So I was lucky enough to get my hands on a whole whack of ski movies this week. Since I like to think I have great taste, I thought I'd give a little summary of my thoughts on each for those out there who are still deciding on what to buy.
SEVEN SUNNY DAYS 7.5/10
Wow, MSP really stepped up their game this year. Even if you hated PUSH, this movies worth checking out.
The movie is made up mostly of Mega-booter sessions, park shoots, sick big mountain lines with a few typical matchstick curveballs(wing suit segment, shane mckonkey doing a 007 parody), which in the past were kinda tacky but this year really kept the movie fresh, funny, and a joy to watch.
The music was pretty good for an MSP movie, I can't complain, it's really about your own personal taste.
LOVED:
Abmas' opening seggy, really proved he skis everything better than most.
Schillers was chalk full of smooth spins and stylie grabs, very matrixy.
Sammy, owned it, destroyed everything he touched.
Douglas' seggy worked in a lot of helmet cams which worked out amazingly.
Hjorleifson stepped up the big mountain slaughtering from last year.
And overal the camera work was top notch.
HATED:
During the whistler booter session they would show shots of TJ or Sammy or whoever, mid trick just spinning and grabbing and the cut away to another shot of someone else mid trick without showing a takeoff or a landing. I bet most people wont notice this but I'm a nit picker
Sarah's segment was ok, the typical girly segment music killed it, just because it's a girl skiing doesnt mean that you use some lame song where the lyrics have to be "Oh she's just a girl, just a girl, just a girl you want". Seriously, give her a proper song next year so i can enjoy her segment.
MVP: Abma
Soooo I recommend SSDs to anyone who doesnt really hate MSP and wants a well shot and decnetly edited all around great movie.
TANNER HALL'S BELIEVE 8/10
I myself have never seen any of TBP previous movies, so no comparing it to those.
Believe is all about powder and general backcountry freestyle shenanigans. You wont find any rails or parks here.
The movie has a great vibe, a strong unspoken theme of this movie is the friendship that all these guys share. IMO it had one of the very best soundtracks of the year, but again that's personal.
LOVED:
Awesome camera work and editing, really kept my attention. Probably the most watchable movie of the year behind realtime.
Tonnes of pillow lines and snow fence jibbing, which was a pretty fresh change from endless backcountry wedge jumps that we come to expect from ski movies in general.
Seth, holy christ, hits the biggest cliff I've ever seen him do and decides to do two front flips.
HATED:
The movie was short, 31minutes from the first segment till the credits, it left me wanting more.
A killer pipe shoot wouldnt of hurt, I know this movie was all about the powder, but when the star of the movie also happens to be the best pipe skier in the world don't hesitate to show that off a little.
MVP: Tanner
I'd recomend believe to anyone who loves seth and BC freestyle and doesnt care much for rails or park in general.
IDEA 4/10
I'm sure I'll get a lot of hate on this one but I know a fair amount of people agree.
IDEA "explored the perspectives" of three of my favourite skiers; Andy, Pep, and Pollard. The hope was to change skiing, do something new and progressive.
With all the hype over this movie spreading over NS faster wildfire accross malibu, I knew I had to keep my expectations in check or risk being disappointed.
The first time I watched IDEA, I was mildly impressed with some of the switch landings, but honestly it was nothing new. We've all already seen these 3 guys do every single trick done in this movie, usually on larger features with more style. I immeadiately watched the movie again, to see if i missed anything, the second time I couldnt help but be bothered by the editing and surplus of lifestyle shots. The 3rd time I watched it I really tried to get stoked on it but couldn't make it past the PC segment.
I think IDEA had a lot of potential, but they just tried to hard to achieve a laid back theme and end result suffered from that.
LOVED:
Pep does an awesome underflip tail grab on a step down at hood or baker(cant remember the mountain of the top of my head). It was the one shot that really impressed me.
I dont know who it was, but someone wearing smith phenoms and riding volkl bridges did the most mistied out 720 ever.
HATED:
The atheletes didn't bring their A-Game, many will disagree, but IDEA couldnt touch Pep in War, Andy in Ski Porn, or Pollard in PUSH.
The vibe was far to laid bad for my liking, it didn't get me excited at all.
The opening segment is a mess. It starts out at MT. Hood in the parking lot, the three pros get on the lift and it appears to be the begining of a cool segment showing the progression of a day at hood. Pep does a nose butter, then everything kind of falls apart. There are a bunch of quick shots of whoever making no more than 2 turns then cut to a shot of some random snowboarder on a drop, to a shot of someone ducking a rope, to a shot of him making one turn. Pep does the exact same nose butter and before you know it they're sessionning a kicker two shots later its a different kicker.
