Extreme Ops (2002)

Here's a movie about a group of extreme sport practitioners involved in a commercial shoot that head up to an under-construction mountain resort to film, and accidentally run into a hardened criminal kingpin hiding out, who eventually starts to think they might be there for him...

It's dedicated to Werner.

I wonder who Werner was. Extreme sportsman possibly?

The movie starts a little corny, with techno or trance music playing as the camera pans around some young individuals performing death-defying stunts in a bundle of different scenarios - from snowy slopes to blue skies to raging rivers and canyons...

It's cut in such a way that it seems you're meant to enjoy the music more than the stunts themselves. It's sped up and fractured, and feels both dated and sloppy, and you don't perceive the danger nearly as much as you could have were they filmed a different way.

But that's not to say I don't still enjoy the style.

It's not one I'd prefer for action, but it's unusual enough that it twists things up a bit; makes this stand out among similar movie counterparts.

Plus I fall in love with the characters along the way, and the music gets surprisingly tense as the stunts do...

Techno Trance Dance and Hardcore's a little out of style now - and I wonder if it was popular even back when they made this movie - but this really was a solid movie.

The stunts look real too - never mind the bad cutting sometimes.

Save for the crappy chopper crash.

And in difference from the location-based dangers the villains never really come across as dangerous or evil as it feels they should.

Gotta learn more about these actors too. I wonder if they really are this crazy for real...

I love their chemistry. I love the girl too - excessively goofy though she may come across in dialog and interactions.

If you like stunts, and skis, slapstick-like parkour and just a lot of momentum and movement overall you'll probably like this.

Good movie after all. Different.

Atmospheric mountain compound too. I wonder if that was a set or no. Wonder if they really filmed most of this atop a mountain, on an under construction resort...

Would be even cooler if they actually did.

 rated 3.5/5: not bad at all