Sports Movie Reviews

Three parts of the video are strongest for me. One is Joe Buck call of Jim Leyritz's HR in Game 4, "Back at the track - at the wall - we are TIED!" Then there's McCarver's one word description when Paul O'Neill, bad hamstring and all, reaches as far as he can to save the 1-0 shutout - "Ballgame!"

Then there's that silly Braves fan with long, straggly black hair boasting, "They ain't gonna beat Smoltz."

I often wonder if she's SEEN this video...

Who are these guys anyways? Peel off the painted-on-tight designer riot-coloured ski suits and place them in regular clothes at their day jobs, and you'll find mild-mannered Lise Meloche and David McMahon. But don't let appearances fool you.

Meloche and McMahon are a bona fide, dynamic duo whose mission in life is to take the standard wool-knickered, walk-in-the-woods granola image of cross country skiing, a sport often grouped with hiking and carriage riding, and drag it, screaming and kicking if necessary, into a new realm.

If Meloche and McMahon have their way, cross-country skiing and other "clean oxygen fed sports" (a term they've trademarked) will rank up there with the darlings of the winter commercial kingdom, skiing and snowboarding. And while they're at it they plan to drag biathlon, trail running, triathlon, biking, and rowing out of the shadows as well.

They're own credentials are impressive. Out on the ski trails, casually pulling 360s on her ultra skinny sticks, Meloche plays Jinks to McMahon's James Bond. Both have skied to the top in the almost unknown world of cross-country racing. She owns 7 world cup medals, one of them gold; he's a national biathlon champion and together, they've, please pick one: A) formed an outdoor endurance sport film house à la Warren Miller, B) built a team of national level endurance athletes, C) founded an athletic movement based on lung power.

The film house, WWW.XCZONE.TV, where McMahon, a former figure skater, combines athleticism and artistry to promote lung-powered sports is definitely D) all of the above. XCZONE.TV can calls upon any of a number of national and Olympic athletes to fill out their cast. Their most recent effort is a biography of Olympic Medallist Beckie Scott, a CD that profiles her fantastic performance at the 2001 World Cross Country Skiing Championships at Salt Lake City.

At their home base in Chelsea, Quebec, McMahon and Meloche are now in post production on their most ambitious production yet, "Unlimited". For it they crisscrossed the country, filming the best endurance athletes in cross-country skiing, trail running, triathlon, inline skating, mountain biking, rowing, telemark skiing, roller skiing, cycling, paddling, and adventure racing. It's new territory, you'll never look at these sports quite the same way.

The Banff Film Festival finalist, High Velocity, an earlier effort in which McMahon used the film noire genre and a cast of Olympians to search for skiing?s true soul, does for cross country what the 1950s film "Let's Go Skiing with Warren Miller" did for alpine skiing. For one chase scene, McMahon hangs from a chopper skid filming cross-country skiers shredding a double diamond, with rifle slung over their shoulders.

If anything, McMahon is Canada's Warren Miller minus the millions of dollars. "What he did isn't lost on us," says McMahon who uses the latest lightweight, unobtrusive and highly mobile resolution digital video and 16mm to produce high quality images. "Technically we?re ahead of the game."

Still money is tight. Unlike downhill skiing, the endurance sports aren't about to go big time commercial anytime soon.

"There's easier ways to make money in film," says McMahon. Even so, he does what he can to support cash strapped athletes, and proceeds from the Scott film go directly to supporting the Olympic champion.

Still in the end, it will never be about the money for this ski-struck pair.

"It's never been about exploiting the sport we love," McMahon says. "If we can bring a little colour, some pizzazz to the winter landscape and help some of the power endurance sports break out, and break even in the process, we've succeeded,"

"Another group that has been setting new trends in the sport is the combo of David McMahon and Lise Meloche with their new video called 'High Velocity'. This is the second video they have produced and it is definitely changing the rules as to how XC ski vids should be made. This isn't your dinky little XC ski video that shows you what good technique should look like in a wide open field, with lots of slow motion 'analyse this' shots. With some good tunes and great action shots, I would compare 'High Velocity' to an extreme skiing video version of Cross Country skiing. (...) Good job guys." - Philippe Villeneuve, Canadian National Ski Team

I am a New York Yankee fan and if you think it is too painful for me to watch the World Series again, think again. I was not the only Yankee fan on the face of the earth who was beseeching the deity not to let us lose to the Boston Red Sox, promising that we would not ask to win the World Series as long as it was not the BoSox and Pedro Martinez who ended our season. So I have no complaints. Yes, it would be nice if the right centerfield fence in Florida was ten feet closer and I think Joe Torre made an actual mistake when he did not bring in Mariano Rivera to pitch instead of letting Jeff Weaver pitch a second inning, but then I think of Aaron Boone inheriting Bucky Dent's middle name in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and I must be content.

But if you are neither a Marlin fan nor a Yankee fan, but simply a baseball fan, consider what moments are preserved on this DVD, which covers the entire postseason and not just the World Series:

* The Boston Red Sox losing the first two games against Oakland and then coming back to win the series against the A's. Does the Oakland curse have a specific name yet?

* The Florida Marlins defeating the San Francisco Giants as Pudge Rodriguez reminds everybody why he is a future Hall of Famer and participates in the most dramatic play at the plate ever to clinch a series.

