Wildwasser-Sommer - Im Augenblick der Gefahr

I LOVED this movie when I was a kid and it's so funny how my perspective has changed as I have gotten older. I was all about Sean Astin as the hero and that Kevin Bacon was the bad guy and now that I am older...I see Kevin Bacon's perspective and I am seeing all that he was doing to help Sean Astin and how Sean was just a crybaby. Crazy what time and wisdom does when you get older. If this is your first time watching it in the era you probably won't like it at all. The music doesn't fit the movie, but it fits the 80's era of teenage movies. I do enjoy the story and most of the characters actually make sense through the entire movie. Is the movie good...no, but is it great nostalgia...YES!!!

I enjoyed this movie. I couldn't say it's a particularly great movie, but there's nothing really bad about it either. It's a perfectly acceptable way to while away 90 odd minutes. You won't be bored.

The two big names in the cast are Kevin Bacon and Sean Astin - both before they hit the big time and, in Sean's case, before he left his teens. watching Sean's character here, you'll wonder how he ever made it to Mordor!

The movie is hard to categorize. It's not really a family movie, although teens will enjoy it. It's not really aimed at adults either, though I suspect many will find it acceptable. The movie makers also seem to have a bit of problem in deciding what they're going for here. They can't seem to decide if Kevin Bacon's character is a tough mentor, an eccentric frontiersman or a raving psychopath. They also have Astin doing narration straight to camera, breaking the 4th wall. Were they going for a Ferris Bueller meets Deliverance feel?? I'm not sure and I don't think they were either.

The locations are good and the action sequences are fine. Acting is up to scratch but the soundtrack is seriously dated. As I said, this is nothing special but it's also nothing bad.

All in all, this movie is just an acceptable way to spend an evening if you can't be bothered looking for something better.

White Water Summer is one of my favorite movies from childhood. There are some parts of the movie that would not make sense in our working world, legalities, etc, but its still a great adventure movie!

The whole movie revolves around a young city boy, Who unwillingly agrees to go with "VIC" on an intense adventure camp out in the wilderness with some other boys. Being a city boy, he's usually the last one to get something done right, especially when in very dangerous and perhaps life threatening situations. He learns what he really is capable of, and is able to grow up in one summer, perhaps through a little too much harshness...

The sound track is great, unfortunately, no one made a sound track for purchasing!

Before Kevin Bacon tackled the wilderness' harsh rivers in "The River Wild (1994)', he played Vic a spiritually in touch hiking guide who takes some city boys in to the mountainous wilds to learn more about themselves and to push the best out them. But his methods come under the eyes of the boys, with his constant testing of the young, inexperienced lad Alan. But soon enough we find the tables are eventually turned around on just who relies on each other.

'White Water Summer' is a respectably bold and hearty, if unspectacular presentation that Ernest Kinoy and Manya Starr's actively mediative and theme-grown material feels unsure to what it truly wants to be, as it treads between feel-good adventure, psycho-territory and being morally hounded in finding the mental toughness to go beyond your limitations and fears. Jeff Bleckner's direction is well-measured and slickly handled, as the standouts range from the excellent white water rafting scenes and rock climbing views. The harrowing tension within these passages seem to bubble, but Bleckner also gets a great bunch of performances, especially from his young confident cast (Sean Astin, Jonathan Ward, K.C. Martel and Matt Adler) who show binding chemistry. That when a change in Bacon's character begins to show, the suspense and dangerous air kicks in the adrenaline as the boys begin to feel the circumstances change. Astin is impressive as Alan, as he goes head on with stupendously hard-pressed Kevin Bacon. His way is the right ways… don't question it. As he goes on to test them out individually and as a team to become dependant on one and each other. But does it become beyond breaking point to get these results.

What I could have done without was the flash-forward smart-mouth laced narration pockets of an older Sean Astin talking to the screen, while cutting between the central story. They somewhat lessen the impact and became off-putting. Even the soundtrack with its squealing rock tunes became a little overbearing, as it regularly pumped it out. Michael Boddicker's soothing original score does a better job in camouflaging with its surroundings and activities. John Alcott's striking cinematography naturally hovers over the beautiful backdrop getting amongst organic growth and swirling waters to isolate the viewers along with the small party.

I just caught this movie on TV and I thought this movie was great. I liked how they had older Alan (Sean Astin) giving his little comments, they were great especially the egg part and the part where he says, "Over there is Attigawa. They flung him into the sky. He is enemy of the land. I think we'll take Alan's knife."

Sean Astin did really good playing a little wimp who eventually becomes the leader of them all. And Kevin Bacon did awesome too at playing a guy I couldn't stand and nearly turned the TV off because of him.

The music was just too.... I don't know. Maybe I would've liked the music better if I had been around in the eighties.

All in all, I gave it a 10/10.