Snowboard Academy

Even my kids thought it was trash. This movie stinks. I rented it from Blockbuster as it was the only snowboarder movie (fiction) I could find. But my snowboarding son is watching and I can tell he is not impressed. The acting is bad (I mean Jim Varney is the Draw?) and the storyline weak. Stay away from this movie unless you like to smirk and groan and sleep. You could maybe get the snowboarding extreme sports videos otherwise. Don't waster your time with this movie. Stay Away! Stay Away! I need to have 10 lines of text. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ. Is that enough? No - I need to add more. Blah! Blah? Blah. Blah!! Blah?? Blah....

I have every Jim Varney film except for this one. Why? Because it is really Stupid This movie is painful the watch the jokes are stupid, Jim Varney is not even likable in this film. I wanted to give this on the benefit of the doubt and I am usually pretty liberal in giving good ratings on most films but this one was one of the few movies I sent to goodwill after viewing it. The jokes are crude as well.

This feels like a movie that tried to use Jim Varney to sell it when he only had a very small role. Then they pieced together footage of a bunch of snowboarders doing stupid things and then called it a movie.

Don't bother especially if you are a fan of Jim Varney. I don't consider this as part of my Ernest collection.

Have you ever watched one of those movies where, after about 30 minutes, you realize that you really, really wish that the capable actors in it were in something a bit better written? This is one of those movies. Now, actors like Varney, Haim, and Nielsen are usually not given much in the way of regard but each is capable of a decent performance in a decent movie. We're not talking DeNiro or Kidman here, just actors capable of doing a decent job. Sadly, they get cast in utter crap like this. If you're a die-hard fan of these actors, it might be worth watching. If not, carefully put the video box down and back away slowly.

Matt

"Snowboard Academy", allegedly a comedy, is not funny. I don't mean, not "ha-ha" funny; I don't mean, not funny to certain sensibilities; I just mean plain, flat-out, empirically not funny. Jokes fall flatter than week-old cola. Actors soldier onward mindlessly -- I would call their performances workmanlike, but that would be insulting to workmen. We're talking a major step down from the Ernest flicks here. Even the snowboard stunts are lame and repetitive. Don't expect to see progressive technical riding here; just look for backflip after backflip. This movie is an insult to the intelligence of all who see it.

Shepphird's Snowboard Academy pays homage to early Stanley Kubrick films, such as Killer's Kiss, Paths of Glory and Ski Patrol. This time out, the stellar cast includes Joe Flaherty, Corey Haim, and Jim Varney (showing his range by NOT playing Ernest in this film). The sexual undertones are rampant, from Haim's coy galnces at anything in a skirt to Varney's poem, "I once knew a woman from Russia, whose butt was so big it could crush ya." Haim is refreshing to see here, fresh from whatever eighties movie he made before this one, playing the rebellious teen so convincingly, we almost believe he's apathetic. I don't think Alec Guinness was in this one, but if he had been asked, he undoubtedly would have turned it down.