The Best:
5. Airborne
If you grew up in the 90s, you probably loved this movie. Airborne follows Mitchell Goosen, a handsome California surfer and rollerblader that is forced to move to cold Cincinnati to live with his aunt, uncle, and wacky cousin, Seth Green (yes, the little dude from Family Guy and Austin Powers). He’s an outsider so of course, he gets picked on and treated like garbage and falls for the sister of the main antagonist of the film. That is, until they notice his amazing skating skills when they need him in order to beat ‘The Preps’ by racing Devil’s Backbone a treacherous trail.
If you don’t find yourself loving this movie then you’re not a patriot and you probably hate the troops.
4. Big Wednesday
Big Wednesday is a cult classic about the coming of age tale of three California surfers in the 1960’s. The film follows the three friend’s journeys as they go transition through adulthood, division, and tragedy. That is, until they are reunited once again to take on the most mind blowing wave of all time. If that isn’t enough to sell you, it stars Gary Busey. YOU’RE WELCOME!
3. Cliffhanger
Sylvester Stallone taught me what it was to be a man. After Rambo, I wanted to take on an entire village. After Rocky, I wanted to be a professional boxer who struggled to read yet had a heart of gold. After Over the Top, I wanted to become a professional arm wrestler and challenge everyone I met to arm wrestle me. After watching Cliffhanger, I wanted to climb to the top of Mount Everest and punch a unicorn. Cliffhanger gets your blood pumping.
Stallone plays a mountain climber who gets involved in a failed mid-air heist attempt set in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. People get punched, things get blown up, and every red-blooded American man wants to go mountain climbing afterward.
2. Point Break
The tagline for Point Break is “100% Pure Adrenaline.” That is an understatement. Point Break is about a former quarterback and undercover cop, Johnny Utah, who gets sent to California to capture a group of bank robbing surfers known as ‘The Ex Presidents.’ The thievery surfers hate violence but they have to rob banks to finance the ‘endless summer.’ Surfing isn’t cheap, ya know?
Patrick Swayze knocks it out of the park as Bodhi, the philosophical surfer and Keanu Reeves makes Al Pacino look like a chump. The film is filled with incredible scenes of skydiving, surfing, gun battles, fist fights, chase sequences, and beach football. Yes, it’s ridiculous but its one of the best action films of the past 30 years. It was so good that Hollywood decided to do a re-make of Point Break but swapped out surfboards for cars; they call it The Fast and The Furious.
1. Lords of Dogtown
Most of the time, skaters can be very annoying. They’re usually in parking lots trying to grind down rails while their buddies film their failures and laugh, but Dogtown makes skateboarding cool. It’s a feature film based on the successful documentary ‘Dogtown and Z-Boys.’ The film follows the 1970’s skateboarding trend that originated in the Dogtown area of Santa Monica, California and the forefathers of skating. Tony Alva, Stacy Peralta, and Jay Adams are the three main subjects of the film and all it’s glory.
The skating in the film looks incredible and feels realistic. Above all else, the acting steals the show too. I enjoy skating just as much as anyone else but the acting in Dogtown is the most impressive. Emile Hirsch and the late, Heath Ledger, steal the show with their performances. Combine all of that with a great soundtrack and you got yourself the most entertaining extreme sports movie out there.
The Worst:
5. North Shore
This one is baaaaaaaaaaaaaad. I mean, real bad. The cheesiness of North Shore should be illegal. The story is about a kid from Arizona, whose only surfing experience comes from riding his surfboard in a wave pool but goes out to Hawaii to be a ‘real’ surfer. The kid is mentored by an old surfer who shapes boards (somehow he has a house on the beach in Hawaii despite his income) and in a matter of weeks, he is mastering the waves at Pipeline. The story was atrocious but the acting was even worse. Legendary surfer, Laird Hamilton played the typical 80s villain. However, if his surfing was as bad as his acting, he would have already drowned.
4. Blue Crush
Blue Crush was simply made to sell more Hollister t-shirts to girls. Plus, it was a modern version of the 1950s classic, Gidget. Nothing to see here. Let’s just move along.
3.Gleaming the Cube
Pretend you’re a movie executive and I’m a screenwriter pitching you this script. It stars Christian Slater who plays Brian Kelly. He’s a skateboarding teen that doesn’t like the way adults run things. There were only two things he cares about; his brother and his skateboard. But one day, his brother is killed after discovering the shop he works in is actually sending weapons to Vietnam instead of medications. With revenge on his mind, Brian Kelly uses what he knows best…SKATEBOARDING! Classic, huh? Come to think of it, this probably should be on the ‘best’ movies list.
2. Rollerball
If you’re wondering why you never see Chris Klein anymore, look no further than the 2002 remake of Rollerball. Somehow there was a person out there that thought the guy from American Pie had ‘action hero’ all over him and cast Klein as the lead. You can look past that until you read the plot. Rollerball is about Johnathan Cross (Klein), a lover of extreme sports who is recruited by a ruthless business man to star in his new sport he invented, Rollerball.
In Rollerball, the players are on rollerblades, trying to bring a heavy metal ball into a high goal (kind of like basketball, I guess) with motorcyclist running around like crazy for some reason.. And of course, there are no rules. Yes, this movie exists. Throw in L.L. Cool J as the token black guy and the ex wife of Uncle Jessie from Full House; you get this garbage.. The crazy thing is, is that the same director who made Die Hard and Predator made Rollerball as well. Coincidentally, he hasn’t made a film in ten years.
1. Supercross
Any movie that has Aaron Carter in it must be awful. Even outside of his role in the film, this is hands down, one of the worst films of all time let alone worst ‘extreme sports’ film. Supercross is about more than just going VROOOOM VROOOOM on dirt bikes though. It’s about two rival brothers that find themselves competing with each other on and off the race track but must encourage one another to get back on their bike and take the Las Vegas Motocross Championships by storm.
Daniel Day Lewis should have fired his agent for not finding out about this role in time. Alright, enough with the sarcasm. This movie is filled with footage you could see on ESPN while watching the X Games and the dialogue is as if it was written by a 14 year old boy. I forgot to mention that Channing Tatum is in this as well. I’m betting that even Tatum is trying to forget about this movie..
Joshua Caudill is a writer for CraveOnline Sports. You can follow him on Twitter@JoshuaCaudill85 or subscribe at Facebook.com/CraveOnlineSports.
