"Focused" Review

[glademaster]

I know that there have been a few of these being posted lately but I'll put it up anyway. First of all, I pre-ordered the movie and watched it at home, I did not go to a showing. I put it in the VCR last night expecting the usual MSP magic as I sat down with the new Powder nearby.
To say the least I was disappointed in the movie overall. While the shots were great, there was really no deep powder to speak of and there was entirely too much jibbing. Almost the enitre movie was from a terrain park or skiers throwing tricks or skiing switch in mellow bc terrain. The back flip on the snowmobile was a waste of time as well, I saw the same thing in SMII, I don't need to see it yet again. There were also no real Immersion-esque panoramic shots to make me feel like I was there with the skier. John McMurrays segment is without a doubt, the stupidest thing I have ever seen, it was basically "Jackass" I want to see skiing, or failing that, Saucer Boy. Not some dumbass jumping into bushes. Shane's Segment was the highlight of the movie and made it a worthwhile buy, props to Cliff and Huck for that. That was one of the better McConkey segs I have seen a while so great job. Other than that it was average at best, Morrisons seg was good, but not fantastic, and the same goes for CR's. While its great to see him getting into big mountain terrain, I hope the clips of him were not his smoothest lines, they seemed jerky and not fluid at all. I dont mean to rip of CR as much as I do on MSP for showcasing those segs, they seemed to be a bit ameture for the rest of the movie.
I've seen almost every MSP/Gaffney movie and so far Immersion and Walls are my favorites because they dont feature progressive terrain park stuff, which I personally think is a waste of time to do, let alone pay to watch. IMHO, I think all of MSP should take a hint from Gaff and come out with a feature length, Immersion-style movie, featuring fewer, better athletes, and less garbage, they would sell them by the thousands.

Overall Ratings:
Cinematography: B-
Originality: C+
Soundtrack: B
Progressiveness: A
Re-Watchability- B-

Overall Grade: B-

Go ahead and rip me about it if you want, but I know that MSP could put out a much higher quality film.

-Ben

[descender]

I was kinda disappointed. Shane's section was cool, as well as Hugo's and Seth's. Music never really got ripping in my, metal-loving, opinion. Backflip... yawn. Rails rails rails... yawn! I don't mind the McMurrays section that much, at least it is interesting, minus the rails. The DVD extras had some cool, making-of type footage which may have saved it for me. Kinda cool to see all the weather issues when trying to make these films.