The Art of Flight

The Art of Flight
Overall rating: 9/10
Visual effects: >10/10
One word description: Awe-inspiring
Director: Curt Morgan
Cast/ riders: Travis Rice, Mark Landvik, John Jackson, Nicolas Müller, Scotty Lago, Bjorn Leines, David Carrier Porcheron "DCP", Jeremy Jones, Pat Moore, Eero Niemela, Kyle Clancy, Eric Willett, Bode Merrill, Jack Mitrani, Luke Mitrani, Mark McMorris, Jake Blauvelt

The Art of Flight, one of the most expensive and mind-boggling snowboard film ever, brought to you by Red Bull and Brain Farm Productions, received a lot of hype (in the snowboard community) before it's release in 2011, and certainly lived up to the expectations. Although it is a snowboard film, the film was aimed at every one and is essentially trying to show what snowboarding really is to snowboarder. The film follows Professional snowboarder Travis Rice across three continents to some of the most jaw-dropping scenery and shows riders performing breathtaking tricks in the most stunning visuals (thanks to the hefty budget of Red Bull). During the film we are shown the different ups and downs of snowboarding, what its like when everything is perfect, with blue skies, fresh snow and almost endless fuel in the chopper, and what its like when thing don't go exactly to plan, with strong winds, a helicopter broken down on the edge of a cliff, and avalanches almost killing friends. As with most sports films, the sounds track is very important, and with Red Bull owning record deals with artist such as M83 the sound track delivers an extra bit of crazy to this master piece of a film. All this and there's the voice of famous riders speaking in a philosophical guru kinda way. I think that no matter what your view is on extreme sports, this film will not fail to impress you and change your thoughts on the lunatics who we see once every four years throwing them selves around on snow at the Winter Olympics.
Tom Hayes