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Aspen Extreme (1993)

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33 comments in total

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
not as horrible as 4.7 suggests, 6 agosto 2001

Author: LeFreak-5 da Toronto

Bored and not able to sleep, I caught this film on late night television last night. I was intrigued by the opening credits, especially when I saw the names of fine Canadian actor Paul Gross and another favourite Trevor Eve, who starred in the wonderful British mystery series Heat of the Sun. I am also a fan of the old Chicago Hope, and it was nice to see Peter Berg in a very different role.

I am not a ski buff, and this film is not Citizen Kane. However, I found myself enjoying this flawed piece of work very much. Sure, the plot is goofy, implausible, predictable, and full of discontinuities. But I genuinely liked the heroes, took pleasure in their successes, felt sadness in their setbacks. Other reviewers have commented already on the gorgeous location photography and the skiing.

With commercials, this film ran almost 2.5 hours on TV, and I had little difficulty sitting through it. Sure, we all knew there would be a happy ending and the good guy would get the girl, but it still was an enjoyable bit of viewing on the way.

Worth a look if you are not a ski buff but like mindless romance/action. Must-see if skiing is your life.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A good skiing movie, 20 marzo 2004

Author: Scott-101 da arlington, va

*** out of ****:

As a skier, I'm a little prejudiced to see a movie about skiing, with such good skiing action, and as someone who always thought of Aspen as one of the country's more overrated mountains, I'm happy to see it portrayed in such negative light (no one would ever make such a movie about Vail or Sun Valley, for example). Anyway, on to the film:

The film centers around two friends stuck in low-paying manual labor jobs, one of which, TJ, suddenly decides to go out and live the American dream. He wants to leave his blue-collar life behind and using his instincts and boldness, attain entrance into the upper echelons of society, in this case, skiing. Knowing he can't do it without his best friend Dexter, by his side, he convinces him in going along. The two embark in Aspen, and fall upon gorgeous women, a job they love, and fame and prestige. Well, at least one of them does. Dexter, although an able skier, does not get the ski instructor job as his friend does, and the two start to drift off onto two different paths. TJ gets all the breaks, and Dexter doesn't, to the point where it tears apart their friendship. One of the big strengths of the movie, was the authenticity and chemistry with which Berg and Gross display as friends, and the interesting, if not somewhat obvious paths, that the two take.

A couple of ladies make their way, into TJ's life on and off, one of which is played very well by Teri Polo, who's drop-dead gorgeous yet down-to-earth in this film, and who provides for one of the films most uplifting moments, when she arrives at Dexter's place right after he's hit rock bottom, and assertively throws his booze away, forces him into the shower, and to go jogging with her, so that he can regain control of his life, even though she always paid a lot more attention to T.J. The story is not afraid to dig into deep levels of tragedy, yet keep a balance, that makes it uplifting overall.

It's set in 1993, but there's a lot of 80s flavor in this. Along with the synthesizer-dominated score, T.J, is to a lesser extent the kind of Tom Cruise/Mel Gibson/Kurt Russell-like hero, who's just booming with masculinity. He's overconfident, he doesn't back down from a fight (including a fight with a comically villanous ski instructor who feels threatened by other good ski instructors, yeah that happens all the time on the ski slopes), he's strong and resilient, he goes full-force after whatever girls come his way, and he's clearly the good guy. On the whole, it's pretty action-packed and filled with plenty of genuine drama that I really do like it.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Surprisingly watchable, 12 agosto 2001
Author: (secordman) da Toronto Canada

Aspen Extreme is in the mold of movies like All the Right Moves, Youngblood etc. nothing special but just a fun little movie. Paul Gross and Peter Berg are two guys from Michigan who go to Aspen as ski instructors (??!) and explore their new vista. Berg of Chicago Hope and Gross of Due South make an excellent partnership, I found myself rooting for them from the beginning. Gross is the pretty boy who captivates both the rich teaser and the super cute radio jockey (played by the captively cute Teri Polo). The movie is humorous for much of the first half, but then takes a darker turn, and tends to drag on in the second half as well. The ski scenes are okay but I felt like I was watching a specialty adventure sports channel, in other words it was overkill. Otherwise it's just a late night timewaster which I expected to be boring but instead was fun and a good little movie to watch with a lady friend. 5 out of 10.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Top Gun with a view, 29 novembre 2000
Author: Dr. Robert da dallas, texas

This is an extremely visually entertaining film starring later tv notables Paul Gross("Due South"), and the angelic Teri Polo ("Northern Exposure"). The plot closely follows that of "Top Gun", "Days of Thunder" or any other of Tony Scott's late eighties slickers. This one's definitely not "Battleship Potempkin" but the scenery (animal and mineral) combined with a few interesting sub plots make it worth the stay if your flipping cable channels late at night. A must see for "extreme" ski jocks and people who just dig the mountains.

