Aspen Extreme

*** 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.

A "must have" for every skier with a vcr. Other fans have already given many positive comments so I will just say that after ten years it's still standing proudly in the shelf close to the TV-set among other classics like The fisher king and The Matrix. And on a regular basis I also put this one on and enjoy..... Of course I know what happens next, but so what? But how long do a videotape last ? I'm just hopefully waiting for the "Directors Cut" - "Special double edition" DVD. Including 2 hours of extra ski-footing, Interwievs with stunt-doubles (who actually are ski stars) and a lot of new scenes, not seen before, and ....and......Well I'm just dreaming. And waiting for the winter and the powder...

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.

"Aspen Extreme" (1993) is a ski flick about two guys from Detroit who decide to throw the dice and move to Aspen where they're hired as ski instructors. TJ is a walking stud with loads of charm (Paul Gross), but his buddy Dex, albeit likable, is a problem waiting to happen (Peter Berg). TJ catches the eye of two women: a local DJ, Robin (Teri Polo), and a high society vamp, Bryce (Finola Hughes). Meanwhile TJ and Dex seek to win an important powder skiing contest.

Someone described "Aspen Extreme" as "Top Gun on skis" and that's a good brief description as both films balance the drama with the action and have rockin' soundtracks. But there are huge differences in that "Top Gun" takes place at a prestigious military flight school and therefore involves military personnel, whereas "Aspen Extreme" is about two regular dudes who ride into Aspen with only their van and essential belongings. Furthermore, "Top Gun" takes place in San Diego, whereas "Aspen Extreme" takes place in Aspen, Colorado, where the film was shot (along with some opening scenes in Michigan).

You would think that the sport of skiing would have delivered up numerous movies over the years, but I can think of only two serious films on the topic -- this one and 1969's "Downhill Racer" with Robert Redford and Gene Hackman. Go figure. In any event, "Downhill Racer" is a favorite film of mine and "Aspen Extreme" doesn't come close to its greatness. Still, it's well-done for what it is.

There are a couple of scenes that standout: A scene where Dex foolishly decides to make some easy money as a drug courier. The sequence effectively shows how prone to paranoia you can get when you KNOW you're doing something wrong. Another scene effectively reveals a character's casual (and sick) love-'em-and-leave-'me mentality, and I'm not talking about a dude.

The mountain scenery is breathtaking, but there's one roll-your-eyes scene where one of the guys falls into a deep crevasse that has water in it (at that elevation in the middle of winter?). But, hey, it's Hollywood.

Some people complain about the film devolving into melodrama, but I never got this impression. The story takes place over the course of a couple of winters and is just showing the highlights. With the exception of the scene noted above, nothing struck me as radically over-the-top or out of the realm of possibility.

Teri Polo is a huge plus as she's very young and beautiful.

The film runs 113 minutes.

GRADE: B-

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.