Loucademia de Esqui

These first Ski School alone is difficult to sit through sober, the cheese factor is absolutely through the roof. I can't imagine any sane person watching both of this and Ski School 2 back to back. I recently watched this in a moment of nostalgia, and realized I had absolutely terrible taste in movies as teen. Even thought this came out at the beginning of the 90's, the stench of the late 80's had not completely died yet. And since the first film was shot in the very tail end of the 1989, you could technically call it an 80's movie. But even that's a hard sell, because that would mean you also consider this to be an actual movie when in reality it is just a brain-cell-destroying debacle of cliche slinging corn ball humor smothered in neon colored cheese.

This is movie is probably generation-specific; I'll bet you could appreciate it much more if you saw it in it's day. Seeing it today, it comes across as innocent and light-hearted rather than laugh-out-loud funny. It's geared towards the slacker mentality of the early 90s: partying, goofing off and women.

In the movie, there are basically two ski school groups who are at odds with each other: rich/elitist/serious skiers and slacker/party-focused lunatics. They use the Whistler Pageant competition to determine which group should remain at the resort and which should go.

The film is clearly geared to high-school males. There's beer, nudity and lots of girls (none of which have any real speaking roles). There are a few colorful ski scenes which are interspersed throughout the movie, but the it mainly takes place indoors than on the slope.

It may appeal to you if you're looking for a light-hearted teen-party movie (and moreso if you like ski themes). Otherwise, there's no point in seeing it.

On Whistler Mountain, Dave Marshak (Dean Cameron) leads a group of misfits including his best friends Fitz Fitzgerald and the sleepy Ed Young in the Section 8 ski school. They face the All Star Ski School led by Reid Janssens in the Annual Spring Pageant. Dave has an eye for his girlfriend Lori. John Roland is the new kid on the slopes. It's a world of pranks and sexual escapades.

It wants to be Animal House on skis. Dean Cameron has a certain charm. It doesn't rise up to that level. It's not even close. There are boobs. There are jokes. It has a sense of innocent fun. It's a very lightweight sex comedy.

If Bluto Blurtarsky had ever taken up skiing, this would no doubt be the result.

"Ski School" is about as close to the "Animal House" spirit as any of AH's subsequent rip-offs ever came close to. Again, the slobs versus the snobs, only this time on the ski slope.

Cameron, as leader of the slobs, makes a jovial wit as a hybrid between a Delta pledge and a champion (or in this case, lucky) skier. His partners in crime are also as crass as they come: beer-drinking, food-gorging, leering, sexist and eternally adolescent. But in a movie like this, those are considered positive qualities.

The women are all beautiful and, par for the course in a movie like this, mostly naked. But they are also given personalities, character traits and allowed to make their own decisions. That's something most guys like this are probably unused to and, therefore, find attractive. Lucky guys.

The skiing scenes are quite professional and exciting. And a surprising amount of the gags here succeed. There's even a few minutes where the origins of the lambada, monogamy in wolves and the creative uses for video equipment are dwelled on at length. Funny stuff.

If any of you think the spirit of "Animal House" is long gone from today's straight-to-video slob comedies, rent "Ski School" and breathe a sigh of relief.

The tradition lives on.

Six stars. Plus one for Cameron's considerable contributions. And a half star for the lambada...that's the forbidden dance, you know.

Ski School takes it's partying seriously!

Perhaps the third best "Beer" movie ever behind "Strange Brew" and "Beerfest". It's not a ski movie - it's a beer movie:)

"its not how far you go....but how go you far." Section 8 won't quit until they've drank every case on the mountain. There's a nice little drama piece when a beer spills....and the nerds versus Jocks thing works nicely....this has got to be scored higher....I think I'm gonna start a petition for a higher SKi School score. This isn't rocket science...and there won't be any academy awards(although Cameron is GENUINELY funny here)..... If you want a FUNNY movie about beerests...this is it. Grab a case of High Life and this movie off the shelf and it's twenty bucks well spent. 57/100

You'll like it if you liked: Beerfest, Hot Dog:The Movie, Strange Brew, Hot Tub Time Machine, and Up the Creek.