Darren and Rob’s Movie Challenge Week #7 – Rob’s Challenge – The Crash Reel (2013)

Being that Darren and I both love watching lots and lots of movies, we decided to start a new weekly series where we challenge each other to watch a new movie that we enjoyed and feel the other one might also.

The rules are simple; it has to be a movie we have NEVER seen, (not just not reviewed)

Every Tuesday, we will both post both reviews on our sites.

Let’s hope we both can add lots of new favorites to our personal lists

For my review this week, here are my thoughts on…..

 “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a present.” – Kevin Pearce

Number of Times Seen – 1 (19 Jul 2015)

Brief Synopsis – Documentary about the years long rivalry between two top snowboarding sensations Kevin Pearce and Shawn White and how tragedy affected them both and the world of extreme sports.

My Take on it – Before Darren suggested this more to me, I had never heard of it.

After reading the synopsis, I was interested but still skeptical because I’m usually not the biggest fan of extreme sports movies.

After watching it, I must say that I was overwhelmed by the way this movie was made because it is a very multi-layered film that not only tells us the story of two friends/rivals, but also how an entire sport community was affected by a tragedy.

This movie is also an advocate for changes in the way that certain rules about safety and sponsorship control aspects of the sport without taking into consideration the danger and effects on the participants.

I am by far not an expert on the issue of TBI, but I have read and heard numerous things about it, but seeing how Kevin changes over the course of the movie is very inspirational for those with TBI.

This movie is a mixture of personal family archival videos, interviews over the course of a few years and Extreme Sports TV footage that manages to tell us a story in the scope of the bigger picture.

It was quite emotional seeing intimate family conversation that showed how honest and brave they all are when discussing difficult personal issues and feelings.

After having seen this, I’m quite interested in knowing if changes have been enacted based on the very blunt and extremely important issues that have been brought to the world’s attention by these filmmakers.

Bottom Line – Very powerful movie with a message to the world about TBI and how extreme sports are being controlled by sponsorship instead of safety. Great to see White, Pearce and their family and friends giving very honest and brave responses to the interviewers. I’d be interested to see if this movie has been able to enact changes by its very blunt and important message. Highly recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The film also premiered at the X Games on January 23, 2013 in Aspen as the first ever movie to play as a featured part of the event (From Wikipedia)

Rating – Oscar Worthy

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