• Straight to Video
• Director: David Mitchell
• Written by: David Mitchell, Francis Mitchell, John Mitchell
• Running Time: 94 minutes
• Language:
• MPAA Rating: R - Restricted
• Cast: Tom Green, Dave England, Jason 'Renee Renee' Bothe, Carlo Marks, Amber Borycki, Kyle Labine, Alain Chanoine, Shane Meier, Juan Riedinger, Pascale Hutton, Peter Sweeney, Chris Brown, Anthony Shim, Patrick Gilmore, Michael J. Ballingall, Darren Sutherland, Kevin Hogan, David Mylrea, Will Masson, Amber Leiterman, Ross Rebagliati

When it comes to sports comedies, “Shred” follows the yardstick formula to a tee. As with most any flick in the rare snow boarding-comedy subgenre, “Shred” has two types of characters dotting the landscape; loveable party-happy slackers and greedy, over-achieving entrepreneurs -- and in keeping with formula, at some point these two groups will face off in a big skiing competition where either money or the whole damn resort is up for grabs.

In this case, “Jackass”-alum, Dave England, and champion skateboarder, Jason 'Renee Renee' Bothe (1999‘s “Limp“), play the requisite down-on-their-luck slackers who, out of a monetary necessity (and a chance to regain some of their past glory), put together a team of amateur snowboarders to compete in one big tournament, whereupon sponsorship will be awarded to the winner. Of course, they must face down their arch nemesis, the enterprising ex-extreme skier turned greedy entrepreneur, Tom Green (2008‘s “Freezer Burn: The Invasion of Laxdale“), and his highly-disciplined band of boarders.

"Shred" goes to great lengths charting the rise and fall (and eventual rise-again) of Max (England) and Eddy (Bothe) from virtual slope gods in the 80s to drunken ski lift operators way way past their prime. Back in their youth, Max and Eddy starred in a series of Warren-Miller-meets-CKY-like snowboarding videos, and from that moment of glory they garnered a modest following amongst the extreme snowboarding-slacker subculture. Sadly, such deference only lasts about as long as the latest video produced and with all their emphasis focused on partying and not bettering themselves at their chosen sport, the pair watched as their dreams, their women and their money fell by the wayside. Skipping ahead some twenty years, Max and Eddy are waking up to their new reality of bedding down with half empty J.D. bottles, a grungy too small apartment and a pair of crappy minimum wage jobs as ski lift operators. Not exactly where they envisioned themselves twenty years ago.

With nary a dime in their pocket, Max begins to seriously contemplate a return to the sport - namely by starting up a ski/snow boarding school, one that will catapult them back into the spotlight. After deciding on a name, Max And Eddy’s Snowboarding Camp, the next step is to find some kids talented enough to make their dreams of fame and fortune a reality while doing the least amount of work as possible. After searching every ski slope in the area, they eventually stumble upon three candidates; Tracy (“Loch Ness Terror” star Amber Borycki), a tomboyish gal who is partial to hanging out on ski slopes all day, perfecting her skills, to being at home and listening to her parents fighting constantly. Chris (“The Haunting of Sorority Row” star Carlo Marks) is a good kid, and probably the most talented skier on the hill, and despite being courted by Kingsley (Tom Green) to board for him, his rebellious side leads him to taking up with Max and Eddy. “You guys were my heroes,” he tells them. Lastly there’s Juice (“The Art of War II: Betrayal” star Alain Chanoine), a black skateboarder that Eddy discovers in an underground skate-park. While Juice can’t technically snowboard, the notion that he could make some easy money quickly leads him to taking up the sport… and mastering it.

In between copious ski/snow boarding footage (about 30 minutes worth), and beautiful scenic location shots (in and around Vernon and Silver Star Mountain, British Columbia), we’re also treated to moments where the team bond and party and grow together and bond and party and grow together etc. This all builds to the expected big boarding competition, and although the results of the tournament prove surprising, the happy ending certainly won’t.

Director David Mitchell has been making these types of movies for years, including “Ski School 2” and the god awful “Ski Hard” and it does seem as though he’s getting better at it, but it’s still not good enough to rank his latest cinematic oeuvre alongside the two paramount ski/snow boarding movies made, “Out Cold” and “Hot Dog: The Movie”. At the rate he's going, I predict he'll probably make a really great snow boarding movie in about ten years.

By casting a bunch of former skate boarders (Bothe and Englund), and wannabe skate boarders (Green), into key roles, he’s zeroed in on that slacker-rebel demographic that generally punctuates the boarder-skater party sect. The rest of the audience will be made up of those looking for a good comedy, and for the most part, “Shred” delivers. Kyle Labine (2002‘s “Halloween: Resurrection“) and Juan Riedinger (2009‘s “Jennifer's Body“), as a pair of not-too-bright, loveable wannabe gangstas, provide the film some of its funniest moments, as well, Tom Green (sporting a thick beard), as the villain, for a change, really dives into his part. As an in-denial homosexual with a penchant for slapping his male boarders on the ass, Green is hilarious.

Despite this being an ensemble piece, Dave England (2010’s “Hollywont”), in his very first starring role, manages to stand out. Although not a trained actor, England, when not mumbling his words, does offer up a good performance as a man coming to terms with his own self-centredness, including the notion that he, and nobody else, was responsible for sabotaging what could have been a promising career as a snowboarder. While none of the stock characters really stuck out, for some reason England’s character kind of grew on me. Look for a cameo by Canadian snowboarding gold medal-champion Ross Rebagliati in a brief but funny cameo. Also, the soundtrack is rather exquisite. In fact, one of the first things I did after screening the film was hop onto Amazon.com to see if I could purchase the soundtrack. It's really that good!

According to the imdb.com, “Shred“ and its sequel, “Revenge of the Boarding School Dropouts”, were shot simultaneously.

Shred @ Wikipedia.com
Shred @ imdb.com