Aspen Extreme (1993)

Regista:

Patrick Hasburgh

Sceneggiatore (WGA):

Patrick Hasburgh (written by)

Data di uscita:

22 gennaio 1993 (USA)

Genere:

Action | Drama

Slogan:

Two friends looking for adventure discover extreme skiing, wealth and seduction. Now they face the greatest challenge of their lives!

Plot:

T.J. and his friend Dexter quit their jobs in Detroit to become ski-instructors in Aspen. While T.J...

Plot Keywords:

Male Nudity | Public Nudity | Ski Instructor | Beautiful Woman | Friendship

Recensioni degli utenti:

What's all this about Top Gun on the ski slopes and Endless Summer of skiing?

Cast

Paul Gross	...	T.J. Burke
Peter Berg	...	Dexter Rutecki
Finola Hughes	...	Bryce Kellogg
Teri Polo	...	Robin Hand
William Russ	...	Dave Ritchie
Trevor Eve	...	Karl Stall
Martin Kemp	...	Franz Hauser
Stewart Finlay-McLennan	...	Rudy Zucker
Tony Griffin	...	Gary Eimiller
Julie Royer	...	Michelle Proux
Patrick T. Johnson	...	Bill Swanson
William McNamara	...	Todd Pounds
Gary Eimiller	...	Jinx Stone
Andy Mill	...	Himself
Bill Ferrell	...	Official

Alias:

Aspen - Sci estremo (Italy) [it]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some language, drug content and nudity.

Durata:

113 min

Nazionalità:

USA

Lingua:

Inglese

Colore:

Colore (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sonoro:

Dolby

Divieti:

Australia:M | Singapore:PG | Iceland:L | USA:PG-13

Luoghi delle riprese:

Aspen, Colorado, USA

Company:

Hollywood Pictures

Errori:

Revealing mistakes: When Dex and T.J. walks up the mountain the second time, one can clearly see the drop-off point from the helicopter trip when the camera pans around the mountain.

Citazioni:

Bryce Kellogg: The next time you leave, I'll expect you to say goodbye.
T.J. Burke: A friend of mine is in trouble, I need $10,000.
Bryce Kellogg: Is that an apology?

Movie Connections:

Citato in "Beavis and Butt-Head: Beaverly Butt-billies (#5.14)" (1994)

What's all this about Top Gun on the ski slopes and Endless Summer of skiing?

If there's one thing I can say about Aspen Extreme, it is that it is not at all the Top Gun of the ski slopes, it's The Great Outdoors of the ski slopes. And by that, of course, I mean it's The Great Outdoors without John Candy or Dan Aykroyd. And by THAT, of course, I mean it's The Great Outdoors, but not funny. Oddly enough, the movie is more a combination of The Great Outdoors and Dumb & Dumber than anything else, but all of the comedy has been removed. In fact, the only thing that the movie takes from Top Gun is the cloying cheesiness and relentless predictability. Not that I didn't enjoy it.

My roommate recommended the movie to me, lending it to me out of his DVD collection so I thought I'd check it out. I wasn't entirely disappointed in the movie because it featured some spectacular skiing scenery, but I enjoyed it for how bad it was just as much as I enjoyed the acting, story, etc.

The story is about two guys living in Detroit and both working dead end jobs, when one of them gets a promotion to another dead end job and decides to just pick up and get out of town. I respect that, there's hardly a better way to make your life interesting when it's become too routine than to completely mix it up in a way that you don't know what it will all lead to. Just pick up and leave, when you think about it, there's no way you're going to become homeless (although you might spend a few nights in your van…).

They start out not knowing anyone in town and end up with one of them sleeping with the richest woman in town (that's Lloyd in bed with Mary Swanson) AND the most frigid, uptight woman in town (remember that cheesy teenage romance in The Great Outdoors? Yeah. That.), while the other ends up getting involved with moving massive amounts of drugs to make a little extra money. By the way, if ever there walked the earth a man who could not keep his cool, he is in this movie. Dexter's paralyzing quickness to freak out is nearly a character in itself.

T.J., the more successful of the two, has vague aspirations to become a writer that come up when the screenplay needs them to, and is torn between sleeping with a good-looking wealthy (and oddly motherly) woman and sleeping with a more regular girl with a job as a radio host who cares more about him but is frigid, grumpy and completely uninteresting because of her total lack of personality beyond her aloofness.

The film is best when it shows breathtaking shots of extreme skiing, but even then tends to trip up when it tries to tie un-matching shots together as it does numerous times in showing skiers going down the hill. There are times when it is amazing that they thought two shots could go together, but I'm willing to accept that for the sake of the story, which unfortunately is not very good. You have the love interest, the conflict to the love interest, the best friend in need, the over-the-top villain (and they do NOT let you forget that this guy is VERY bad), etc.

Overall not a bad movie, but comparisons to other classics like Endless Summer and Top Gun may run the risk of giving false expectations. This is direct to video fare, but in that genre you could certainly do worse.

It's much better than Ski School, for example…