Gnarly Dude!!! Get ready for some sweet rail grinds and other shit that rollerbladers do when they are out shredding the asphalt jungle of the city. Airborne is another of those teenage films that are meant to show the extreme side of life by doing the whole fish out of water scenario. You take the square, lame setting of Cincinnati and take it to the extreme with a California boy who is just to rad for the whole urban lifestyle. I will admit though, it’s a silly movie but for some reason I can’t stop watching it when it appears on USA or TBS or whatever station bought the cheap rights to this film. Also Seth Green and Jack Black are in this movie.
The lad is 15-year-old Mitchell Goosen who is sent from sunny southern California to snowy Cincinnati to live with relatives while his parents go on a long trip to Australia. The boy comes to the Ohio city clutching his surfboard and meets his goofy cousin who quickly becomes his friend. Naturally his laid back West Coast ways make him the subject of ridicule in his new high school. His biggest foe is the school jock. The pain of his new life is eased a bit after Mitchell meets perky blond Nikki. They talk and then he is forced to play in a hockey game. Mitchell has no idea what hockey is about but still manages to score the winning goal causing him to be the victim of more ostracism. In the spring, he begins rollerblading and the other kids are amazed by his many stunts. Eventually, he uses his skills to win the respect of his enemies and Niki’s heart, but not without a lot more daring skating escapades. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Just reading the synopsis is hilariously bad. The sort of paint by numbers high school film which has the jocks and bullies making fun of a kid who lived in California. I am not sure why that is, I mean I guess they are sore about having to live in Cincinnati or something. Anyways, Mitchell becomes the target of typical aggression for being super awesome and impresses the babes with his blading skills in the spring time. If that didn’t get kids out there to skate and blade, then I don’t know what can. I mean who doesn’t want to shred it out there on the half pipe and get all the ladies in the high school.
The only reason that I love this movie, aside from the worst haircut I have ever seen on the human, which belongs to Seth Green, is the final skate off to determine who is radder. So Mitchel ends up meeting some Gen X kids, probably from other awesome places, and they want who super sweet skills to help them win the ultimate in rollerblading glory, The Devil’s Backbone race. Yeah, two teams, one captained by the jock and the other by a Michael Pena look alike, Jacob Vargas, race across the city which apparently sits on a gigantic mountain. The no-holes-barred race to the finish is pretty damn impressive with a lot of air catching, grinding and other tubular stuff. Windbreakers flutter at the break neck speeds, combatants lost to the elements and the sickest jumps ever pepper the race to end all races.
It’s cheesy, predictable and fun as hell to watch. I mean who doesn’t love a 90s film about extreme sports? The real lure of the film is the final race to determine who has the best skills in Cincinnati and it’s an impressive race none the less. A little mindless fun, guitar riffs and blading never hurt anyone.