It is fall and, as tradition dictates, it is time for the new Warren Miller movie. This is the 68th year of movies. As many of you know though, Warren Miller has not been involved now for about 20 years. I saw two movies in person in 2003 and 2004 and they were meh. After that, I've heard lots of complaints about how bad they have become. The 2015 film we saw was actually pretty good, so expectations were somewhat high for us. We went on a spur of the moment thing. All of us, and other friends, were quite disappointed. Here's the skinny....don't worry about spolier alerts. The good, bad, and the ugly although I am certainly no Siskel and Ebert.
The Good: AMAZING camera angles, drone usage, special effects, and locales. Great skiing and riding.
Not So Good: Rampant product placement, terrible monologues, douchey athletes, and producers who made women look bad.
Scene by scene discussion:
Jackson Hole: Love the shots of the Tram and terrain. Awesome skiing. I suggest putting it on mute because you will come to hate the skiers and riders. They are the stereotypical trustafarians living in J-Hole. I
uke: at the woman's comment about how awesome it was "to ski with nature and the animals." The scene ran on too long.
Steamboat: love the night cat shots. Here, though, the obvious product placement kicks in. Shots of Ester-C (they still make that?) and Prinoth logos were very annoying. I don't know anyone who is going to buy a snowcat. I love snowcats and awesome machines, but I really wanted to yell at the producers. And I think that the plot was supposed to be local park rats come for an impromptu night session and catch the cat drivers off guard, but it was poorly executed.
Norway: I think that they trying to have a "ski patroller" exchange going with the Fernie Patroller visiting Norway, and the actually down to earth and likeable Norwegian patroller visiting Fernie, but again, it was not well done and not really clear if that was happening. Love the scenery.
Snowmobile Scene in Montana: interesting. Some inside jokes that nobody gets.
Snowsurfing scene: very interesting terrain and great camera angles. Interesting likable characters. Runs too long and the apres scene with Gosling Whiskey becoming a central part of the scene was painful.
New Zealand: another miss. Great riding, an almost-fatal avalanche scene. LL Bean stickers and logos everywhere. Another missed opportunity to develop character and tug at heartstrings when it is revealed that Seth Westcott's daughter was born. It is not clear if that happened while he was in New Zealand (if that was the case, they made him look like a douchebag for snowboarding and missing her birth). They tried to have some comments about making her enjoy the outdoors, but it missed the mark. The produce placement, again, made me hate the brand.
Montana/Beartooth: the biggest pile of doucheiness there was. "Bird" tells the viewer how he is not at all materialistic while we see him and his friend riding brand new Ducatis (they had to show the logo and say the name), sleeping in a brand new luxury Airstream pulled by a new VW SUV. Completely stupid. His friend's comments about giving up work to travel and ski non-stop also did not look or sound good. Loved the Poma ski area, but one of the skier's called it a "resort" and then corrected herself to say "area". There is no building. Just an old camper to sell tickets. The "flashback" scene also was absurd.
Val D'Isere: a highlight from 2015 was the "girl power" scene with three female athletes. Well done. They took the same women and pretty much portrayed them as drinking and partying chicks. Not well portrayed. The skiing was interesting. It climaxed when they started talking about Jean Claude Kiley, so naturally one would expect that this "tribute" would lead to us seeing him. No, instead the girls go hang-gliding and we are sitting there asking why the hell talk about JCK? Compete strikeout.
Squaw Valley: great ski scenes, snow, old scenes, and some history. Too long overall. The first skier talked about how much he loves attention from everyone--and then they spend too much time showing him "hamming it up" with folks. And the tooth scene was just gross.
Silverton: crazy special effects, music, and CGI. The whole thing spins out of control and you get dizzy watching it. Nice seeing this unknown place get some love, but the whole thing, complete with an old unidentified skier commenting about something, just is too chaotic.
