Cool Blades - Nur der Sieg zählt

So far I have only read ONE good comment about this movie and I truly believe that it deserves more than "it was a really good movie". I mean, have any of you actually understood the true meaning of this movie? Hello??? Ok, let me give you a CLUE!!! Mitchell(Shane McDermott) isn't just some kid trying to get a date until he gets back to California, but that's what you're thinking, isn't it?? Well, dispite what you may think, Mitchell's (Shane McDermott's)character actually has meaning. If you pay attention to the lines this boy has in the movie, you would realize that it isn't like all the other leading men in the movies, who kicks and punches his opponent at every chance he gets. This boy has morals;so what if he's only 17? People can be mature for their age! He refused to fight Jack and Blaine, and realizes that "you don't have to fight the shark to fight for the wave". How many movies have that kind of positive message today? Hmmmmm? I didn't think you could back that weak dis of a great movie up. Ha!

I enjoyed this movie as a kid, but have only recently re-watched it. Present impressions are not as favorable, but at least one aspect was impressive. Granted, the storyline was nothing new and at times corny, but there was a bit of vocabulary and a few good lines. What most impressed me was the novelty of the street skating scenes. These moves were being done by a few people at the time, but most kids like me had never seen such things. As I just watched now, I was surprised at things like the flip on the half pipe and riding walls and jumping cars and grinding rails. For 93, that's just plain amazing. For a lot of my friends this movie became a sort of street skating manual. We even painted dragons on our skates like the main character. Some of us even went on to be sponsored and I think it all started with this movie. Considered from this perspective, Airborne is definitely innovative and classic.

This movie made me grow my hair out and start parting it in the middle because of our roller-bladin' hero. Going back to rewatch the soundtrack instantly transported back through time to all the 90s angst and feels that I had as a kid. Eventhough I was terrible on rollerblades the movie made me believe I could fly on them, and that I could probably handle the Devil's backbone. It's also amazing to go back and see the early stages of Jack Black and Seth Green's careers. The story itself is a slightly more serious 90s teen movie, because roller blading and social/street cred is serious business. I'm not sure it ages well for younger generations to have the same experience as 90s kids, but the movie is like a fun time capsule to go back and revisit.

This movie is hilariously funny. Shane McDermott's monologues, meant to be serious at the time (When you see that perfect wave.. .) have aged into top notch hilarity, and Seth Green's scenes are pure gold, showing the then-young actor at his comedic best, year before Austin Powers. Throw in a then-unknown Jack Black and a bunch of funny little high school types, and then Edie McClurg on top of it all, and you have one of those perfect 1980s-early 90s films, with the perfection and classicness of which that can't seem to be replicated today. This is truely one of the littlest known, but funniest movies of all time. Those who fancy themselves amateur critics would call it a period piece, a comment on the culture clash that can exist within our own country, and a farce on rollerblades. I say the only disappointment in watching it is the realization that more modern movies are nothing like it.

Is it just me, or has everyone seen this movie about a hundred times on cable? Call it a guilty pleasure, but every time it came on, I just had to watch. I think it must be Seth Green's "Wiley Man" (Which I'm sure had a throwaway line homage in Austin Powers during the counseling scene). I'm glad to see him make it in the business.

The movie itself? A California surfer pretty boy tries to fit in at a new school and wins everyone over (including the school hottie) by skating. Tres deep.

6 out of 10, but you just gotta watch it again and again.