2005 SKI MOVIE REVIEWS: Don’t Get Mad…Get Rad
War – Poor Boyz Productions
poorboyz.com
Length: 43 minutes
Cost: $28
Medium: 16mm film & digital video
With the release of War, Poor Boyz Productions suggests that, like love, skiing is a battlefield. And when PBP Corporal Johnny Decesare decides to enter combat, he makes like George Dubya—rounds up the most talented teenagers in the land, and starts blowin’ shit up. Among his army are special forces soldiers Pep Fujas, Mark Abma, JP Auclair, Candide Thovex, Andreas Hatviet and, in his first year away from MSP, Mr. Seth Morrison. But Auclair produced the best segment of the movie and possibly his career, with real Alaska lines (and avalanches) and his usual park and urban brilliance. War also showcases two of the year’s biggest tricks: a 37-foot hip air by Andreas Hatveit and a 23.5-foot tree jib. Throw in original comic book graphics, tight editing, and beautiful cinematography and you’ve got one of the year’s best movies. The only chink in PBP’s armor is really short segments that either hope to cater to the A.D.D. generation or reflect athletes spreading themselves too thin by shooting with multiple film companies.
 |
Waiting Game – Wink Inc., Jon “JK” Klaczkiewicz, Arden Oksanen, Trask McFarland
waitinggamethemovie.com
Length: 40 minutes
Cost: $25
Medium: True High Definition Digital video
For years film companies have talked about making a ski movie with “a story.” And by and large, those movies fall short for one simple reason: to fall back on the played out porno analogy, you don’t watch Deep Throat to find out who broke the Watergate story. Waiting Game, however, manages to buck the odds. A microscopic look into the core ski scene, this film holds a theme—several skiers biding time in a season, waiting for a climactic trip to Alaska—against a bigger back story. The underlying theme is that, for many impassioned skiers, their entire skiing life is building up to their first trip to AK. Directed by Jon “JK” Klaczkiewicz (TGR’s High Life), Waiting Game accomplishes what Scott Gaffney’s Immersion set out to do—offer an in-depth view of the core culture set to world class skiing. Stars include the Zach and Reggie Crist, Schoder Baker, Kent Kreitler, Kaj Zackrisson, Jamie Pierre, and Lynsey Dyer. On the downside, the athlete interviews get a little repetitive (as athlete interviews tend to do), and there is virtually no freestyle presence at all. A funky reggae soundtrack rounds out the rootsy feel of this Hi-Def movie.
CLIP OF THE WEEK: Park City mayhem
CLIP OF THE WEEK: Jamie Pierre stomps it
CLIP OF THE WEEK: Lynsey Dyer goes deep
|
Pop Yer Bottlez!—The Bigger Picture
poorboyz.com
Length: 30 minutes
Cost: $28
Medium: 16mm & digital video
From Tanner Hall, CR Johnson, Evan Raps, and editor Shane Nelson—the creators of last year’s WSKI106—comes the follow-up release, Pop Yer Bottlez! As expected from a film by Tanner and CR, the thematic elements revolve around a limo drop-off, private champagne party, and plenty of skiers-acting-like-rappers filler. In between high stakes dice games and macho cigar puffing, this video’s ski action hits hard. Hall nails a switch 900 over Chad’s Gap before coming up short on the same jump and breaking both of his ankles (this season-ending crash hurts to watch). CR Johnson proves he’s still charging with 360s both ways off a 70-foot cliff, Kye Petersen continues his rapid evolution, and Pep Fujas, Tanner Rainville, Chris Biollo, and Sean and Cal Petit round out an impressive cast. Pop Yer Bottlez! is, to this day, the worst display of skier-gone-gangsta cliché, but the editing is tight and dynamic, the soundtrack original, and the skiing as hot as that blonde who slips Rainville a psychedelic mickey.