVDs. Disc 1, The Hitlist has an entertaining “sabotage” theme where the old boys (McConkey and Mike Douglas) taking the guise of seventies undercover agents, round up all of the younger riders and either lock them up or injure them. The acting is pretty funny and I’m sure I will hear parts of this opening sequence being quoted on the hill. The old boys aim is to limit the competition for fear of being out done. However, this is strictly necessary as they are still laying it down with the best of them. The film combines some great footage with a bit of background on the different locations and comments from the riders giving a real insight as to what it takes to perform at this level.
Disc 2, The Remix List is a full on Gonzo flick. Edited by the athletes, it is a rider by rider presentation of all the action with none of the padding. This is the disc is the one I keep going back to. Top quality stuff.
Big Mountain or Jib Flick?
Predominantly Big Mountain. There is plenty of back country booter action to keep the Jibbers entertained. Some of the most impressive skills are guys hitting natural features, going big, spinning and flipping. It takes big balls to hit something unknown, at speed and get your tricks in.
Favourite scene.
Hard to narrow it down. McConkey does a quad flipping ski base, Bushfield and McMoran do double backflips off a dam into water and there is a bunch of quality big mountain freestye.
Athletes.
All the usual crowd with one notable exception. No Mr Morrison. However, the Matchstick standards are well maintained in his absence.
I really impressed with the title sequence of this movie. It is imaginative and sets the tone for some consistently high standard skiing. One thing is obvious from the footage and that is the skiers had a good time making it which is really great to see in a movie. There is an enormous number of gap jumps and you really get an idea of just how fast they are hitting them thanks to them showing a few run ins. There is a nice segment on Ottowa being sessioned for rails and some shots of the gigantic Jumpopotamus at Laax. I wasn’t sure if the soundtrack for the European segment was a bit tongue in cheek or if they really think we listen to that stuff.
Big Mountain or Jib Flick?
Jib flick. There are a total of 3 BM lines in this movie otherwise its rails gaps and booters all the way baby.
Favourite scene
Someone tried to back flip a step up and piled square into the cornice with their back. Comedy moment, nobody hurt.
Athletes.
Steele Spence, David Chrichton, Stefan Thomas, Marie Martinod and many more.
Again a great opening sequence sets the tone for some great skiing. A host of the top names in skiing take us on a journey throughout North America, Japan and Europe. There is some nice Japanese tree skiing that will make you want to go there and loads of amazing and imaginative use of man made features in ski destinations around the world. A cracking sound track sets this movie off a treat including some traditional Quebecoise country rock while they storm around Canada’s cities and towns jibbing merrily. There is an outstanding segment from Charles Gagnier in the Avoriaz park. This boy is the nuts and it is worth getting this movie just to see where the new standard is at in slopestyle.
Big Mountain or Jib Flick?
Jib. There isn’t a lot to keep the BM crowd excited.
Favourite scene
The junkyard segment. Comedy stuff.
Athletes.
Jp Auclair, 2 of the Phils, TJ Schiller, Sarah Burke and many more.
Pop Yer Bottlez!
From: The Bigger Picture & Poorboyz Productions
Lots and lots of the highest caliber back country booter action. These guys are setting new standards. The drunken launch party theme is a little tedious after the 3rd viewing or is that just old age and envy kicking in? You will not be disappointed with the skiing, especially if you like it with lashings of Hip Hop.
Big Mountain or Jib Flick?
Predominantly Jib. There is loads of quality rail and booter action. CR Johnson is the only one with an extensive Big Mountain Freestyle segment.
Favourite scene
Ridiculous spins over Chads Gap by Tanner Hall. The segments by Kye Peterson and Sean Petit are outstanding. The oldest is 12 and they are spinning 3 of 40ft cliffs. Respects to the groms.
Athletes.
Tanner Hall, CR Johnson, Pep Fujas, Tanner Rainville and more.
This is the 2005's dedicated big mountain ski flick and covers tells the storys of the sacrifices, risks and injuries not to mention the fun of a group of elite skiers.
Covers the return to skiing of Pierre Yves Leblanc and Brnat Moles and has some amazing avalanche near misses. Some pretty chilled music by ski movie standards.
With over an hour of bonus footage including some quality stuff at Snowbird and the US National Freeski Champs it's well worth watching.
Big Mountain or Jib Flick
As it says it's pretty much a big mountain movie but with a 14 kink rail it's got a little bit for the park monkies.
Favourite Scene
It has to be Julian Carr notching up 900ft of air across his segment. The section in Engelberg shows you just how deep is can be and Jack Hannan's narrow avalanche escape is pretty cool.
Athletes
PY Leblanc, Heath Ordway, Per Huss, Julian Carr, Andrea Binning and many more.
