Let’s get this out of the way up front—in case my clever, witty pun of a title wasn’t clear—I didn’t like PBP’s latest offering, Revolver.
That’s not to say that it didn’t have its moments, or even that most people won’t like it, but I just wanted to be up front in case you’re the sort that takes other people’s opinions personally, or if you have a woefully short attention span. Feel free to proceed directly to the comment box and tell me how wrong I am if that be you.
So…why exactly didn’t I like it?
Well…it’s just too damn long. If I was talking to a buddy and not writing a review, my indictment of Revolver would probably end right there. I’m not exactly sure what it clocks in at (and there’s no way in hell I’m doing the “research” to find out), but if it’s on the short side of 80 minutes, I’d be shocked. I could make the argument that NO ski film—other than a documentary, or some other sort of ski flick with a narrative/plot—should be that long, but I won’t. Suffice it to say that, in this particular case, however long it is, it’s too long…sort of like this review will probably be.
I’m not so sure that the majority of the other issues I had with Revolver aren’t simply extensions of its bloated run time. For example, the middle of the film, which I have dubbed the “Theory 3 Mini-Movie”, is monotonous and flat. For those unfamiliar, Theory 3 is/was a Canadian film crew spearheaded by the unquestionably talented Jeff Thomas. Unfortunately, Theory 3 called it quits after releasing the incredible “Journal” in ’08, only to be absorbed by PBP the following year. It hurts me to be brutally honest, but in one guy’s opinion at least, the merger hasn’t been all that successful. To be fair, I don’t know for sure that Jeff is personally responsible for the filming and/or editing of the segments I found underwhelming, but they do feature the skiing of the Theory 3 athletes: Charley Ager, Dane Tudor, Brandon Kelly, Riley Leboe, and Josh Stack.
Basically, beginning with Dane’s segment, the middle of the flick is pow shot after pow shot….after pow shot. At this point, I can’t even intelligibly describe why it didn’t work as I loved Nimbus’s latest pow-centric offering, but that’s the problem; it was all so damn similar, to the extent that not even the missteps are all that memorable. In fact, had this sizable chunk of the movie been whittled down to the bangers (Charley Ager executing a legs spread octograb to four point landing in a reverse snowplow is not a banger. Sorry, Chuck. “I think I’ll stick to pow”, indeed.) and broken up, it might have yielded some of the best moments of the entire movie (some of Dane’s shots come to mind). But, it wasn’t and I was bored. I think the strongest argument against making a movie this long is this: By the time Tim Durtschi rode out a stomped dub cork 10 over Chad’s Gap, yes that Chad’s Gap…I didn’t care anymore. That’s a problem, PBP.
Monotony and boredom are the perfect segue into my next chief complaint, the music.
Holy shit.
I know what some of you are thinking, “Duuuude, it’s a ski movie!! It’s about the skiing!”, and while that’s fair, I expect more out of a ski movie than quality ski footage. For me, music really drives a film and gives segments personality. If you’re cocking eyebrows out there, put on your all-time favorite ski porn and press mute. Good luck. Like the visuals it accompanies, the music is for the most part incredibly repetitive, flat, and worst of all, unmemorable. Predictably, dub-step and glitch (if it’s not technically either of those genres, I don’t care, so don’t waste your time correcting me) dominate the proceedings. If you don’t know what that means, it goes like “WOM WOM beepbloopbeep WOM WOM”, something about “you’re the shit, girl” annnnd repeat. I’m not saying that the music, valued on its own, is horrible, or even bad. But, I am saying that scoring a large portion of a ski flick with it is somewhere between curious and downright moronic. I know off-hand that Arne and Ingrid Backstrom’s segment from MSP’s “The Way I See It” is edited to “Home” by Edward Sharpe and co. I know this because it was such a perfectly fitting choice for the segment for both aesthetic and contextual reasons. Well, no one is going to remember what song accompanied…well…any of Revolver, really. I suspect that the emergence of Matt Walker and Andrew Hathaway as skiing’s in-house DJ’s influenced the soundtrack, but instead of it translating to PBP tapping into the pulse of what’s happenin’ and being hip, it feels desperate and misguided. I don’t know Chad Davis, the movie’s Musical Supervisor, but I hope he’s unemployed next fall. Sorry Chad.
