Review of Extreme Days (2001) by Jonathan W — 23 Jan 2004

To be sure this is a clichéd and unoriginal story, but it does have some fun moments. The plot concerns 4 lifelong friends and extreme sports fanatics who take a road trip from California to Mexico, then to Washington to pay their last respects to one's grandfather when they learn of his death. And periodically, they stop to engage (or at least the stunt doubles do) in skiing, skateboarding, snowboarding, dirt biking, and other similar forms of extreme sports, the footage of which is quite repetetive and not terribly different from what you might see on any given day on ESPN. Also on their way to Washington, the four guys pick up one's female cousin, who draws the romantic interest of another in the group. As they go about their sporting adventures, hijinks in grocery stores, etc., he tries unsuccessfully to draw her attention. None of the acting is particularly noteworthy, but the girl gives the best performance in the movie, frequently acting rings around her male counterparts. Even the kid who played Rufio in Hook is there, though about 12 years older. (It's not hard to tell why he hasn't made any other big movies that I'm aware of.) The best parts of the movie are really when the four guys are together goofing off, which really was more amusing than I ever thought it could be. It's not groundbreaking in any way but it kept a smile on my face (for good or bad) most of the way through and was often hilarious.

I probably would have hated it if I had sat through it alone, so I would say it works best as a kind of group movie.