Extreme Ops
In “Extreme Ops,” a team of extreme sports enthusiasts have been hired by a commercial director to outrun an avalanche in the Austrian Alps. You know “Extreme Ops” is a bad film when you root for the avalanche.
Good for a few unintentional laughs, “Extreme Ops” was obviously made for the “XXX” crowd, people who enjoy mindless action without the benefit of decent acting, writing, and direction. I suspect that even fans of “XXX” will give this low-rent entry a pass. Theaters showing “Extreme Ops” shouldn’t have any problem with people sneaking in. Keeping them from walking out is another thing.
I’m not really an extreme sports fan. I’m the sort of person who watches “Real TV” just to see skateboarders eat concrete and steel. Stunts are vital to an action plot, but they shouldn’t be the plot. There is so much ski and snowboard stunt work in “Extreme Ops” I thought I stumbled into a Warren Miller documentary.
Novice writer Michael Zaidan breaks all of the rules, and not in a good way. It takes nearly an hour for the plot to shift into gear, which is death for a film that only runs ninety minutes. Zaidan wastes the first hour introducing us to his paper-thin, cookie cutter characters, extreme sports types who are about as effective as a child’s waterproof diaper after it’s been run through a meat tenderizer.
An hour later, he introduces Serbian war criminals into the mix, and just as you begin to believe “Extreme Ops” might validate itself, it’s over. The confrontations between the filmmakers and the war criminals are standard issue close calls, and the finale comes so quick you wonder what all of the fuss was about.
“Extreme Ops” is a paycheck film. There’s nothing in the script or in Christian Duguay’s direction that suggests this is anything more than a fast, cheap rip-off of better films. Releasing it the weekend after “Die Another Day” further illuminates the inferior acting, writing, direction and special effects the film has to offer.
In most action films, the actors have stand-in stunt men, but the opposite is true here. There’s so much extreme sports action that the actors seem to be standing in for the stunt men. The actors toss around some lame dialogue or insult, and it’s back to the slopes. Since we never get to know any of the characters beyond their broad strokes, it’s impossible to care about them when they find themselves in peril. When the good guys are dangling from the side of an icy glacier, you wish they would just let go and put all of us out of their misery.
Rufus Sewell and Rupert Graves play partners in the commercial company, noted for its extreme spots. When Ian (Sewell) and Jeffrey (Graves) promise their client, the makers of a new digital video camera, a stunt to top all stunts, they set out to find just the right team of extreme sports professionals. Their search leads them to snowboarders Silo (Joe Absolom) and Kittie (Jana Pallaske) and gold medalist skier Chloe (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras).
They’re joined on the shoot by cameraman Will (Devon Sawa) and production assistant Mark (Heino Ferch). After the usual rounds of extreme skiing, drinking and babe watching, the filmmakers accidentally film Slobovan Pavle (Klaus Lowitsch), a Serbian war criminal thought dead. Desperate to keep his Phoenix-like resurrection a secret, Pavle orders his men to kill the intruders.
“Extreme Ops” might have been a decent film, but it looks like it was assembled in five minutes, shot in fifteen, and edited in ten. The visual effects are embarrassing, making each action set piece insufferable. That leaves the acting, which is equally insufferable and embarrassing. In defense of the actors, they’re never allowed to develop their characters, instead serving as props for a director who wouldn’t know honest emotion if it bit him in the ass.
As he has proved in the past with films like “Screamers” and “The Art of War,” Duguay is barely serviceable as a director. His style is too imitative to be taken seriously, and he has serious issues with character development. I have yet to see a decent performance in his films. Even the action in “Extreme Ops” is lackluster, so familiar that t becomes redundant.
With it’s annoying hip-hop soundtrack, outdated MTV-style editing, fake special effects and characters too annoying to spend time with, it’s doubtful that many people will be stuffing this post-Thanksgiving turkey. If you want to see a much better film, (and the real thing), check out Warren Miller’s latest “Storm.”
STUFFING AN EXTREME TURKEY
Extreme Ops is a real snow job
EXTREME OPS
Rufus Sewell, Rupert Graves, Devon Sawa, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Joe Absolom, Jana Pallaske, Klaus Lowitsch. Directed by Christian Duguay.
LARSEN RATING: $1
