Extreme Ops (2002)

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

(Note: Given the subject matter of the film, this review will contain copious uses of the word "extreme." It really can't be helped.)This is a film I have been seeking out for some time.I saw previews of it back in 2002 on several VHS tapes and DVD's I owned. And whenever the trailer would pop-up, a big, goofy smile would creep across my face and I'd let out an laugh. Because it looked bad. Really bad. Yet it also looked like it might have a hint of brilliance. Not in an intended way, mind you... but rather unintentional brilliance. It looked like it had the potential to be one of those "so bad, it's good" classics. One of those movies that's just so poorly put together, you can't help but enjoy it.Yet the film was also enigmatic when it came to trying to find it. For several years, I'd make an effort to seek it out. Whenever I was at our local Circuit City, Hollywood Video, Target... I'd inevitably take a quick peak to see if they had it. And I could never find it. And not only that- nobody I talked to had heard about it. Nor could they understand how amusingly bad it looked when I would try to describe it.So you can imagine my surprise when now, years after I eventually forgot about the film, I happened upon a random copy by chance at the home of someone I know.Remembering how interested I was in checking it out, I borrowed the copy and finally gave it a watch.... ... ...it wasn't worth the wait.Not only is it not a good film on its own, "Extreme Ops" isn't even good in an unintentional "so bad, it's good" kind-of way as I'd hoped. It's just a poorly put-together mish-mash of actors giving bad performances, portraying bland characters with occasional spurts of some of the most boring action I've ever seen.We follow a group of extreme sports fanatics and their director as they take a trip to the Alps to shoot "extreme" stunts and have "chill sessions" in between. However, they are unaware that a Serbian warlord is coincidentally in the same area, and he decides the kill off the extreme sports fanatics in an attempt to make sure nobody witnessed he or his plans. And so our heroes must attempt stay alive and thwart his schemes the only way they know how- displays of their extreme sporting talents.The performances are of literally no consequence. Save from a decent- enough performance by the underrated and criminally under-recognized Rufus Sewell, and the absolutely adorable Jana Pallaske making for a fun, spunky rocker/punk chick that I found endlessly likable. Everyone else completely blends into the background, being stock- beyond- belief.Directorial duties are handled by Christian Duguay, probably best known as the director of the first two "Scanners" sequels. And I can't help but feel Duguay was lost in making this film. (I'm guessing because of a lack of experience with "extreme" action) Performances and handling of the material often feels forced, coming off more as an out-of-touch director's attempts to be "extreme" than actually being extreme. It feels like a film made by someone who doesn't understand the material.I also have to comment that I found the camera-work to be quite poor in terms of composition and movement. Perhaps it was an issue with the copy I viewed, but I felt the framing of many shots (particularly during the climax) was very "low." (As in things would often go off the top of the frame a little bit.) And it was distracting. It felt like the actors were always about to bump their head on the top of the frame to me, and I found myself instinctively ducking my head slightly while looking up during my viewing as though I was trying to look up and see more of the picture.A major part of the failing of this film is that it doesn't do anything truly interesting with the characters or storyline. Nor does it do anything truly interesting with the stunt-work. I understand the idea of a film based around extreme-sports fanatics from a studio standpoint- extreme sports were popular at the time and had the potential to support a lot of good action- but this film doesn't do anything with the idea. The plot is among the thinnest you'll find, the characters very stock, and the displays of action are often boring and honestly are about as thrilling as anything you'd see on a cable- sports channel for free. It doesn't work for a feature-film, and there's no real draw for the audience to invest their time or money in seeing this film. Heck, the same year this was released, the original Vin Diesel vehicle "xXx" came out, and while not a great film, it more properly and interestingly utilized the concept of focusing the film around extreme sports. (In that film's case, by being a tribute and subversion of spy genre movies like the Bond series.) It just shows how lazy and haphazard this film was, when around the same time, other films more fully explored a similar concept.That being said, this isn't a total loss. As stated above, Sewell and Pallaske do well in their roles. And I did find a few scenes effective. Particularly a well-done effects sequence where characters have to out-race an avalanche. While it wasn't particularly showy, the scene did give an accurate depiction of what an avalanche looks like, especially for its relatively meager budget. (Although some laughable green-screen shots nearly ruin it.)I'm going to have to give "Extreme Ops" a poor 3 out of 10. It has its moments, but it feels too much like a lazy cash-in on trends of the time, particularly "extreme" sports, and is quite shoddily assembled. Definitely one to avoid.