I’m not a film major, a reputed film critic, blahblah, so I won’t get into the nitty-gritty of the filming and editing. But, I will say that this is certainly, through and through, a Poor Boyz movie. I have no doubt that anyone intimately familiar with their movies of the last five years would be able to peg this as the efforts of their core group of filmers and editors. It’s mostly subjective whether you dig their style, but I’m not their biggest fan. Primary among my issues with the PBP style is the habitual abuse of slow-mo. I think they equate “slow” with “epic”, but I equate it with “boring”. Sure, slow-mo is a tool like any other and in plenty of instances can be effective in adding emphasis or in calling attention to detail, but there’s certainly exists a line between tasteful and overboard. Somebody toss Hamlet a life-vest already.
The filming itself is fine, nothing glaring, and there are plenty of clever and dynamic shots throughout…it’s in putting them together that PBP slides into mediocrity. Too many repeat tricks (butter 3s? Wow.) and repeat angles/features in different rider segments really hurt the film. Watching Jossi destroy a wall-ride is sweet. Watching Simon do the same thing…on the same thing…from the same angle…20 minutes later, is pointless. There’s also some silly “stunt” like shots that come across as gimmicky and, frankly, lame. Sammy gapping a road…and tapping a barrel…mounted on a stick…in the back of a pick-up truck…while it’s moving…seems a little Evil Knievelish to me. Jumping the moving truck-jib is the new Jumping The Shark, I guess.
To wrap up my thoughts as to why this movie failed, I’ll say this: There are a LOT of talented and passionate people involved at every level, top to bottom, in producing PBP films. Unfortunately, like the 2010 Dallas Cowboys, no one person or singular vision seems to be steering the ship. The result is that the whole is significantly less than the sum of its parts. This point was driven home even further for me today when I watched the AWESOME Meathead’s flick, Work it Out. I don’t think anybody would claim that the Meatheads crew is more talented across the board than the Poor Boyz squad, but nevertheless, Work it Out is a FAR superior film. It overachieves where Revolver underachieves.
Lastly, I understand that Salomon sinks a ton of dough into PBP projects, but hot damn…what percentage of the riders are on Salomon boards? 70? 80? I don’t know, but a lot. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but watching Charles Gagnier’s bizarre hybrid of Gorilla Steeze meets “I don’t know where my hands are” meets “I could fall at any second” style takes away from his incredibly technical tricks and makes him painful to watch. That, and the fact that Dane Tudor is on screen for what feels like half the movie, tells me that PBP might have sacrificed some filmmaking integrity for a bigger expense account.
Quickly I’ll list a few positives and pleasant surprises as this movie is not uniformly terrible:
- The old guys still got it. JP Auclair and Julien Regnier must have found the fountain of youth, because they both KILL IT. JP has a bunch of awesome urban/jib shots that look even better sandwiched in between him charging big lines and playing with his slough in no-falls-allowed zones. Wow. Julien on the other hand, nabs some of the best helmet cam footy I’ve ever seen and makes Armada look absurd for dumping him last season.
- Sammy is quietly becoming one of the best BC/pow jibbers doing it and deserves the attention that guys like Petit and Durtschi get for their efforts. In five years, Sammy will be the bar setter and looks poised to enjoy a Pep-like rebirth outside of the terrain park.
- Jossi Wells is somehow better at skiing than people think. And, no one would call him underrated. I don’t know that there’s another guy out there (Wallisch?) who has the technical skill to win any major comp he enters, while simultaneously pulling off stupidly stylish and smooth simple tricks. He shatters the idea that “you’re either a comp skier, or a movie skier”. He’s that good.
- Mike Henitiuk is way underrated. What a well-rounded skier that kid is.
- LJ Strenio has a death wish and we are very, VERY lucky that he does.
- Finally, BroBomb’s favorite skier, Simon “Lawyered Up” Dumont, turns in bar none his BEST and most well-rounded segment since his jaw droppingly spectacular Teddy Bear Crisis part. Clearly, Simon wanted to silence his detractors who cast him as a one-dimensional pipe jock. He hasn’t, but he’s a beast anyway.
Agree completely.
Completely agree but one thing you said struck me as particularily true and strange about skiing : there is no ABD “rule” in skiing. Look at skating/snowboarding… It’s very rare in snowboarding and non- existsnt in skating that anyone bothers to get shots doing the same trick on a feature as someone else.. Let alone IN THE SAME MOVIE!! I was reading a Canadian snowboard mag the other day and they had a nice little article on Quebec Red Ledge. At the end of the article they had a nice little comprehensive list of all the tricks ABD on film and by whom they were done. The jossi/Simon wallride fiasco is definitely not the first time this had happened in ski movies and I think it’s time skiers start holding themselves to a higher calibre of creativity. “What happens when all the tricks have been done?” you ask? Time to make up a new trick, kid.