It gave me the impression that the movie didn't have an opening second until the last second and the editor took a bunch of random thoughts and through them together and added a piano melody.
The Alaska segment was a giant disapointment, the crew drove all the way to alaska and did the exact same thing they were doing in the lower 48. No challenging lines were skied, half the segment was the crew goffing off with fireworks.
The snowboard segment the first time I saw it was intriguing, honestly I've always wanted to see Pollard snowboard. After that though ther segment serves no purpose whatsoever, I didn't buy this movie to watch mediocre snowboarding, save it for the bonus features next time.
MVP: Pep
Now a lot of people enjoyed this movie, I can't really see why, it didn't do it for me so if you're really considering purchasing this movie I suggest you watch it first.
ENJOY 8/10
If you want a movie with absolutely everything in it; urban, park, pipe, BC, big mountain... This is the one for you. Variety is what Enjoy is all about. It consists of all kinds of diverse skiers in many different locations. Indie music is used often but it's mixed up quite a bit to keep things fresh.
LOVED:
Camera work, there were some shots in this movie like nothing I've ever seen before (ex: in tom wayes segment where the heli decents down the mountain with him)
They really worked hard to make sure the music fit the skiing, which really paid off in most segments, made the movie very enjoyable.
No one aspect of skiing was lingered on for too long, it was never endless bigmountain or endless backcountry booter shots, everything was kept fresh.
Tim Russel absolutely killed it, switch 180 tail tap is probably the coolest thing I have ever seen. Very very underrated guy.
Ahmets all urban segment left me speechless. Sw on BS switch up, bs switch up to pretzel 270 out of a down flat rail... jeeze louise
Cosco may have had the best park segment of the year.
Dylan Natale, where did this guy come from? His closing segment is the cherry on top of a solid movie. Awesome 180s and 540 in the BC.
HATED:
I didn't really hate anything about this movie, my only complaint woult be that the athletes weren't introduced in a creative way and the movie structure was very typical. But I'm just nit picking here.
MVP:Ian Cosco
I'm recommending this movie to everyone, no matter what you ski. The odds that you'll be disappointed are practically zero.
REALTIME 8.5/10
All trip segments make up REALTIME which is a really nice change from the classic ski movie formula. You never see the same feature twice over the course of the movie, and the athletes get to appear several times, which manages to keep the film captivating.
REALTIME has a mix of big names such as Vanular, under-rated talent Wiley Miller for example, and seasoned experienced skiers like Steele Spence and Travis Redd.
LOVED:
Vanular opening urban segment in whistler is inspiring, actually. when I go around town checking out rails I look at them differently thanks to that segment.
The Structure of the movie and how the trips and athleted were introduced on the calendar was orginal and it worked very well.
Travis and Steele's Durango seg stole the show, Travis' switch 3 and styled out 540 mute off the 35 foot cliff into pow gives any trick in IDEA a run for it's money.
Wiley killed everything, but his switch waaaay corked out 9 mute in the salt lake segment was perfection.
The Keystone park shoot it something else, awesome heli shots like no ones ever done before, an array of big spins, small spins, zero spins and double grabs.
Japan segment stepped it up big time from last year, who could've guessed that L1P would get the best powder footage of the year?
Camera work and editing, time lapses especially, were captivating, loved watching everey second of this movie.
HATED:
There was nothing about REALTIME that I hated, it could have used more Vanular.3
MVP: Steele/Wiley toss up
This movie is for anyone who didn't hate LSS, which is most people, I will say that it has a lot of indy music and if you're huge into hip hop you may be a little disappointed.
RASTAFARIDE 7 6.5/10
Candides 7th movie with his film company. It follows the same formula as the previous rastafaride films with rider segments and reggae themes.
LOVED:
Xgames footage of Candide in the pipe is off the wall, cork 5s with tail to reverse tail grabs, switch 7s and 9s, air to fakie.
Andreas Hatveit doing his thing, throwing the kangaroo flip and a sw 1440 for good measure
HATED:
The skiing was good, very good throughout the movie, but one of the pitfalls of the classic ski movie format is seeing the same features in different athlete segments. This, along with the similar music from start to finish, made the movie a little repetetive.
This movie contained none of Candides BC freestyle domination that we saw glimpses of in the Candide Invitaional Story's trailer. Which is fair, but disappointing.
MVP: Who else but Candide?
I'd recomend this movie to those who already have Enjoy, SSD, and REALTIME and are looking for some very good footage of Candide and Andreas.
(I also saw lost and found and Yeah Dude, but I'm too tired to write up reviews for those at the moment)
