Friday, January 05, 2007

MIXED REVIEWS



Hoffman don't have a great track record in terms of putting out entertaining videos in recent years. However this one was edited by Nine To Five ( Chad Shackelford's new thing ) and features parts from Brad Simms and Seth Kimbrough, so you have got to give it the benefit of the doubt. Anthony Napolitan does some cool stuff, mainly smithing up a rail to barspin ( note: I have been informed that some other dude actually did this. I don't really care honestly. Continue on. ). Brad Simms has the best section by far, even though it's short and not as overwhelming as his Shook part. Seth's part is good too ( he does an amazing rail to manual to turndown you've got to see ), but it should have been longer and had more time put into it. Based on the amount of quality stuff he puts together in 10 days when he's on Road Fools, it was a little bit disappointing. Also, Seth's ender ( which ends the whole video ) was in the trailer... that's a pretty serious screw up.

I guess that's the overall downfall of this video, it doesn't seem like anybody really killed themselves to make it as good as possible besides a few memorable moments. Another big problem is that there are full sections of Mat Hoffman and Kevin Robinson. I respect both of those guys, but nobody ( NOBODY! ) wants to watch a vert section in 2007. I wish that Rick Thorne still rode for Hoffman, just because watching Rick Thorne try to put together 40 clips is like watching a 50 car pile up in slow motion. The whole "broke off" theme of the video is depressing too. A video is supposed to make you motivated to ride, so much of the video is focused on watching everyone complain about their injuries and jiggle their broken body parts around that it's just a downer. The filming and editing seem pretty good, and I liked some of the songs, but the total package is just lacking. I wouldn't recommend you buy it, but it's worth hitting up Google Video for a half hour, even if it's just to see what Seth and Brad put together.



Trailers for Flipside first started appearing online close to a year ago. There were a lot of delays and problems, all of which are detailed in the video itself, but it ends up as a pretty enjoyable video. The street dudes ( Nigel, Blackman, Ralphie and E-Man ) go to North Carolina to ride with Dave Mirra and friends first which is pretty cool. There's a bunch of stock park riding at Mirra's warehouse, but watching the street dudes interact with Mirra is pretty hilarious and they get some good street riding in out there. Then the pros were supposed to go to NYC to ride street, but nobody ended up going besides Dave Dilleward. I had never really heard of him before but he does some super good stuff there, like a tailwhip to manual to barspin in at the brooklyn banks. To make up for the second half of the video being screwed up, there's a full part of Mike Laird ( which is about as interesting as you'd assume it would be sans him doing 2 rails in a row with a really intense looking goatee ), plus a full part from Nigel that is basically the highlight of the video. He does a ton of wild barspin stuff that I wasn't expecting and finishes the video with a fakie up the banks to double barspin.

This one's a mixed bag too. The good parts are really good, but there aren't really enough good parts. If Ride had sent Glenn out to NYC to film another week's worth of riding it would have been a much more complete video. This isn't a classic by any means but it's more enjoyable than the Hoffman video just because it's funny and got a good vibe. I don't know if I would reccomend you buy it, but it's not a bad choice and I don't regret blowing 20 bucks on it.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

This review isn't a very good representation of what a wider public thinks. Its true in the eyes of a heavy street rider that hoffman and kevin robinson's sections wouldnt be interesting but to park riders and genereally nostalgic guys this was a great part. I do agree about seths section however but still I'd say the video is definitely worth buying.

Adam22 said...

well, first off the whole review is just my opinion, i don't claim to know what most people think. secondly, i have been riding for 8+ years and i've never met anyone who expressed any interest in vert riding, especially in watching videos of it. i respect their skills and think that they are probably some of the most skilled/ballsy riders in bmx, but it's kind of like sticking a flatland part in the middle of a street video; you have to respect it, but most people are just going to fast forward past it.

Anonymous said...

p.s. ant nap does NOT smith to bars up a rail, that was zach warden. gooooogle video flipside!!!!

Anonymous said...

finnaly an honest video review, seriously i am tired of people saying how great every video is, when really they are just sucking up to those people by saying that crap. this video was put together well thanks will stroud, but the riding and premise wernt that great, but you have to go with what you got, people got hurt so they told about it. whatever. but yeah just watch it on google. not worth the buy.

Youngstown Soul said...

Nine to five is stroud's deal..he brought chad on to be a part of the team.

Give credit where credit is due..

Anonymous said...

Flipside is like a BMX version of the Eddie Murphy movie 'Trading Places.' they take some oppressed black man and put him into a successful white man's life and see what happens. If there ever was a more clear cut version of racism in BMX, this is it.

really really bummed that ride magazine and glenn milligan would stoop so low. Seriously, exploiting minorities and dragging them to north cackalacka of all places has no place in bmx. The blacks and the whites get along already in bmx, we don't need a video to show us how to do it.

Anonymous said...

haha, good comparision

Anonymous said...

is flipside on google?

Anonymous said...

in response to adam22's comment why would you even bother having a comments page if your just going to respond witht the same crappy "its just my opinion" response, that was my opinion and maybe vert wouldnt be so "boring" if it wasnt constantly pushed away and got more publicity, you do make a good point but i definitely think that the vert section was definitely an asset for the video.