Fuori pista!

Ski Patrol (1990) is a movie I rewatched for the first time in a long time in Prime. The storyline follows a ski mountain resort that someone wants to sabotage so they can swoop in and purchase it for pennies on the dollar. The resorts only hope is a band of misfits who serve as the ski patrol on the mountain for the resort.

This movie is directed by Richard Correll (Perfect Strangers) in his directorial debut and stars Roger Rose (Friday the 13th Part VII: Jason Lives), T. K. Carter (The Thing), George Lopez (George Lopez Show), Ray Walston (Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Yvette Nipar (Robocop), Martin Mull (Clue), Leslie Jordan (The Help) and Sean Sullivan (Wayne's World).

The storyline for this is fairly cliche and straightforward and reminded me of a lesser "Revenge of the Nerds." I will say the "Two-Face" character was creative and very well executed. Carter's impressions at the opening of the film was good and I also liked the use of the rubber band at the end. However, the majority of this film is more cheesy than good. It's too bad because there was a pretty impressive cast to work with.

I would score this film a 5/10 and only recommend watching it if nothing better is on.

Now, I had actually never seen, much less ever heard about, this 1990 comedy titled "Ski Patrol" before now as 2022 is about to come to a closure. And thus I sat down to watch it, of course. I figured I would be in for a movie in the likes of the many slapstick comedies of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Writers Steven Long Mitchell, Craig W. Van Sickle and Wink Roberts put together a fair enough script here for director Richard Correll to bring to life on the screen. As it turned out, then I hadn't exactly been missing out of a comedy gem here. If you have seen any comedies from the late 1980s and early 1990s, then you know what you are getting here with "Ski Patrol", for better or worse.

Something that impressed me about "Ski Patrol" was the cast ensemble. There was a good handful of familiar faces on the cast list here, with the likes of Leslie Jordan, Paul Feig, George Lopez, Steve Hytner and Ray Walston.

For a comedy then there wasn't really all that much to laugh about throughout the course of the 91 minutes that the movie ran for. And on that account then "Ski Patrol" wasn't really an outstanding or memorable early 1990s comedy.

"Ski Patrol" was watchable, sure, but it is not a movie that I will ever return to watch again. There were far more entertaining and funny comedies from the same era, so this one sort of barely got by.

My rating of "Ski Patrol" lands on a five out of ten stars.

If you prefer movies that make you think and challenge your mind and opinions in ways you didn't think possible, stay away from this movie. If you like movies that are filled with political incorrectness and mindless fun, have at it.

This movie was made in a more innocent time when people could make a movie without worrying if someone would complain about being politically incorrect. The same time when most of my favorite movies were made. For some who are concerned about this type of thing, there are times when they poke fun at characters for different things (for example one of them being bothered by being short) but it's more of good natured teasing than spiteful attacks.

One of the most memorable characters would have to be an individual by the name of suicide who has a few screws loose and does some outlandish things while trying to feel a rush.

I saw this movie for the first time when I was 19, and it's remained one of my favorites of all time. Not because it has in in depth and compelling story, because it doesn't. It was made during a time when a movie could be about next to nothing and still be good. For example, Breakfast Club was about 5 kids in detention. This movie is good, light hearted fun that I can watch again and again.

At the Snowy Peaks Ski Lodge, wise cracking slacker Jerry Cramer (Roger Rose) works Ski Patrol with a group of other misfits who are under the command of tightly wound head Murray (Leslie Jordan). When land developer Sam Marris (Martin Mull) sets his sights on Snowy Peaks, Marris makes a deal with Ski School instructor Lance Finkmayer (Corby Timbrook) to sabotage Snowy Peaks safety requirements so the current lease holder, Pops (Ray Walston), will lose his claim and allow Marris to turn Snowy Peaks into resort town Marristown.

Ski Patrol comes to us from producer Paul Maslansky best known for his creation and curation of the Police Academy series. With grosses dipping with subsequent installments, Maslansky tried to revisit the formula and applying it to the world of skiing. Maslansky initially intended to expand Ski Patrol, much like Police Academy, with two sequels and a spin-off TV series, but when the movie only made $8 million that never came to be though supposedly there's been some talk of a Ski Patrol sequel/reboot with the team behind Workaholics. Ski Patrol isn't offensive or obnoxious, but it's yet another rehash on an overplayed formula that has long since worn out its welcome.

I will say that some of the cast do bring energy to their performances with T. K. Carter, Paul Feig, and Leslie Jordan bringing some decent smile worthy moments every so often, but aside from a decent long payoff joke involving Leslie Jordan's character taking "growth pills" there's a number of floundering gags such as Jordan repeatedly tripping over a dog named Dumpster (to whom he's also allergic) or a grating performance by Sean Sullivan as a character named Suicide whose schtick is he's part of a band where every member is him and two masks named Buried and Slaughter who he voices and lead to long drawn out ski sequences that aren't all that funny because they don't really have jokes and feel like visual noice that's been put in as a placeholder.

Ski Patrol takes the Police Academy formula and goes through all the expected motions you've seen since the first Police Academy movie and its sequels and rip-off in Moving Violations. It's hard to even muster up much feeling for this movie because it's not obnoxious or offensive enough to elicit any kind of visceral reaction and just feels like a tired entry in an equally tired formula.

This movie didn't score well at the Oscars and there's no doubt why. It is a stupid movie but I did laugh at one scene. It's when Murray, a short ski-instructor, who's about 5'4" is given some growth formula from his intructees. They switch the hem on his pants and lower the height line on his wall to make him believe that he's actually growing. One night at a bar Murray decides to go off at how tall he is and that's when the guys really get him. Murray awakes to find that he's too big for his own bed. He bursts through the ceiling of an Elf's Dorm beside a Santa display screaming as the jokers take pictures of him. This ONE scene almost saves the entire movie.