Movie Review – Ready (Absinthe Films)

To follow up last years snowboarding flick Absinthe Films released the 2009 film, Ready. Ready features the usually Absinthe riders like Nico Muller, JP Solberg, Romain DeMarchi, Gigi Ruf, and Wolle Nyvelt to name a few. One rider you see that is not on the list is Travis Rice. Travis created his own film for 2009 called That’s It That’s All.

Much of the film takes place in Europe, British Columbia Canada (Whistler and BC interior mountains) and of course what made Absinthe famous, in Alaska. As you can expect from Absinthe is that most of the riding is centered around big mountain snowboarding and taking technical freestyle tricks to the backcountry.

I was really excited to see this movie because last year two of my favourite riders were not featured in last years Absinthe flick, JP Solberg and Romain DeMarchi, due to injuries.

So without further adieu here is my review on Ready.

1) Soundtrack

Well I have to start of by saying that Absinthe Film was always experimental with their soundtrack, but they always seem to put it together well. This years soundtrack, in my opinion was not very good at all. It lacked any type of energy and climatic moments. It was really mellow from start to finish, almost putting me to sleep. Even the closing scene with Nico and Gigi was so mellow…I mean come on finish strong. I thing that really pissed me off about the soundtrack was JP Solberg’s and Romain DeMarchi’s part, the music did not compliment the riding and I was so looking forward to getting amped by their parts.

Absinthe, for next please step in the soundtrack department to inject more energy….the soundtrack sucked for this years flick Ready.

2) Cinematography

The cinematography in Ready was high quality as per the usually Absinthe flicks….not most cutting edge but good. Colours came out well and camera positioning for each scene was on point. Alot of the Alaska scene I special enjoyed watching because you can see what these riders are up against up there in that unforgiving terrain.

3) Scenes / Rider Segment

Putting the shitty soundtrack aside, the riding in this flick is awesome. I mean how could it not be with heavy hitters like Nico, JP, Gigi, Romain, Wolle and Jeremy Jones. My favourite scene had to have been JP Solberg’s segment. He had been injured for awhile now and partaking in filming for a bit but this years put was off the hook….he definitely killed it….right on JP. The guy is so smooth when launching off backcountry booters…he spins are so tight. I also really like watching the closing scene, baring the music, from Nico and Gigi as they put on a good show together. It gave me the sense of riding with my buddy just having fun.

4) Extras / Bonus Scenes

The bonus scenes didn’t have must but there did put in the Flipside to Optimistic, which is the making of last years movie. The Flipside to Optimistic is pretty cool to watch because it gives us an insight to a day in the life of a professional snowboarder….it not all gilts and glam.

5) Overall

To sum it up I really didn’t enjoy the soundtrack as I thought it was lacking energy and to bland. To me a soundtrack is what makes the flick that much better, not get me wrong the riding was awesome but because of the shitty music I think this years Absinthe movie is just average.

I give it a 6.5 to 7 out of 10 and would consider it just a one time rental type of movie. Meaning if you see it once it’s good enough, as I don’t think it’s worth the buy. It’s too bad because I really love Absinthe films but this one lacks the energy they once had.