You’ll notice that around this time I try my best to make it to as many snowboard premieres as possible. Sometimes it means seeing both snowboard and skiing films like TGR and Warren Miller.
Last night I gladly accepted the invitation to go watch the new Warren Miller film “Playground” rather than watch the Rockies in the World Series. Some choices are tough…but I can watch sports highlights another time.
I really enjoyed the opening with the Guns N’ Roses “Welcome to the Jungle” I really got pumped up and stoked on it…but it didn’t keep that high long. I thought everything in between the opening and ending was okay…but not spectacular.
The last time I checked out a Warren Miller film was years ago and the narrative by Warren Miller always made it feel good and down to earth. Plus he made it cool.
This narrative was mostly by Jonny Moseley and a little bit by Warren Miller. Jonny didn’t compare to the sound of Warren Miller or bring the same warmth that he brings to his films.
The highlights that I appreciated were the Dubai skiing. I mean really it was cool to see them doing the “first Dubai” tricks and in this indoor resort that was so far out there…just cool to see.
They definitely conquered a lot of terrain and the Steamboat Springs references were cool to see. The Japan footage was amazing and very similiar terrain to Steamboat. Epic powder runs in the trees. That was one of my favorite on-snow parts of the movie.
For snowboarding, the backcountry riding with Mads and John Jackson was cool to watch but I definitely think it was limited in what could have been a bigger segment. The Burton smalls team got a ton of cute coverage and some fun riding by little shredders including one from Steamboat.
The weenie footage was just epicness in itself. I got a great laugh out of that.
The Aspen coverage on the riders was more in-depth about the riders but not so much about the skiing/riding which is what I want to see. Some of the stuff that went more in-depth was all about how amazing these athletes are and really an ego-boost.
Overall it was an okay film. I wouldn’t purchase it and I wouldn’t purchase the product placement they had going on throughout the film…but it was still okay to watch.
Here is the teaser for the film. Check it out