ExtremeDays
Rating: PG
Stars: Dante Basco, Ryan Browning, A. J. Buckley, Derek hamilton, Cassidy Rae
Running Time: 1 1/2 hours
Intended Audience: Teens, College
I recently had the opportunity to go to the “ExtremeDays” movie with an older couple who won tickets in the recent Christian Activities EXTREME CONTEST. While I moderately enjoyed it, the older couple did not. I have seen this movie rated for all ages, which is just not true. If I were rating it for all ages, I would give it a fairly low rating on plot and dialogue. However, if reviewed as a teen/young adult movie, I have little but praise for it.
The story involves three cool guys and a lovable freak who have been friends since childhood: brothers Brian (Ryan Browning) and Will (AJ Buckley), Corey (Dante Basco), and Matt (Derek Hamilton). The story which is told from the perspective of Brian, follows the four friends as they take a summer road trip after their four years in junior college in their Joyota (part Jeep, part Toyota).
While driving rock music including the theme song “We’re living in Extreme Days” is played loudly, the four surf, skate, bike, and snowboard their way from Mexico up the West coast. In Mexico they get word that Corey’s grandfather has died and left him a lot of money and a car, so the group makes the decision to all go up to Seattle to help Corey claim his inheritance. On the way they meet up with Matt’s cousin Jessie (Cassidy Rae) who ends up joining the group as her own vehicle has broken down and she needs to go north for college.
Younger brother Brian notices Jessie right off and bets Corey he will be able to get Jessie to do something that scares her as he wins her before the trip is up. He tries his usual charm and smooth moves but Jessie is not impressed. As the trip continues we get little snippets that indicate Jessie “prays like 100 times a day,” that she believes “God understands” her own as well as Corey’s pain, and that she has made some mistakes in the past but now is waiting for her wedding night. However, while there is no doubt she is now a “good girl,” her possible Christianity is only hinted at as the majority of the movie focuses on the extreme sports with the camaraderie between the guys a secondary focus.
The sports, which include paint-ball wars, surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding, and motorcross features excellent footage of professional extreme sports. Unfortunately, it also features a long, very silly faux martial arts battle that was funny at first but quickly got old and tiresome and seemed completely out of place in the middle of the movie’s realistic extreme sports action shots.
Besides issues of friendship, “ExtremeDays” situations touch on: loss of a loved one, divorce, being lied to by a step-parent, and what a guy wants/what a girl needs.
In the final analysis, this is a fun, loud romp, with clean if somewhat vague morals and a few possibly offensive references to: “crushing my privates,” flatulence, diarrhea, and the fact Will wants to “be with” Jessie more than any other woman he has known. While the older generation will probably want to avoid this movie, “ExtremeDays” should appeal to teens.