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Aspen Extreme to me is a genuine classic, 13 aprile 2008

Author: camelbone24 da United States

Aspen Extreme to me is a genuine classic in that it is one of only few movies that best depicts the cultural, demographic and geographic way of life in a Rocky mountain secluded super ski resort town in the beautiful state of Colorado. In addition, the story itself portrays harmoniously with the real life vision of a young adventurous individual who has made exactly the same decisions that Gross' and Berg's characters had made. Surely there could be equivocal view points to the writer's main intent, however, anyone who has followed, skied or rode the same tracks as Gross' and Berg's characters instantly familiarizes with the care that is taken by the writer in exploiting the liberating experience of leaving home to enter into a world of majestic beauty mixed with a sport that people with a similar passion and drive share interest in. The story as well as the visual effects consistently draw back on the natural grandeur and beauty of the Rockies as well as the emotional evolution that takes place with each changing season while living in such a town that many consider to be a life influencing period in time.

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Am I The Only One Who Found This Film Hilarious?, 9 ottobre 2007

Author: Steve Edwards da Salt Lake City, UT

Actually, I know I'm not because I've got a group of friends who watch this regularly and laugh like crazy. If they had hammed this up, like Hot Dog, it wouldn't have had a prayer but playing this ludicrous story straight up has yielded fabulous results. Franz, played by the lead singer of Spandau Ballet, is one of the greatest comic characters in film history.

There are no "rules" for unintentional comedy but there are a few elements that greatly make them watch able and Aspen Extreme has the lot. First off, good acting helps and the cast here is first rate. Berg, Gross, and Polo all deliver their over-the-top dialog as if it were penned by the Bard and the bit players are solid as well, from Franz to Karl Stoll to the Olympic hopeful from Oregon.

"What's the worst day you've ever had." "I dunno, probably the time we were arrested for stealing those telephone poles."

Secondly, nice cinematography and direction are almost essential. This film looks and feels like big budget Hollywood. It's beautiful.

Next, the soundtrack should be campy and Aspen Extreme's 80's rock track is hilarious. A perfect homage to Del Amitri. In fact, the whole movie is filled with 80s iconography even though it came out well into the 90s, "Hi, I'm Andy Mill…."

Finally, the writing has to be bad—really bad—and directed as if it were genius. The great Alan Dwan once said, in reference to comedic camp, "(sic)You can't tell your actors they're making comedy or they'll ham it up. They must believe they're making a serious film." As the above example suggests, and un-funny line on paper, when derived in the proper context, can be much funnier than if the joke actually had a punch line the made sense.

All I'm sayin' is that this film may not be Road House or Endless Love, but it's a dammed fun time and won't even need robots sitting in the front row you help you out.

"I'm not here for the party, azz hool. Zis iz my job!"

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A Yearly Ritual, 2 maggio 2007

Author: toddremington da United States

Like many skiers in Colorado, as a ritual I pull out this DVD every season to get stoked for another year.

The transformative story about a Midwesterner moving to a ski resort and finding himself is compelling and often repeated in reality here in Colorado. Although the acting and details are not all together believable, the story line is strong enough to keep one's interest between ski scenes.

As a retired ski patroller however, the crevasse scene is hard to swallow. I have never seen a water filled crevasse in the middle of winter like the one T. J. fell into while skiing in the back country. Especially near 14,000 feet. But hey, Hollywood is at sea level and it adds to the drama. Despite this naive gaff, the movie has great ski scenes featuring Doug Coombs one of the great extreme skiers. The mountain scenery is also breath taking and was clearly filmed in Aspen.

The avalanche scenes on the other hand look all to real.

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Cool Movie When I Grew Up, 24 febbraio 2007
Author: michaelplewa da United States

We got cable finally when I was ten or eleven and I must have watched this movie with my little sister twenty times. I recall first seeing Teri Polo in this film, and look how she turned out. Also, Peter Berg, an accomplished film director now. His Dexter Rutecki, though probably a poorly written part, was always resonant with me.

Then there was the rival instructor with the accent. Wasn't he in Spandau Ballet? Ah, memories. It gets certain moods right, like being in a Mountain town at the end of ski season. There's great footage of skiing and the story is probably crappy now, but it was enthralling enough for me when I was 11.

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Best Movie Ever, 15 dicembre 2006

Author: dylan-ski da Breckenridge, Colorado

I grew up on Mt. Brighton, which is where our story begins. Aspen Extreme is the true-to-life saga of two amazing Midwest skiers who move to the mountains to pursue a more fulfilling life away from the rat race.

Unlike most ski movies, the locations in Aspen Extreme are really Michigan and Aspen as advertised.

Aspen Extreme is not your classic slapstick ski movie. The dialog, situations and characters reflect real daily life in a ski town. If you want to step into Rocky Mountain life, sit back and relax for 90 minutes with TJ, Dex, Robin and Bryce!

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"Top Gun" on skis, 15 settembre 2006

Author: raven1-5 da United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is the story of 2 best friends. 1 hot shot stud, 1 goofy sidekick. They ditch their "meaningless" lives in Detroit to go somewhere else to start over, winding up in Aspen, Colorado. They hope to become ski instructors, and predictably, they succeed. It doesn't take long for the "underdogs" to become "best of the best." Stud gets hot sophisticated chick, despite his rugged edge. But wait! Stud has a brain too. He's a writer. Then of course there is the nemesis. An arrogant team mate is bitter and resentful of the attention the new ski instructors are getting. So he acts like a jerk and gives them a hard time. Best buddy dies in action. Hot shot stud goes on with a new partner and triumphs! Then, naturally, he gets the girl. I guess Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer can't ski. Meh. Even though the plot is cliché and predictable, it's actually an entertaining movie.

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