Monday, November 24, 2008

Movie Review – Double Decade

For 2009 Mack Dawg Productions is celebrating their 20th year in the business with the release of Double Decade. The title is fitting because back in 1999 they released Decade. Double Decade features your favorite riders that MDP has been filming for the last couple of years like Jeremy Jones, Andreas Wiig, Seth Huot, DCP, Eero Ettala, Jussi Oksanen and more. Also riding are returning stars that use to film with MDP like my favouite rider JP “The Don” Walker and Devun “Whistler backcountry master” Walsh. Double Decade was film in places like Whistler, Mt. Baker, the Tahoe area, Finland and I think I even saw a couple scenes within Montreal hitting up handrails/jibs.


The concept of the flick is to give the audience a history lesson on the progression of snowboarding and filmmaking, along with a great movie that MDP is know for. You will also notice a lot of homage to past flicks by the places that were filmed in this movie, especially the jibbing scenes.

So without further adieu here is my review on Double Decade.

1) Soundtrack

One major thing you will thing you will notice when you watch Double Decade is that there is only one hip-hop track, weird…and it’s not even in JP’s part. Regardless of the lack hip-hop that music throughout the film works with music from the Doobie Brothers, Pet Shop Boys, NOFX, The Cardigans and the Ramoans. The soundtrack kind of gels together in a more laid back way rather that hard hitting like in past movies. I don’t mind this collection of music for the film but I don’t think it’s MDP best. I think they could have put in a bit more climatic hard hitting tracks to give the movie more pop…come on MDP this is your 20th year anniversary.

2) Cinematography

Cinematography in this film was good…very much the same as Picture This. Shots were clean, crisp and the colours came through well…high quality filming techniques. Also editing was done well as no scenes were cut off at the beginning or end…they showed all riders tricks from start to finish including a good amount of run out. The tricks within each scene were seamlessly put together and flowed really well.

3) Rider Segment / Scene

Each rider in the movie did a good job so it’s hard to choose to a scene that stands out….one doesn’t standout more than the other. But if I had to pick I would say the history lesson 201 and JP Walker’s part…these two scenes are well placed and fit together back to back. It’s great to see JP back filming and his final scene jump was off the hook. I still can’t believe JP’s song is not a hip-hop one, but the Pet Shop Boys song does fit to my surprise. Devun’s part was really good too...it flowed amazingly.

As I said all the riders were awesome and the level of snowboarding high with tech tricks accompanied by amazing locations and conditions.

4) Extras / Bonus Features

There are not a lot of true bonus scenes in Double Decade. But the one they have are pretty cool it keep inline with the concept of the film by ask riders of the past and present who is the best Jumper, Jibber, Pipe Rider and what is the MDP film of the last 20 years. At first I thought, oh man what a waste, but as I watched them I really enjoyed hearing who the riders of the past picked for the best of.

5) Overall

Overall I enjoyed watch Double Decade, I think it was a well made film with solid riding from a star studded cast. I really liked the JP Walker was back filming and it was good to see him reunite with Jermey Jones and Devun Walsh. A couple of amazing riders from the old Forum team…brought back memories of my favorite MDP movie, True Life. Also the flick did get me amped to go out ride and it does that then it’s a pretty good movie. The only downside to Double Decade was the soundtrack. As mentioned before it should have been a bit more climatic for their anniversary movie. So sum this review I up I give Double Decade an 8 to 8.5 out of 10 and think it’s money well spent.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think you're wrong about the double decade soundtrack..it was awesome man

Mike said...

Didn't say it sucked....just not MDP's best.