* Mark Prior and Kerry Wood leading the Chicago Cubs to their first postseason series victory since 1908, while Sammy Sosa goes long.

* The first game between Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez, including the bench clearing festivities. Somewhere Howard Cosell is yelling "Down goes Zimmer! Down goes Zimmer!" and the final game between Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez, with the entire season come down to the ying and yang of Grady Little and Aaron Boone.

* Mike Lowell coming off the bench to hit a pinch-hit home run and the final two games in Chicago as a poor Cubs fan becomes the anti-Jeffrey Maher and the Fish swim away with the National League title.

* For World Series memories lets talk Andy Pettite pitching in Game 2 and the Marlins and their crowd applauding Roger Clemens final strikeout on the one side, with the Luis Gonzales game winning homer in Game 4 and Josh Beckett's shutout in the finale.

It is hard to stop putting together a list once you start. Pettite tied the record for post season wins while Joe Torre sets a record for post season wins as a manager and Bernie Williams becomes the first player to hit 19 post season home runs. Pudge Rodriguez proved that catcher is an offensive position while playing defense, Miguel Cabrera became the youngest cleanup hitter since Ty Cobb, Jack McKeon won his first title as manager at age 72, somehow everybody forgets that Brad Penny was the only pitcher who won two games in the Series.

The best postseason in baseball history? Sure. You try and name a better one. And all the memories you will never forget are on this DVD in case you need visual proof it all really happened just like you remember.

The featured surfer is Del Cannon, the "Sir Lawrence Olivier" of the surf movie. This movie has it all, great vintage south shore fun, rare point break at Makaha, rare footge of some fabulous surfers of the 60's (what style!). I loved "an early Donald Takayama doing an early wipeout".

Plenty of Bruce Brown shenanigans as well, like when Del Cannon tries to make his own blank. That's as funny as any episode of 'Jackasss'.

A charming view into a simpler day and age.

And the soundtrack!! WOW!! Bud Shank & Co. provide cool west coast jazz that is both sophisticated and appropriate for the film. Like a cool sea breeze, and then like a powerfull ride down the Banzai Pipeline, Shank provides memorable music.

Better then 'Slippery' and 'Hollow Days', and in my opinion, 'Endless'. A true gem! Buy it.

-Thanks

I just hope Best Motoring releases their other volumes in DVD format!

The following section is the Tsukuba Circuit Battle which other front engine rear wheel drive cars battle against the Z. Naoki Hattori drives a Boxster (though not a FR layout, the Z was inspired by the Boxster), Akihiko piloting the 350Z, Keiichi behind the wheel of an M3, Motoharu driving the S2000, and Takuya driving an R34 Skyline as the camera car with numerous cameras around the body. The cars are placed by power to weight ratios and the Boxster is started way in front with other cars following is the 350Z, S2000, then M3 with the Skyline in the last starting poll. I am not going to talk about the race too much, it was extremely funny at times and is super enjoyable. Hattori has some funny things to say about the Boxster. After the battle, the drivers talk about the cars and overall impressions.

After the whole 350Z Shock is a set of recent Hot Version videos that are awesome and hilarious to watch. Hot Version is bi-monthly video magazine from the creators of Best MOTORing. Difference between the two is that BM is of stock production cars being taken to the limit where as HV is about tuned sports cars. The first part of the Hot Version section is NA on the RUN, which is a dedication of the naturally aspirated cars that has changed the whole Japanese car tuning culture. Before 2.0L NA RWD cars did not get much respect but now people are begining to see the NA way. So Hot Version got the Amuse S2000 (driven by Keiichi) and TechnoPro Spirit MR-S (driven by Orido and has a 1.8 Celica engine left at 190horses) to compete with two turboed Silvias (a 280hp Champs S14 driven by Nobuteru and Keioffice S15 driven by Kawasaki with over 300hps) on a circuit. The battle is exciting and puts things into perspective. You don't need power to be quick on circuits, it is all about balance. There is additional footage of Keiichi and Orido taking a TRD Altezza around the same track giving impressions of the tuned car.

Following the special is a 2 liter VTEC BATTLE which features a 2.0L Civic Type-R, Euro Accord Type-R, S2000 to race on another circuit. The battle is well planned out and the cars are pretty amazing for what they are. Much respect to them.

Following the VTECH BATTLE is the TOUGE SHOWDOWN 2. The introduction is way funny with silly acting by Keiichi and Nobuteru aka NOB. It is humorous, especially how they passively refer to Initial D in a belittling manner. Battles are set up like with a AE86 against a Skyline, ITR vs Champs S14 Silvia, TechnoPro MR-S vs Keioffice S15 Silvia. The main point they are trying to prove is that power is not everything. Balance is more important than sheer power has to offer. NOB is a great driver and actually is a cool guy from the footage compared to what people say about him.

This BMi video is well worth 30 bucks. If the video was worth 50 bucks it would still be a great value! The technical information provided from the whole 350Z experience is awesome. The interview with Kazutoshi Mizuko and technical overview by Akihiko was one of my favorites and enables the viewer to further appreciate what Nissan has done with the new Z car. Driving impressions by the drivers helped as well. Like always the circuit battle had kept my attention the whole time rooting for certain cars. NA on the Run and Touge Showdown put things into perspective for future drivers. This was worth the wait and I recommend those who are interested in Best MOTORing to check out 350Z Shock DVD