Cloud9

Dove Cameron of Liv&Maddie and Luke Benward recently an interest of Bridgit Mendler on Good Luck Charlie team up for this latest Disney feature film Cloud 9. No this is not about literal heavenly heights, but it might as well be for it is an especially grueling challenge for snowboarders. In fact we see that one can't even walk up to it, one has to be airlifted before one makes the dangerous downward descent.

The story casts Cameron as the daughter of the owner of a ski resort and that gives her access to a team sponsored by winter sports business owner whose son Mike Manning is the snowboarding current star. But when the resort drops the team, Manning drops Cameron and the team does as well. Seems she's not as good as she thinks she is, but was there for politics.

Two blows to her ego really leave her down in the dumps. But fortunately there's Benward who was an up and coming snowboarder, but who wipes out on national television and that's left him lacking a bit of confidence.

This was a good one from the Magic Kingdom and it was a nice story seeing how these two wounded young people help each other out with their sport and their lives. I also commend Amy Farrington playing Benward's mother who runs a local kennel. Who'd have thought that dogs would be therapeutic?

Some nice scenes of snowboarding also highlight this Disney Channel film. Definitely one of their better products.

Teenagers, social differences, a competition, romance, few real seductive scenes and the expected end. A Disney film with all the familiar ingredients. And, sure, with young actors giving a not realistic but nice portrait of a special age. So, simplistic but far to be boring. Or bad.

Cloud 9 is one of those forgotten movies. It had potential but fell flat. It's missing some key elements that make me fall in love with Disney movies. The acting was pretty good and story was interesting. I thought the snowboarding would be boring but it wasn't. And I enjoyed the chemistry between Dove Cameron and Luke Benward. They had a great kiss scene. The only thing I didn't like was how they barely showed Luke's character snowboard. He went through a traumatic thing and they just glossed over it. Also, I liked the main song until it got to the chorus, and now it's still stuck in my head.

From a purely logical stand point this was not a good movie. Script was cheesy and predictable, there were lots of cliches, poor acting, and things that just didn't make sense or we're not realistic.

That being said, from an emotional standpoint, I can't help but really enjoy this movie. Yes, it's clichéd but sometimes that's enjoyable, and the premise was fun. I think Luke Benward actually did a fantastic job, he was the only one who seemed natural and like he wasn't reading from a script (I don't hold Dove Cameron accountable for the bad performance, I'm sure she was directed to act so over the top). And there were just enough scenes with actual heart that I could get past the scenes that made me want to roll my eyes. At the end of the day, it's a Disney Channel movie, so you can just have fun with it!

Meet Kayla, an accomplished snowboarder who was kicked out of her team and forced to train with Will, a former champion snowboarder who is working as a coach after a video of him became a hit on the internet and ended his career.

If all preppy had parents like that, however, the payboys badboys usually have parents like Nick's, extremely permissive, arrogant, biased and ambitious (reminded me of the Nelsinho Piquet accident fraud)... good heart that redeems itself, the former injured athlete who overcomes himself, leads a team and trusts in his talent, and in the end everyone learns a beautiful lesson in respect, forgiveness and perseverance...