REVIEWS – The Ski Films of 2010

January 4th, 2011

Film Reviews | Boen Ferguson

Boen, we knew, had little to do over Christmas, so we handed him a bundle of ski movies and asked him to fit them in around his PlayStation schedule.

 

The Way I See It – Matchstick Productions

Featuring most of the world’s best skiers, The way I see It combines all aspects of freeride skiing to create a magnum opus. Matchstick Productions delivers the goods, again, with this movie.
The standout is Sean Petit, who absolutely murders everything he skis down, and the Alyeska kicker segment – where Bobby Brown landed the first triple flip and Russ Henshaw comes ridiculously close to landing the best looking triple cork 1440 I have ever seen attempted.
The film is essentially about how some of the world’s best skiers see what it means to be a skier, so there’s some interesting points of view from some of the sport’s heros as well as the amazing action footage.
The way I see It is a well rounded film that is sure to entertain any type of ski enthusiast.

Features: Mark Abma, Sean Pettit, Eric Hjorleifson, Henrik Windstedt, Bobby Brown, Colby West, James Heim, Richard Permin, Cody Townsend, Rory Bushfield, Ingrid Backstrom, Gus Kenworthy, Jacob Wester, Russ Henshaw, and others.

 

Revolver – Poor Boyz Productions

This year Poorboyz decided to focus on the physical factors that have helped skiing progress to what it is today.
Revolver has an epic ratio between big mountain, park and street skiing all delivered in the traditional extreme sport fashion. At times the soundtrack is questionable but all in all this is an epic movie and a pleasure to watch.
Standout segments include JP Auclair who seems to have exploded back on the scene with technical big mountain lines and surprisingly good urban skiing, and Simon Dumont who has finally learnt some new tricks and is doing them bigger than anyone.

Features: Simon Dumont, Tim Durtschi, Dane Tudor, Jossi Wells, Charley Ager, JP Auclair, Sammy Carlson, Bene Mayer, Andreas Hatveit, TJ Schiller and others.

 

Work it out – Meathead Films

Shot almost entirely on the East Coast of USA, Work it Out is what I would classify as a B grade movie. The 80s themed aerobic introduction is painful to watch and with no substantial skiing to back it up this movie was a chore to sit through.
Meathead films have made it their mission to create ski movies based extensively in the East – the East Coast of North America that is. Can’t discredit the idea or the commitment to their homeland, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired.

Features: Shea Flynn, Stacey Rachdorf, Erik Olson, Andy Parry, LJ Strenio, Sean Decker, Jay Bowen, Nelson Riley, The Hammer, Will Wesson and others

 

Light the Wick – Teton Gravity Research

Light the Wick is the latest from TGR and one of the first ski films to use 3D technology – the final segment is some screen popping 3D and don’t worry it comes with the glasses.
Most of the film however is more of a documentary of how the athletes spend their winters. Luckily they spend their winters doing some pretty cool stuff. This year they explored a lot of new heli terrain in southeast Alaska and the North Cascades, then in typical TGR fashion they travelled off the map – to Croatia. The scenery is pretty awe inspiring throughout that’s for sure.
Although this is predominantly a travel based movie – which means lots of big mountain, freeride and pow, – the Stevens Pass park segment has an abundance of innovative new tricks to satisfy the ‘newschool skiers’.
NZ Kid Byron Wells features in the Stevens Pass park segment, which is the 3D part. Good work to TGR for using the 3D here, freestyle really suits 3D – the skiers pretty much launch out of the screen and the effect is sweet.

Features: Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, Seth Morrison, Kye Pettersen, Ian McIntosh, Dana Flahr, Dylan Hood, Sammy Carlson, Dash Longe, Rachael Burks, Cody Townsend, Byron Wells and more.

 

Like a Lion – Inspired Media

This is the story of Tanner Hall’s ski career thus far – a roller-coaster of exceptional achievements such as X-Games stardom and overcoming career ending injuries, twice; as well as the loss of his closest friend Cr Johnson.
Unfortunately a large quantity of this film was not focused on these elements of his life, there is little to no ski action – just lots of footage of his mum, dad and brother sitting in chairs talking about Tanner as a kid and generally too much time spent talking about drugs, so I tended to lose interest through the middle part. Considering this is a documentary about possibly the most controversial skier of all time the movie seems to be lacking a hook – and skiing.

 

TeleVision – Powderwhore

TeleVision is a standard telemark film starring thirteen enthusiastic granola munching telemarkers, skinning around North America.
I would recommend this movie to outdoor enthusiasts rather than an extreme sport fanatic.