Official "Revolver" Ski Movie Review

The opening of Poor Boyz REVOLVER is like watching a really cool "How It's Made" with the construction of some special Poor Boyz Production skis.  A different but very creative opening to display the sponsors.  PBP really hit it well with the artistic but yet powerful feel with the help of The Glitch Mob’s “Bad Wings.”  A very cool and effective song choice.  Some might think the opening is a little long but that kind of sets you up for what you’re in for over the next 70+ minutes you’ll spend gawking at this film. (and reading this review.)  So much good stuff.  This movie is filled with numerous banger segments.  Here are just some, OK, a lot of the highlights...

Sammy Carlson can claim First Segment in Revolver.  Well deserved and filled with tons of Sammy-steeze as you would expect.  No one can poke like Sammy.  He has gotten quite playful in the powder and taken his buttering skills to the backcountry.   And his Switch Triple 12 at the end…what?!?!  There is another segment later in the movie with Sammy putting on a clinic about how to spin.  In fact…there are 6 shots of Sammy hitting a mega large park jump.  In those 6 jumps combined, Sammy spins a total of 21.5 times around.  That’s a 7740.  And that doesn’t even include the other 1440 he does during the movie credits, off the same jump, but in a less traditional way with a full-on body bounce ON the knuckle at the 1080 mark in the rotation, to 360 out.   1080 Body Bonk 360 Out?…stomped.

Dane Tudor…His balls fear no boundaries.   Dane would easily win a ‘Most Improved’ contest for how much better his skiing has gotten since last year’s segments.   This guy is good.   He’s kind of a pretty boy but Dane can pull it off because he’s ill-looking no matter what he’s doing on skis, and even on a sled which he hucks off the same jumps a few times, big.  Dane has his name on his sled.  How ill is that?  He should have his name on a lot of other things for how well he dominates whatever is in front of him from massive big mountain lines to impressive urban features.   The outfit he's wearing is creative with that black picnic-blanket-looking, knee-length vest thing, but it films really well with his blue or green jacket and white pants underneath.  Dane's got his own style and it works.  He can charge, too.  No slowing down and always in control.  His closing line has got to be one of the best, longest, coolest, vertically stacked big mountain lines, filled with multiple spines to multiple drop zones to more spines and drops.  Very impressive ending.

Dane then introduces one of the more visually-unique segments of the year by saying, “We decided to do something different.  …It’s about to get dark.  Take the genies out.  Set the lights up and shoot some backcountry pillows in the dark.  Should be sick.”    He was not kidding because the footage is beyond sick.  Deep powder skiing and dropping big pillows AT NIGHT wearing some neat mining helmet lights with plenty of genies to highlight the landscape with artificial light.  There are some good-sized snowflakes falling while they film and we all know how cool big flakes look at night in bright lights during a dumping  storm. 

There is a sweet urban segment from the streets of Edmonton that displays the progressive status of urban skiing courtesy of Matt Walker, LJ Strenio, and a few other young guns.   Stacked with talent.  Really cool Point of View shots, too, giving an idea of what urban skiing looks like from an urban skier’s perspective.  I like it.  LJ closing things out in Strenio-style.  He closes out a bunch of  segments in a bunch of this year’s movies.  3 times in the new 4BI9 movie “Gunnie Season” and I’m sure there are a few segment enders in the new Meathead Film “Work It Out.”   LJ is getting it done all over the place.   

From progressive urban to progressive big mountain park skiing, Charley Ager and Tim Durtschi are in a different league when it comes to landing switch off big drops with usually some rotating happening prior to landing.  The art of landing switch in the backcountry is reaching insane levels because of these two guys.  Handling big mountain lines as if they were one of many lines in a terrain park.  Charley’s got this cool looking Octo-grab trick that looks even cooler with his super fat powder skis.  Tim finds out that big trees don’t have much give, in an obviously painful slam that starts his segment.  He has another scary slam from a Dub 1080 attempt at Chad’s Gap which is then followed up by Tim claiming that same Dub 10.  

JP Auclair’s segment will forever be a favorite of mine as far as Best Segments Ever.  Lots of big mountain charging with the help of a good combination of POV shots and wide angles that are timed well to give us a good View of what "charging” looks like to JP…all set to Rush’s “2112 Overture”….So sick!!  JP has most of these new school skiers by at least a decade in age yet he can still shame whatever surface his skis are sliding on, just like the youngins do.  He can even get his ‘urban’ on.  Wall riding off the side of a moving truck that is also moving…cool idea.  You know JP is older because he’s got a few shots in the halfpipe.  Classic.   Double back flips never get old as he demonstrates a few times off big jumps in the backcountry.  The segment (and song) end with JP killing a gnarly big mountain line, both timed perfectly.  This entire segment was edited extremely well.  And did I mention the song is from Rush…oh yeah.  (so sick.) 

Other random highlights… Bene Mayr oozes mad style off backcountry booters with a killer remix  from the Living Graham Bond song “Winter Hunter.”  Spinning both directions.   A bright ski movie future for that guy.  Niseko, Japan…Those multi-drop, pillow-like, avalanche-fence-things never get old.  I love the way skiers butter down those now.  Pep Fujas and Julien Regnier have some neat POV shots doing big mountain lines and cliff jumping trickery.  Charles Gagnier shows us how to slide “real” urban rails.  Crazy rail talent in that guy. 

Mr. Simon Dumont closes the movie out claming Final Segment .  I like the fact this is an X Games-free Simon segment.  Yet another skier in this movie that is sending it large.  Both road gap shots during this segment are some of the sweetest road gap shots out there.  I wish there were more.  I love the quarterpipe and halfpipe stuff at the end because of how enormously high Simon can go when vert is involved.   (Huge fan of anything ‘pipe.’)   Dub-ing it up a few times, too, while going 20+ feet out puts a final fist bump to the footage in the ending of the segment and movie.  

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Revolver has many strong segments and a few mellow ones allowing you to catch your breath and get ready for more intense visual ski season training with a sick soundtrack that only makes this movie THAT much better.  Each segment builds on itself and becomes increasingly better as it goes.   This movie has a strong shelf life for a ski flick you can always go to for some instant stoke, no matter how many times you’ve already watched it.  I become paralyzed every time it’s on.  The title of the movie is so appropriate for the speed at which the sport is evolving, as fast as a bullet leaving a Revolver. (maybe??)  Technology and imaginations are going off in skiing right now, and this movie does a great job of displaying that.  The wide variety of Big Mountain, Big Park, and  Big Urban, along with a touch of Slednecking makes REVOLVER the top choice this year for a one-ski-movie quiver.