Voando Alto

As a Southern-Californian, snow might as well come from a different world. We receive at the most, a few flurries in the winter, but even then, it needs to be on a full moon on a leap year if it's not Tuesday. That said, we can still provide a wealth of athletes in sports that are played in the winter. Both local ice hockey teams, the Anaheim Ducks and the Los Angeles Kings, have won the Stanley Cup and are seen as some of the best hockey teams in America. Shaun White, famous snowboarder, hails from San Diego and Michelle Kwan, the figure skater, is from the L.A. area.

The lesson here is that a champion can come from anywhere. A good movie that provides this example is Cool Runnings from Disney. This portrays the country of Jamaica creating a bobsled team for the 1988 Winter Olympics. Though goofy and clearly not a realistic representation of what happened, the movie was upbeat about one following their dreams to become an Olympic athlete. What's interesting that today's movie was set during the same 1988 Olympics. Eddie the Eagle looks at an aspiring ski jumper as he tries to go fro the gold.

Ever since he was a young boy, Eddie Edwards has wanted to go to the Olympics, yet has little athletic skill. He tries his hand at several sports until he sees skiing as his best shot. As an adult, Eddie (played by Taron Egerton) seems to be doing well, he's not selected to join the British downhill skiing team due to his odd technique and just simply not being one of the best. He then sees that the country has not had a ski jumper in a long time, and decides to take advantage of that empty spot to secure a spot.

He packs his bags for Germany at the official training facility where his attempts to mingle with the other ski jumpers are met with laughter. While trying out the hills, he comes across alcoholic snow groomer Bronson Peary (played by Hugh Jackman). Eddie finds out that he used to be a part of the American Olympic team under the coaching of Warren Sharp (played by Christopher Walken). He takes pity and agrees to give Eddie the proper coaching. Eddie manages to win a local match that qualifies him to join the Olympic team. While the odds of winning are low, he's happy to be chasing his dream.

Eddie the Eagle sounds like your run of the mill sport biography and…basically is…but it's also self aware of that and has fun with itself. I can't think of another movie where ski jumping is portrayed and it looks really cool on a cinematic scale. The sport's high flying action allows for some impressive shots to prove that it was not computer generated.

Like Cool Runnings, it's also clearly not using the same story, given how silly a lot of the scenes flow. While it's not laugh out loud hilarious, it makes up by being just as upbeat as the latter. Taron Egerton is proving his worth as an actor, managing to be the perfect athlete and dweeb in one crazy experiment. You know his character is out of their element, but Taron makes him very likable. Hugh Jackman does well as his coach, more or less throwing in a lot of his charm and ability to play off the comedic writing to his advantage. Hugh gains cool points for his shot of ski jumping with a cigarette in his mouth.

Going into Eddie the Eagle, you really need to be in the right mood for it to hit you in the right spot.

I'll give this eight and a half ski jumpers out of ten. Those that want a gripping story of an athlete should look someplace else. But for those that want something upbeat like Cool Runnings and Rudy, then Eddie the Eagle should please you well enough. Despite the premise, this is no downhill crash; it's a flier that knows where to land.

First of all, I have to say that I'm generally not a fan of biopics, they just aren't the type of movie I seek out. I got tickets to the sneak preview and my wife really wanted to go. Anyway, that preamble out of the way, I really did enjoy the movie.

Eddie the Eagle is a story about an underdog in every sense of the word. One theme that is repeated throughout the movie, is the quote from Pierre de Coubertin (father of the modern Olympics), "The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part; the important thing in Life is not triumph, but the struggle; the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." The story follows Eddie from the time he's a little kid with dreams of going to the Olympics. It follows him through his many assorted set-backs, and all the people around him who saw only failure in his future. It also shows the moments when he got helping hands when he most needed it. This movie is about his struggle.

The casting in the movie was quite good. I remember Eddie the Eagle from TV when I was young, and Taron Egerton does an excellent job in the role of Eddie. Hugh Jackman puts in a good performance as the coach Bronson Peary, and manages not to overpower Eddie's character. But while Taron Egerton really assumes the part of Eddie, a lot of Hugh Jackman leaks into his role as coach Peary.

The roles of Eddie's parents are also well played, and the actress playing his mother, Jo Hartley, gives a particularly poignant portrayal. The father, played by Keith Allen (currently uncredited on IMDb) is a bit of a caricature, but well acted. Actually, a lot of the supporting cast of characters are caricatures, especially the other ski-jumpers/coaches and the British Olympians/Olympic Committee. But to an extent that serves to emphasize the struggle for Eddie. Also, for those intent on seeing this film for Christopher Walked, he has a very small role.

While, I have emphasized the struggle aspect of the story, there is a lot of comedy thrown into the mix as well. The tone is upbeat throughout, even when Eddie has setbacks. While some of the failures are played for laughs (mostly early in the film), it's mostly Eddie's perseverance that makes this film endearing. It also feels like we're laughing with Eddie rather than at him, since it seems Eddie's in on the joke.