How bout them Poorboyz?!?!
my problem with this review:
it’s too long
and making references that people don’t get doesn’t make you sound smart it just makes you sound like an asshole… even within the blogosphere.
anyway, good points:
PBP movies are incredibly dull, are remarkably tacky and plain, and get way too much attention, taking it from good movies.
It also discourages people from being different (that’s not to say that I like trashy shitty cheap ski flicks; I don’t, but we can do better/ be more diverse.)
It’s about time the solomon show ended. Nobody cares anymore, nor did they ever about a ski company that brags about gimmicks to sell products. Everyone wants to see the other riders because they’re good, and unique.
But good glitzy, or interesting filmmaking sells (why else would think thank and commune get any attention, (and for those of you who don’t know those are snowboard companies.)) and should be employed by more.
Nick,
You make a great point…
The phenomenon of ski filmmakers using incredibly similar shots/tricks from different riders on the same features is maddening. It happened several times in Revolver, and other crews are just as guilty as PBP.
Look at Logan Imlach’s tiny part in Eye Trip. Watch ANY urban segment from Work it Out….those alone are proof that enough trick diversity is possible, that we don’t need to see scarily similar tricks done by different people, from scarily similar angles. Make a decision as to which shot/trick is better, and run with that. Throw the other one in the bonus, or the credits or something….release it for free on the web later…..SOMETHING.
I appreciate that it’s no small job to setup an urban shot, particularly of the pro movie caliber; it takes time, effort, creativity, and luck. So, I sympathize to a degree with the fact that it’s much easier to shoot varied locales filming skating where 9/10 there’s no work as it were, whereas snowboarding/skiing require building inruns, drop-in’s, or lips/wallrides/transitions/landings. I’m not suggesting that PBP spend 4 hours setting up a wallride and leave with one shot of one rider hitting it, but it’d be nice if the riders pushed themselves to approach the feature in a unique way.
This raises an interesting point/question:
Do athletes think about how the shots they get/tricks they do will fit into the larger context of the movie considered as a whole? Ooooorrrrrr, are they only concerned with getting the best shots possible for their own segment in an effort to impress sponsors and viewers?
I’m not suggesting one approach is better than the other, I’m curious though. Like, are skiers invested or enthused at the idea of being a part of a truly great MOVIE?…or are they only thinking of getting their best tricks on film? I’m not suggesting that these things are always mutually exclusive….just thinking out loud.
Pasioi or paslol can’t tell,
Not so sure which references you’re talking about…Dallas Cowboys? Other ski flicks? I’d assume anyone with a pulse knows the former, and anyone who’d read such a long review of a ski movie would get the latter.
In any case, thanks for reading, and for your feedback. I’ll try and keep things a bit shorter— I just really wanted to be as thorough as possible, because I don’t know that there’s really anyone else out there giving in-depth reviews of ski movies.
It occurs to me that one of the reasons that it at least SEEMS like athletes are only concerned with getting THEIR best tricks on film is another thing lacking in skiing, a centralized approach to making the movie. Again, I’ll look at skating/snowboarding. Almost every movie has a very core group of sponsors..sometimes only one. Skating especially is built around brand teams. I think this creates an identity which is definitely to the advantage to both the viewer and the brand. Snowboarding is a bit more varied but really..there’s just so much more shit to sponsor in snowboarding. Look at the Rome movies from the last couple years..Bon Voyage this year (the Holden movie)..
Ski movies to me seem like a bunch of Transworld videos. Whatever sponsors will pay the most to be in the movie get their riders in. There have been a couple attempts in the past..H/H did a movie in like 2005, Atomic did 44 Days, and everyone’s favorite “tight pants movie” Hot Lunch. All three were good but still small releases.
It seems like if there is something that unifies the riders other than sponsor dollars an inevitably tighter and more appealing product will ensue.
Let’s get out of the Team Video Blog and into the DVD releases. I still like buy DVD’s sometimes.
PS. Walks of Life plzzzz
Ironic point Nick, since one of the seemingly negative points being made in this review is how PBP has churned out a movie that is 80% one “team” centric, Salomon. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing if you have a diverse enough group of riders to work with. Also, Videograss is more a an Ashbury movie if anything, but certainly not a hardgoods/individually branded movie either way. In snowboarding Forum has had a lock on that dept. for a long time. But I digress.