An extreme sports advertising firm travels to snowy Eastern Europe to shoot an advert featuring snow-boarding in the middle of an avalanche. Despite the danger, all the thrill-seekers see it as a bit of fun but, when they accidentally get film of a "dead" war criminal very much alive, they find themselves in very real danger.Perhaps unfortunately also known as The Extremists, this film is an European attempt to do what xXx did in regards making an action film out of extreme sports. Now, to many viewers this may feel like a particularly bad overall aim but bear in mind that, instead of American muscle-man Vin Diesel, we've got Rufus Sewell in the lead – "oh sh1111111t boy....it's on now kid, we bringing the C-WELL" etc. You get my point – from the start you cannot shake the feeling that this is a product made without a lot of money sloshing around. With that in mind I did expect it to be awful and it was a weirdly nice surprise to find that it is only "not that good". The plot about terrorists in a remote location is not reached for two-thirds and up till then we just have lots of noisy "extreme sports" action. This snow-boarding stuff is all very well but, without any plotting or characters to speak of, you'd be better off just watching it on one of those channel 4 sports programmes instead.In the final thirty minutes we suddenly have an action movie as one would expect but this is too quick and lacking in tension or the sort of internal realism required to engage the viewer. It pootles along OK I suppose but it never shakes the feeling of being basic mainly because Duguay can't inject action and thrills into it, he does his best but the material is the root of the problem and the film never did anything for me other than distract. The cast don't help the feeling of this being done on the cheap but the bigger problem is that nobody really has a lot of presence or charisma. The only exception to this is Pallaske, who is cute and energetic enough to stick in the mind. Otherwise though we are left with Sewell being too bland for this film, Graves doing a "comedy" character, Wilson being blonde and tall, Sawa (better known as Eminem's Stan) doing not that much and then lots of Eastern European boiler-plates.Extreme Ops offers a mix of so-so extreme sports action, so-so narrative, so-so performances and so-so action. It is no surprise then that the overall film at its best is "so-so" and other than a very lazy Friday night watching cable, I don't think many viewers will find that this meets their needs. "Here we go again" is the final line of the film – extremely unlikely I'd say.

I'm actually watching it as i type this, thats how bored i am. Not much happens at all. It's too drawn out with no buildup for the first half, so when it gets to the main encounter, you don't really care.There is some OK "extreme" skiing and snowboarding, which looks alright, but thats about it. The stunts are good when they are climbing on stuff, and has potential but there's not enough at to keep you engaged. I think it's confused about what it's trying to be.The characters and acting is alright, the camera work and getting some good visual shots is good.Overall, it just doesn't work for me. if it was bad to the point of tacky, then i'd be fine with that.If you want to watch snowboarders, then get a snowboarding DVD. if u want to watch an action movie set in snow environment, better of getting cliff hanger or such.the only thing i like about this movie is Jana Pallaske

This film will win no awards for tasteful dialog, and forget a decent story line, and if it had been up to me I would have dropped Rupert Graves off of that balcony if I were Rufus Sewell. But hay, you can't have everything. Can the naive little glory hogging Gold Medalist. But the scenery was right on and the sports shots were great. he bad guys were bad (thats what they get paid for) and Devon Sawa was well he was there. Not one of his better film roles. I would watch it again though just for the Kayak scene at the beginning, and the scene where James is having his tizzy fit with the hotel desk clerk and the translator tells them something else completely. Don't listen to these other bozos. If you want the scoop, scope it for yourself. 'Nuff said.