Airborne

If you don't go into this movie with overly high expectations, but just go with the flow, this movie can be very enjoyable. So it isn't Academy Awards material. How many movies are? Anyway, for a teen high-school love story, this isn't bad. I enjoyed the skating, even though I have been to Pittsburgh enough times to recognize most of the streets, and certainly the skyline. I am more bugged by the movies made in Canada that try to pass themselves as U.S. locations (that tax credit must be a real biggie!)

If you like fish-out-of-water movies or H.S. love interests, give Airborne a look.

I hope Mitchell eventually made his way here to O'ahu and surfed our waves! Now there is Airborne! (especially the latest thing, Kite surfing!)

Laters brah

A hearty kudos to director Rob Bowman for steering the ship on this rollerblady yet true to life comedy. Mitchell (Shane McDermott) is forced to migrate to Ohio when his parents move to Australia. Mitchell moves in with his aunt (Edie McClurg aka Mrs. Poole), uncle (Patrick Thomas aka another worthless Saved By The Bell teacher), and cousin Wiley (Seth Green). Mitchell is an avid surfer and the disappointment of missing out on the Australian tides surf him into a manic depression until his roller blades arrive a few weeks later via U.S.P.S. From there we move onto a Rocky like segment that has roller blading children of all ethnic backgrounds (I think) following him through the streets of Cincinatti. All this time Mitchell is being tormented by 27 year-old turned high schooler Jack (Chris Conrad)and his gang of bullies. The gang includes Augie (Jack Black in his breakthrough role) and the Banducci brothers (played magnificantly by the Betances brothers). To make a long review short, Mitchell and Wiley end up roller blading their way to chicks and popularity. I give this movie a 9/10. It would get a perfect 10/10, but did you see the video box cover......eeewwww.

Airborne is mostly a teen movie marketed back in the early 90's when the rollerblade craze was starting to catch on. It's like the rollerblade companies needed some more exposure, so they gave these guys a bunch of money and said "hey, make the kids crave rollerblades". With all that aside, it is a rather enjoyable movie. Shane McDermott plays Mitchel, a surfer from California who must move to Ohio for a couple months. His performance reminds me of a teenage version of Keanu Reeves in Point Break. Seth Green plays the comic relief hapless friend, and Seth's parents are played by Edie McClurg(secretary from Ferris Buehlers) and Patrick O'Brien. The parents in this are hilarious and they work very well with the rest of the cast. The moviesfollows Mitchel as he tries to adjust to the very different Cincinatti atmosphere. He quickly becomes a heartthrob thus alienating him from every guy in town. So he pretty much spends the next hour trying to avoid trouble, but at every turn it seems to find him. In the course of this he ends up playing ice hockey/roller hockey and then rollerblading. The major flaw of this movie is the motive and identity of the villains. You see very little of them throughout the movie, and their dialogue is terrible. There is also a huge disparity in the look of the males and the females in this movie. Most of the male cast looks and are well into their 20's (with the exception of the Shane and Seth).. The girls in this movie look like a bunch of 12 year olds... But since there isn't a lot of interaction between the two, it doesn't detract from the movie too much. All in all, I enjoy this movie. I really like the approach they have taken with the Mitchel character.. He's just a young surfer dude who is a vehement pacifist. He is very cool and very not violent (hero's always breed violence in modern movies).. He also makes a couple of Zen-like observations which are fun to watch. The movie ends with a rollerblade race through downtown Cincinatti with the hero's facing the "Preps". The rollerblade race is the best part of the movie, and it is very well played out. This movie isn't oscar material, but it is much better then any other "roller-skating" movie, sport genre movie, and many disney-teen movies.. Jack Black also play's a small role in this, and is fun to watch. I give this 7 out of 10 stars.

I absolutely *love* movies, and if I had to use a word to describe it the word would be *awesome.* Seth Green is one of my favorite actors, and this breakthrough performance is hilarious. I hear that he improv'd half of his lines in this movie, and his dancing is enough to make you fall over in laughter every time! Shane McDermott is a story of his own, with his intense eyes and killer smile he is totally invincible to all those Cincinatti bullies!! It's so sweet how he refuses to fight anyone and how he is so "zen." Overall, this movie kills in the deathmatch and I recommend it to *everyone*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!=D

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.