Call to Fly

The no-budget film genre is truly a testament to behold. Mostly a spawning ground for pretentious film school dropout and no talent hacks whose "films" are poorly conceived ripoffs of other production, it is not without its redeeming qualities.

Take for instance this offering. Minor, passable entertainment, "Call to Fly" is inoffensive and funny, moving at a leisurely pace and filled with some decently filmed skating sequences.

The story is threadbare but serves its purpose. Todd Falcon, respected skateboard jockey and all around nice guy plans to retire from the circuit and concentrate on running the Insanity skate park with his friend Deane. His plans get convoluted when he starts to develop a crush on Jade Sanford (Rebecca Torrellas), who has just inherited a rival skating park. Their blossoming relationship is threatened, however, by the interference of an evil oil tycoon (since J.R. on "Dallas," has any oil tycoon been good?) who owns the land Jade's park leases and wants to demolish it. I don't recall what he intended to use the land for, probably for a baby-killing factory, a Starbucks or something else equally dreadful. Oh, and he wants Jade for himself, too.

Jade's father ran a skateboarding club for underprivileged kids, and she feels guilty, among other things, that it will be shut down following the closure of her park. The rest of the film involves hosting a skateboarding event for fund-raising, musical acts, and budding love between the main characters (No, not Todd and the oil tycoon! Todd and Jade!) "Call to Fly" is a fairly crude film, mostly shot in a series of quick takes that constantly jump between characters. For this, the reactions between the characters don't always flow well. The story is frequently interrupted with skateboarding montages and at times the romance seems a little forced.

However, the movie isn't bad. It's mostly an innocent romp, the actors all seem to be having fun, and Falcon is a good enough director to know how long a scene should be, which puts him light years ahead of most directors at this level. Todd and Rebecca make a cute couple, not surprising given that they're a real life couple, too. The skateboarding tricks are pretty interesting to watch, and despite following the cliché "Let's save the *fill in the blank* from the evil industrialist" motif, the movie does manage a few nice surprises.

At one point in the film, the characters are attacked en masse by a hoard of the oil tycoon's henchmen. A long fight breaks out, which manages to entertain quite well. Obviously, it pales in comparison with, say, the bathroom rumble in "The Warriors," but for a low-budget comedy, it almost seems like an homage to the old live-action Adam West "Batman" series, only missing the "Bam!" and "Ooof!" onomatopoeias.

Really, for a movie aimed at kids, it's all in good fun. If you're interested in seeing an example of a creative micro-budget offering, this is a fine example. It would be interesting to see what director/star Falcon could do with a much higher budget.

Six out of ten stars. It was entertaining, which is what any film should be.

I thought Call to Fly was a great movie, with cool skate boarding scenes and with great music to go along with the skating.. A great film for the whole family.. A love story that develops between the 2 main characters, even though they must overcome obstacles between them. Good old fashion style movie, with a story, plot and action in between. Good for the whole family, but targeted to teen-agers, with the heavy music, lots of bands music showcased, plus the Main character has his own band in the movie and they play at a live show at the end of the movie, I was kept wanting to see the band play and finally towards the end you get to see Stage Dive.

Poetic and heartwarming, though predictable at times. I would recommend this film for kids as well as those adults who are willing to watch this movie without prejudice and cynicism. Some of the songs feature beautiful morphing animated scenes that remind me of some of the animation in Pink Floyd's "The Wall". This is one of the films that my kids enjoy watching once and again. The best: the beautiful poetry, the animated, surreal animations to some of the songs, and the positive values conveyed by the story. The worst: somewhat dull character design and animation, the plot is sometimes predictable, and I find the humor sometimes silly.