I just can’t help but think about how many hours it must have taken you to type that whole thing up with your fancy pants hunt-and-peck typing method. Impressive commitment, I must say.
yep, pretty much.
The only part of the movie that worked for me was JP’s segment. it moves fast, is exciting, technical, funny, super french canadian, (the younger quebetians should watch this guy any chance they get) and made me want to haul out the bungee and go greasin’.
the rest of the movie, not without its great shralping, was fucking boring man, my girlfriend got pissed off and made cookies it was so boring, that kind of boring. music? there was none, i felt like I was watching this thing on a fancey elavator monitor. GOd damn these kids need to leave that dub step, and whatever hathbanger does shit alone, it sucks… cock.
the 3rd or 4th oldest guy in the game can’t save your movies forever poorboyz, and slow motion just shows every one how bad octograbs look.
Jossi, thanks for making Simon look like an idiot. hitens!
Well put. I don’t think I’ve ever been so bored by ski porn. It’s not that it was bad per-se. Well ok, it kind of was but it was more just plain monotonous. If you do the banger trick 20 times in the same film it’s not a bloody banger anymore is it? And while I’m personally a Glitch Mob fan, there’s only so much of that genre I can take. Interspersing it with dubstep (or whatever that shit was) doesn’t help by the way.
The real problem with this film for me though, was that I watched it the day after I saw the premier of The Way I See It and on the same night as Eye Trip. I am a big mountain skier and there’s only so much park and urban jibbing I can handle. Especially after an MSP offering of such mind blowing quality.
PBP, please get your shit together next year. Revolver was a fucking waste of money.
I’m glad other people think along the same lines as me! I didn’t notice, nor care, about the salomon team thing, but I think every single other point I agreed with. And most of the comments too esp the repeat tricks one.
I don’t think of bon voyage as a team movie, more like a movie by a crew that fits together. Kind of like how the Theory 3 crew fitted, I thought straight away the merger was a bad idea.
word.
I was thoroughly underwhelmed. saw eye trip the day before in the theater and was sooo stoked on it, I couldnt wait to buy revolver. while it did have killer parts, the majority of it was less than stellar.
I knew I didn’t feel it but I couldn’t figure out why. The only three segments I liked were JP’s, Jossi’s and Simon’s other than that it was eh. The soundtrack is the worst part of the film!
Nice review! Could not agree more! I’ve loved Poorboyz since 13 – which I watched a BILLION times – and I feel they’re just getting older, lazier and more boring with each film. Matchstick films seem more fresh nowadays – and that’s saying a lot. NOBODY wants to see an 80 minute ski flick! It would probably be awesome if they cut out half the film.And Charley Ager might land some insane shit, but he needs some serious help on the style side. Most of what he does looks like shit.
And I seriously don’t get the music. At all.
Freedle and Nick,
We, the Bomb, have been clamoring for team flicks in skiing since day one…but I think it’s fair when I say that a Salomon Movie made up of completely divergent styles and approaches to skiing isn’t really in the spirit of a skateboard or snowboard “team movie”. That’s not to say that you couldn’t whittle down the Salomon roster and make a kickass flick….shit you could probably make 2 completely different movies! But, this—for me—was a jack of all trades/we do everything but commit to nothing kind of deal and not at all in step with other incredibly successful team or brand flicks.
And Brooke,
I’ll have you know that I’ve made a commitment to type with at least FOUR fingers, which has obviously cut my hunt and peck time in half. I did type this with two fingers for nostalgia’s sake.
Ya that’s more or less along the lines of what I was getting at that ya, maybe 80% of the riders are salomon riders but really, I wouldn’t notice I’d they weren’t. Thank you for explaining my thoughts for me
speaking of “Work it Out” (which I also loved)
are you going to write up a review of that?
Brian,
Thinking of doing a video review for that one….something definitely though.
I agree with every thing except the hate on Charles Gagnier.
i just love watching him ski. but he has a special style i have to agree, but i like it.
otherwise you are right sir, and i thought the comparaison with work it out was really smart.
keep the articles coming.
Warning OT comment ———-
After seeing Life Cycles last night I can say that almost every review on Bro could be summed up by dropping in a full length link to LF and one simple sentence:
“Hey ___ (insert production house) ___ surpass the bar this movie sets and we’ll start reviewing snow flicks again.”
It’s certainly where my mind went after the 22 min flick ended.
Its 79 minutes. And ski porn is ski porn, no matter how long. Who said you had to watch the whole thing at one time?