Skateboard Madness

a real history book of skateboarding something every kid needs to know and watch and the starting point for everyone . it's a great watch free your mind a little bit. Read more

This video flat out rules. I got it just in time to play it looping on the big screen at a skateboard art show i was involved in recently in ojai, california. everyone loved the film and wanted to know where they could get a copy. phil hartman does an exellent job with the narration and the opening and ending animations are incredible. old school, funny, visually stunning and straight up historic. get it. Read more

I first stumbled onto this film about 18-20 years ago when it aired on local TV as a Sunday Matinee Movie and was hooked by the footage and the music used throughout. At the time I tried to get a copy, but it was out of print. DISCLAIMER: I am not a skateboarder at all but still found this film entertaining for what it is. I'm glad it's been re-released, this time onto DVD and while this release is a burn on demand using DVD-R disc, it's still worth the price of admission for the fantastic footage of guys/gals skating if nothing else. While some of the tracks and footage get repeated, it's not all the same. The clear sphere like apparatus was used in a couple of different situations so while it seems like the same footage, it's not. The "plot", if you can call it that was cheesely done. Kurt is OK in this film as the laid back photographer for a skateboarding newspaper as his job is put on the line for a lack of any decent photos. He's been sent to a skateboarding contest up in the city by the Bay (San Francisco) but in the end, misses the competition and ends up picking up 4 hitchhikers who were trying to get to that same competition and since it was too late, they decided to embark on a journey around the state to some of the hottest skate parks around at the time. The footage is fantastic and that's about the best thing in this film, shot on grainy 16mm film, you get a good sense of the time, the era in which all of this hit. The fashions, the hair, the early days of skateboarding technique - all of it and for that this film is a fantastic document of the industry at that time was in its infancy still. Since this film was shot over a 2-3 year period, you do see a progression of techniques during this film and other ideas like snowboarding using itty bitty skis on skateboards and you see wind skating, unfortunately, that fantastic segment ends much too abruptly and we are then back to the skateboarding stuff. Some surfing footage too and used I think to imitate a similarity (or two, or three) between the two sports but is just added fluff otherwise. I do like the continuity of Kurt and his enterage driving around in a 1959 red Cadillac convertible as a transition to the next spot. Sadly, this film is saddled with a lack of a script, Phil Hartmann's narration style (very annoying) and the fluff pieces. But despite all that, it's a fantastic look back at a time when the skateboarding craze was huge and EVERYONE was doing it. Today, it's still quite popular, but only for a segment of society and it's annoying to have these modern punks riding their skateboards down city streets and on sidewalks. Overall, the music used within the film itself is great, especially the one that has Skateboard Madness within the lyrics with its rolling piano style. It fits in with the footage so perfectly and both shorts, the claymation at the beginning and the cartoon short at the end are nice additions. This version is the print I saw, complete with the shorts intact. Sadly, I wished we knew if Kurt was successful and got to keep his job (probably not for the film seems to be taking months to "take place", noting in the beginning of the wind skating footage, his VO says in October...). Some niggly things to report, the audio is mono, not bad in and of itself, but it's not all that great sounding, could be much worse but it does mar the music somewhat and it sounds very compressed and loud with the bass frequencies squashed so it's not very good, oh its got some boom to it, but no definition when played over a good system though. Since it's a burn on demand, no menu or extras on this DVD such as commentary etc and the credits at the end do not really identify the music other than who played them so when you insert the DVD, it begins playing automatically and will repeat, at least it did on my DVD player/recorder. The only thing I can find in the way of music avaiable for it is My Wave by the Surf Punks, which I think is still available on CD but that's it. I only give this 4 stars for it has fluff, the production quality of the storyline is weak and the audio but the footage of the skaters itself is very good. As a documentary, it could've been so much more but it was not clearly defined as either a film or a documentary but I think tried to be both. Still, I enjoy it a lot and have seen it twice 3 days so it holds me even despite the issues that plaque it. Read more

I saw this movie in a little theatre when it came out, years ago. I was a little skate rat, and thought it was hokey, even then. It's still downright silly overall, and the guy who plays "mellow cat" is just awful. The skateboarding scenes, however, are worth the price of admission, even today. Watching Stacy Peralta ride a cement half pipe is just so darn cool. The other skaters are great as well, but Stacy's slides: rock walks, frontside powerslide on vert, and cess slides, are just the coolest in my book. What is really visible in this movie is how much style and flow have vanished from skateboarding. This is a great nostalgia trip for anyone who skated during the 70s. The extra footage of Caballero at Winchester is pretty cool as well, and shows how influential he would become. It's a fun film to see, nothing really more or less than that. If you take out the silly footage of driving, eating, random stuff, the claymation cartoon, and the RIDICULOUS rollerskating footage, you get about 30 minutes of great old school skateboarding. Read more

I grew up with this film. This, Dogtown & z-boys, & Lords of Dogtown are the trifecta! Read more

I saw this movie on cable way back in the 80's. It is a very mixed bag to say the least. But this movie is the granddaddy of skateboard videos. The plot is super cheesy, but is only meant to be a link between all the skating segments. Personally I love the stupidity of the plot. But the movie is a great time capsule of what the skateboarding scene was in the late 1970's/early 1980's. You have a young Stacy Peralta and even a small segment with a super young Steve Caballero. And even the narration is done by none other than Phil Hartman. I love the soundtrack and wish I could find the songs in the movie. Overall this is just a fun, stupid, but nostalgic movie about early skateboarding cultur coming into its own thing. I mean, given Stacy Peralta's involvment in this, you can see how this influenced classics like "Bones Brigade 3: The Search For Animal Chin" ie a group of skaters checking out one cool skate spot after another being tied together by a goofy plot and skit like segments. If you are interested in the history of skateboarding, this is definitely a strange yet informative movie to see. Read more

We're talkin' old school from the 70's with Stacy Peralta and some brief footage of Caballero when he was small. Wait, he's still small! Just kidding. He's a killer skater, even today! Classic footage of some 70's headband wearing, basketball socks up the knees, checkeredboard Vans, baseball shirt, surfer hair, and OP short shorts skateboarding. It's even narrated by the voice of The Simpsons' Troy McClure, Phil Hartman. If you were from this time of skateboarding, it's a killer dvd to have. If you weren't from this time, this is a good history lesson for you! Read more