If you're on the fence about seeing this movie, I say give it a shot.

If ever there was a feel-good movie, this is it! Based on a true story, this film is suspenseful, dramatic and hilarious all in one, resulting in an insanely entertaining feature. Taron Egerton is brilliant as hero Eddie Edwards. He conveys emotion so well that you feel every feeling, every failure and every triumph. He is perfect as the nerd, likable hero and champion. Hugh Jackman is perfectly cast as a has-been champion who unwillingly becomes Eddie's coach. His 'Bo Derek' scene is fabulously hilarious and brilliantly acted.

I remember Eddie the Eagle as a joke, a laughing stock, incessantly pilloried by the gutter press and sneered-at by the mainstream media alike.

This film made me realise just how wrong I was.

Those shots peering down from the top of the ramp at the tiny people in the distance barely hint at the terror, standing up there and knowing that when you set off, there is only one way down.

They don't so much fall, as plummet.

I enjoyed the humour and the music, but most of all the story ... just ... worked. I know it's dramatised, it's not a documentary. Doesn't matter. It was something unique, truly special. And the film captures the essence of Eddie's '15 minutes of fame' in a remarkably positive and upbeat way. A true Olympian.

The British love a plucky loser. "Eddie the Eagle" tells the astonishing but true story of everyman plasterer Eddie Edwards who qualified for, and then competed in, the Calgary Olympics in 1988 (probably most famous for those other plucky losers – the Jamaican bobsleigh team of Disney's "Cool Runnings" fame). I have absolutely no idea how the traditionally more success-driven and competitive American audience will see it, but the packed English showing I attended all clearly loved this film as a feel-good classic.

The film starts with Eddie's childhood, struggling out of leg braces to try to pursue his Olympic dream with no success whatsoever. (Excellent performances here by brothers Tom and Jack Costello who set-up the tone for the film). His battle is not just against his lack of skill: whilst his mother (Jo Hartley) is quietly supportive, his father Terry (Keith Allen) is – not unreasonably it must be said – hugely frustrated at his son's fanciful ideas, wanting him to follow in the family plastering tradition with the same zeal. (The gulf in ambition is vast – Eddie: "Didn't you have a dream when you were younger Dad?"; Terry: "Yes, plastering".)

Eventually Eddie finds a sport he is half decent in (by British standards!): downhill skiing, but is thwarted in following his Olympic dreams by smarmy and sneering Olympic selector Dustin Target, played by Tim McInnerny (from "Black Adder" and "Notting Hill"… someone who has rather cornered the market on 'smarmy and sneering'). It is then that he exploits ancient rules in the UK Olympic playbook to try to qualify in the discipline of ski-jumping: something no one has done since the 1920's. Linking up in Austria with an alcohol-infused coach and ex- jumper Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman), Eddie faces the terrors of the 40m and then 70m jumps to try to learn the sport (16 years too late).

This film has been long in gestation, with both Steve Coogan and Rupert Grint originally earmarked for the role. But Matthew Vaughn's involvement in the current project probably contributed to Taron Egerton getting the job following their work together on last year's "Kingsman". And a great choice he is too. Almost unrecognizable from the sharp- suited Eggsy in "Kingsman" and gangster-sidekick Teddy in "Legend", Egerton switches effortlessly between clueless goofball and steely determined sportsman.

The film's emotional heart though is with Hugh Jackman's side-story, battling with drink after throwing his own chance away with US-coach Warren Sharp (a nice cameo by Christopher Walken). Although going a little OTT at times (we see for example that he is no Meg Ryan!), Jackman provides a solid acting foundation that the rest of the cast can play off.

Rounding out the cast are solid performances from Jo Hartley ("This is England") as Eddie's Mum, Mark Benton ("Waterloo Road") as a BOA official, Rune Temte as a bear of a Norwegian coach and the ever-warming Jim Broadbent as a BBC commentator.

An 'attaboy' should also go to the special effects crew headed up by Marty McLaughlin for making believe a man can fly. Whilst – you understand – not in any way doubting Jackman's ability to risk his pretty face on a 90m jump, the nighttime sequence of him doing that jump is really nicely executed (with cinematography by George Richmond).

A quick browse at Wikipedia will make it clear that there has been a lot of license taken with this as a "true story", and to be fair the prefix "based on a.." was used! And the film is not without irritations: Terry's negativity to his son's actions is about 25% overplayed in Simon Kelton's story, and the coach/protégé sub-plot has been overused in the past. The soundtrack (music) by Matthew Margeson is also rather grating particularly early on in the film: it is presumably going for 'period' in its use of Hammond organ cheesiness, but that music was tiresome in the 80's too! Fortunately Margeson redeems himself with some kick-ass (no pun intended) classic 80's tracks neatly edited into the action.

These criticisms aside, I dare you to come out of this film without a silly grin on your face. I certainly did. Directed by Dexter Fletcher ("Sunshine on Leith") it's not likely to win any Oscars, but in setting out to deliver what it said on the can it succeeded in all respects.

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