Tracks Movie Reviews

This collection of clips showing some of the world's best extreme athletes performing tricks that seem either impossible or simply insane begins with something of a cautionary note as a battered dude in a hospital bed intones a list of injuries sustained when the big fun got a little too gnarly.But if hearing about such downers as a "bruised pancreas and a bruised bladder" doesn't scare you off, there's plenty of wild action coming. The clips feature "big wave surfing," snowboarding, bmx bike jumping, skateboarding, and other extreme events. The tricks, which are almost always accompanied by throbbing rock music, tend to be spectacular feats of acrobatics, but an engaging aspect of the filming is that much of it was shot in totally ordinary circumstances. For instance, skateboarders are shown doing tricks not only on specially built ramps but on ordinary sidewalks, steps, and railings, and much of the material appears to have been shot with basic home video equipment. The action, spectacular as it might be, has a definite "do it yourself" feel to it. Of course, these tricks aren't for amateurs, and big names in extreme sports, including Laird Hamilton, Danny Way, Biker Sherlock, Fuzzy Hall, and Christian Fletcher, gleefully show off their best stuff, along with some occasional injuries. --Robert J. McNamara

From the beginning, Storm Scooters and Razor Sharp Tricks seems a little out of touch. The half-hour video starts out with a man building a wooden scooter, "The Shavor," for his son. Excuse me, a wooden scooter? It features 15 riders doing cool spins, flips, jumps, and grinds. Although the tricks are neat, it becomes a little tedious to watch the same maneuvers over and over again. Sometimes the footage has an artsy bent, incorporating brown-and-white video and hip-sounding music. It would be a great video for nonverbal kids because probably fewer than 10 words are spoken throughout. Injuries to kids and their wheels are also on display--people fall, wreck their scooters, and do dangerous stunts, such as scooting over someone lying down. If I were going to buy a single scooter video, it wouldn't be this one. Try Scooter Mania for the easier-to-understand beginner tips. --Gillian Clow