WARREN MILLER – CHILDREN OF WINTER REVIEW
11/25/2008 – Santa Cruz: Well the boys and I decided to check out the new WME film Children of Winter (#59), which had low expectations based on last seasons flick – Playground. I don’t know about you guys, but WME releases seem to have lost its heart ever since Kurt Miller $old it to Time, Inc. several years back (Warren must be a tad bummed). With the new-schoolers (Matchstick, Poor Boyz, TGR, Rage) taking over the niche box office it’s a wonder if Time4Media Group has their sites on any of the new blood!
Anyhow, we rallied at Seabright Brewery for some grub and suds and talk about some of the Tahoe events coming up that need filming. We headed over to the Rio grabbed our seats to a nearly sold out crowd (680) and started filling out our coupons for chances to win…ANYTHING (Like as if we don’t already have enough junk email!). The WM emcee came out to pump up the crowd, which seemed subdued, what ever happened to the rowdy ski crowd…guess we are much older and sleep deprived!
SETTLE IN, FILMS STARTING!
The crisp lines of HD are still a wonderful sight on the big/small screen and the opening scene readies the eyes for its candy! Jonny Moseley narrates us through a journey that 98% of the audience will never see in their lifetime and that’s the main reason we all flock to these incredible films, to be a part of such a ride…even if its just for an hour.
World-class athlete’s appear: Daron Rahlves, Andy Mahre, Marco Sullivan, Seth Wescott, and Wendy Fisher tear up big mountain lines. A great segment with legendary pipeline surfer Gerry Lopez pulls in great perspective on the link between wet and dry H20…my personal favorite. (All the top ripper park-rats are filming with the new-schoolers and are void of this film)
The Billy Poole memorial segment was a great tribute to the man who passed away during the filming of this movie; it’s hard for most of us to remember just how dangerous this sport is while riding the groomers.
INTERMISSION: I still can’t get use to an intermission – I do remember them, as a kid at the local drive-in but that was to sell as many Trotsky burgers that your lower intestine could handle.
PISS BREAK OVER: As the film takes us on a roll around the world, it starts to feel a little muddled. Then a segment stops in Vermont where band members from Yukon Kornelius and actor Jason Biggs bounces back and fourth from small club jamming to learning how to snowboard, this segment should have been left on the editing floor.
The other annoyance is the increasing blatant product-placement, seems to be getting worse with each film, guess it is the sign of the TIMES!
Interesting to see several people leaving two thirds of the way through the flick, were they bored, hungry, late or horny?
All in all, it was a great night out (Fueled by hops and barley) and on a scale of 1 (forget it) to 10 (theater, own it), I would give this a 5.5 (rent it)
I still look forward to WM films, but I think next year I will spend my hard earned coin on the new-schoolers flicks…and rent #60.
OUT
