Skateboard

I was really surprised I was able to purchase this video tape from Amazon! Trying to replace items damaged in a flood. Tape works fine. Read more

Great old movie Read more

and was fun to work on. Read more

"Skateboard" is not a good movie, but it features a strong and entertaining central performance by the late Allen Garfield, one of America's more interesting character actors of the '70s and '80s. Leif Garrett shows that he is a real actor, not just a teen heartthrob, and he never looked more gorgeous. Most noteworthy, however, may be the scenes of vintage skateboarding by such greats as Tony Alva, who is featured in a supplemental interview on this DVD, discussing his participation in the film and the evolution of the sport. On a technical note, the quality of the film transfer is terrible. It is made from a print (rather than an interpositive or the original negative, which yield the highest quality) and suffers terribly in terms of increased contrast because of it. No time was spent doing nice color correction on the transfer, or cleaning up the dirt. It was a fast and dirty transfer. It's hard to believe that Universal Pictures would have bought this cheaply made movie as a negative pick-up, but it did. Still, I enjoyed the director, George Gage, talking about the making of the film in his interview. Unfortunately, there appears to have been a love scene between two of the skater kids deleted for whatever reason. It makes Allen Garfield's subsequent outburst nonsensical. If in the future a higher quality blu-ray edition -- scanned not from a print but from original elements, with audio from the magnetic master and not an analog optical track, and with the love scene restored -- I would buy it. And Mark Snow's vintage synth music seems worthy of stereoization (as a kid I owned the LP soundtrack album, so the stereo music stems exist somewhere). Read more

I first saw this movie way back in '81. I didn't have the luxury of growing up around an ocean, so surfing was out. So I was just finding out about boarding myself. And this movie showed me how to make it cool back in those days. Nostalgia is awesome sometimes. 😂 Read more

It's on my wall. Read more

These aren't actors, these are real skater kids, so yes, the acting isn't always top notch, but that's also why they hired Leif Garrett to actually act. The main actor, David Bloom, cracks me up with his avoidance of the ex-wife trying to collect her alimony, and his beater car. It's actually in a similar vein with washed up main character/actor films like Bad News Bears, Tootsie and Swingers - but an even lower budget than Swingers. The camera work is uneven at times, but the skateboard stunts are cool for the time. And Leif Garrett as a skate rat is somehow really amusing - impressively, he did some of his own stunts - it was that low of a budget. I'm sure this film somehow led up to the true teen classics of the 1980s. And yes, there was most certainly billboarding of brands. One of the kids wearing his Nike sneakers, Pepsi gets a mention, and there was a sign for Wham-o Frisbee which was a popular SoCal brand of toys - etc, etc. And it was pretty funny that the guy said something about a joint music & skateboarding tour - isn't that what Vans is all about now? If you want a movie that gives more love to the 70s, check out The Runaways or Spirit of 76, too. It's interesting to see a time before skaters had a local park hangout, and they were sneaking into empty pools. Read more

VERY GOOD COPY ON DVD !!! Read more