User Reviews

I was surprised how bad this one turned out for me, given that Dean Cameron and Patrick Labyorteaux usually make great under-achieving party animal characters, as they prove to do here. Except, even where the movie follows that party animal meets anal villain story line and completely follows the book on ski movies, nothing much happens.

At a posh ski school, cabin number 8, lead by David Marshak (Dean Cameron) only has three things on their minds that any slacker guys in an 80s/early 90s comedy romp has on their mind: beer, boobs, and parties. And, usually in that order. The sleazy jerks from cabin one, which could easily be mistaken for Eurofags Lars and Hans, were it not for their American accents, don't want to put up with the antics of cabin number eight. So, Capitan no fun and his gang of merry thugs wage war (somewhere in there) and vow to get them kicked out of the camp, because they're really stealing their thunder. There's not much skiing going on, save a few shots in the beginning, and of course, the dangerous slope competition finale (the pinnacle of any ski movie out of this period). The rest of the time is devoted to cabin eight's goofing off. Seriously, that's about it. A repetition of boobs and parties. They attempted to put a story in there and follow it, although they didn't and the characters had to state the obvious intermittently in the film because they obviously weren't devoting much camera time to it.

Granted, I usually love dumb comedies like these, and especially with Dean Cameron and Patrick Labyorteaux in the front seat (see 'Summer School'). I could tolerate the cliché ski school story line. I could even put up with the numerous boob money shots, but damn, they made almost no effort for a story here. That's a no go for me. Over and out.

"Ski School" is surely one of the better teen comedies of its genre. This is not saying much, I know: you could watch a hundred of these movies and not laugh even once, so their value as comedies is nil, and despite their designation as "boob comedies", "teen sex flicks", "t'n a fests", whatever you want to call them, they actually tend to be really light on the sex and nudity.

What puts "Ski School" a cut above the average is that it's actually entertaining. It benefits from the charisma of Dean Cameron, a man whose eyebrows you surely remember if you've ever seen him in a movie. It is the old rich kids vs. the party animals set up, with the action taking place on a ski slope. I've seen this before with water skiers (Meatballs 4), white water rafters (Up the Creek), video game arcades (Joysticks (ugh)), diving (Back to School), and, uh, skiing (Hot Dog: The Movie).

In probably all of these movies the heroes battle it out in their respective leisure activity with rich, serious, smarmy guys who seem to always have blonde hair. Do movies associate blondness with money, or just arrogance?

So you see, setting the action on a ski slope was hardly original. What is something different, though, is that the movie actually generates a sense of excitement in the final scenes. You know who's going to win, obviously, but I wasn't bored watching. As a matter of fact, the movie is never boring, and that is enough to elevate it above 99% of teen sex comedies.

I considered giving this pitiful, soporific comedy a 1, but settled on a 2 for some reason. That shouldn't deter you from running as fast and as far away as you can from Ski School, a bottom of the barrel celebration of immature frat life. Of course, this frat is actually inhabited by a motley assortment of party animals who pretend to ski in their spare time (why they couldn't just stay at home to party is just one of the many unfathomable mysteries of Ski School). Naturally they have a run in with the toney head cheese of the school, who somehow allowed them to attend in the first place, and there's a 'climactic' competition between the two groups at the end of the film. I won't tell you who wins, but (***spoiler alert***) the film's amoral heart is revealed when the party house, led by smirking Dean Cameron, choose to cheat in order to compete. Ski School is a foul-mouthed, misogynistic piece of trash that will appeal to those who thought Animal House was a tad too arty.

Ski School may have come out way after the teen sex comedy boom and before the wave that American Pie started, and you know, I may be fifty and working in the corporate world and feeling dead inside, but I would leave to join Dave Marshak (Dean Cameron, Rockula, Bad Dreams and, most essentially, Chainsaw from Summer School) and his Section 8 team on the slopes if they'll have me, bad knees and multiple concussions and you know, old.

This movie flows over me like malt liquor at a party. I mean, it's really the plot of every poor kids against rich elites movie ever - it's also the plot of another skiing sex comedy Hot Dog...The Movie - but it works. Of course it works. Movies like these are why instead of speaking up for myself, I just plan long and hilarious revenge scenarios.

Ava Fabian, who is the love interest of our hero, is the kind of impossible robot who only shows up in these movies and marries rock stars. Seriously, the former August 1986 Playboy Playmate of ther Month went from this film and playing Roxy Carmichael in Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael to being involved with Journey's Neil Schon.

Director Damian Lee also made Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe which makes perfect and absolute logical sense. Writer David Mitchell would go on to make the sequel to this movie along with Ski Hard and Shred, which teams Dave England from Jackass with Tom Green.

Two songs on the soundtrack, "Punch Drunk" and "Half Man, Half Beast", are by Lock Up, which is Tom Morello's old band and man, pre-political party Tom Morello is pretty good.

This movie was just complete nonsense. Felt like something you'd watch in the 80s ripping off ideas from movies like porkys and the likes. It really bothered me the most that they're skiing in the mountains and yet at the lodge there are absolutely no signs of snow on the streets or anywhere else. I mean come on. Also had a problem with the scene of the team just trying to qualify to get to the final race. The contact cement was terrible I mean it was yellow and absolutely noticeable to an idiot! No one's gonna notice the competition stuck to it when they tripped? Really??? Or the ski flags being cut wouldn't noticed? Especially with so many people watching the event? Come on! And don't even get me started that every woman was ready to go to bed was the first guy she saw. This movie was just so poorly written and was not even entertaining. Just a waste of film if you ask me.

Honestly I could see myself liking this a lot if I saw this as a teen in when it came out.

The skiing is cool, jokes are relatively funny and the plot is entertaining minus the creep Fritz. The movie is fast paced, has a fun sound track and tons of naked women. The writing leaves you with plenty of quotable lines, and I enjoyed the running beer toss gag.

Everything you could want in a stoner movie from the 90s. As a skier who has been to Whistler, BC where the movie takes place, it makes me want to visit the mountain in a time machine and party with the burn outs.

Overall the story line is predictable with a twist or two but by the end you are definitely satisfied by the resolution. A good watch with the right people before a ski trip.