Directed by: Steve Lawrence
Starring: Shaun White, Travis Pastrana, Ricky Carmichael, Danny Way, Bob Burnquist
Since X-Games 3D: The Movie has been advertised as a one-week engagement—and with the film’s paltry weekend box office guaranteeing this—it’s a movie that will have just a couple days left of moviegoing life in it by the time this review publishes. So for those of you wanting to hear Emile Hirsch’s narration wax philosophic about the wondrous poetry of dirt bikes whilst men fly through the air on skateboards—all in space-age 3-D—then make haste before it’s too late.
For everyone else who doesn’t find this the elephant’s instep, then you’re out of luck. As a celebration of what’s been coined “extreme action sports”—like snowboarding and skateboarding—the movie is strictly for fans only. The biggest draw is some former X-Games competitions filmed in 3-D, which amount to nothing spectacular and special, seeing as how it’s all still shot like a TV broadcast.
Some interviews—with X-Games luminaries like Shaun White and Bob Burnquist—are thrown in to add some feature-length padding and give some hint of legitimate filmmaking, but it’s never very interesting or probing. About the only time we get a genuinely interesting or honest response from anyone is at the beginning when Kyle Loza—whose career appears to consist of doing dangerous stunts on dirt bikes—claims that what he does is stupid and dangerous and scary. But that’s about as deep as we get into the heads of these daredevils.
In the end, your enjoyment of this film—and how impressive you find the action to be—is totally dependent on your fascination with extreme sports and the men who partake in them. Just don’t expect anything more than what boils down to a tarted-up ESPN special. Rated PG for extreme-sports action and accidents.
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