Ticket deals: none really. A $45 ticket for a few days at Solitude, a 2 for 1 at Snowbasin, and a few other token items. Good swag from the sponsors outside.
Overall none of my friends want to do it next year...and they are core skiers. Compared to TGR: more money, more crazy special effects, bad product placement, and producers who made their athletes look douchey.
Can't say I'd say go see it.
The Good: AMAZING camera angles, drone usage, special effects, and locales. Great skiing and riding.
Not So Good: Rampant product placement, terrible monologues, douchey athletes, and producers who made women look bad.
Scene by scene discussion:
Jackson Hole: Love the shots of the Tram and terrain. Awesome skiing. I suggest putting it on mute because you will come to hate the skiers and riders. They are the stereotypical trustafarians living in J-Hole. I
uke: at the woman's comment about how awesome it was "to ski with nature and the animals." The scene ran on too long. Steamboat: love the night cat shots. Here, though, the obvious product placement kicks in. Shots of Ester-C (they still make that?) and Prinoth logos were very annoying. I don't know anyone who is going to buy a snowcat. I love snowcats and awesome machines, but I really wanted to yell at the producers. And I think that the plot was supposed to be local park rats come for an impromptu night session and catch the cat drivers off guard, but it was poorly executed.
Norway: I think that they trying to have a "ski patroller" exchange going with the Fernie Patroller visiting Norway, and the actually down to earth and likeable Norwegian patroller visiting Fernie, but again, it was not well done and not really clear if that was happening. Love the scenery.
Snowmobile Scene in Montana: interesting. Some inside jokes that nobody gets.
Snowsurfing scene: very interesting terrain and great camera angles. Interesting likable characters. Runs too long and the apres scene with Gosling Whiskey becoming a central part of the scene was painful.
New Zealand: another miss. Great riding, an almost-fatal avalanche scene. LL Bean stickers and logos everywhere. Another missed opportunity to develop character and tug at heartstrings when it is revealed that Seth Westcott's daughter was born. It is not clear if that happened while he was in New Zealand (if that was the case, they made him look like a douchebag for snowboarding and missing her birth). They tried to have some comments about making her enjoy the outdoors, but it missed the mark. The produce placement, again, made me hate the brand.
Montana/Beartooth: the biggest pile of doucheiness there was. "Bird" tells the viewer how he is not at all materialistic while we see him and his friend riding brand new Ducatis (they had to show the logo and say the name), sleeping in a brand new luxury Airstream pulled by a new VW SUV. Completely stupid. His friend's comments about giving up work to travel and ski non-stop also did not look or sound good. Loved the Poma ski area, but one of the skier's called it a "resort" and then corrected herself to say "area". There is no building. Just an old camper to sell tickets. The "flashback" scene also was absurd.
Val D'Isere: a highlight from 2015 was the "girl power" scene with three female athletes. Well done. They took the same women and pretty much portrayed them as drinking and partying chicks. Not well portrayed. The skiing was interesting. It climaxed when they started talking about Jean Claude Kiley, so naturally one would expect that this "tribute" would lead to us seeing him. No, instead the girls go hang-gliding and we are sitting there asking why the hell talk about JCK? Compete strikeout.
Squaw Valley: great ski scenes, snow, old scenes, and some history. Too long overall. The first skier talked about how much he loves attention from everyone--and then they spend too much time showing him "hamming it up" with folks. And the tooth scene was just gross.
Silverton: crazy special effects, music, and CGI. The whole thing spins out of control and you get dizzy watching it. Nice seeing this unknown place get some love, but the whole thing, complete with an old unidentified skier commenting about something, just is too chaotic.
Ticket deals: none really. A $45 ticket for a few days at Solitude, a 2 for 1 at Snowbasin, and a few other token items. Good swag from the sponsors outside.
Overall none of my friends want to do it next year...and they are core skiers. Compared to TGR: more money, more crazy special effects, bad product placement, and producers who made their athletes look douchey.
Can't say I'd say go see it.
