True adventures
This is a mildly amusing comedy about two nerdy guys who escape their cubicles and dream up a road trip to cure their boredom -- riding across America on a Segway scooter. At a maximum speed of 10 mph, it's a long trip. For 100 days they alternate drifting upright across the land with spells driving their support van right behind, also crawling along at 10 mph. The film does not maximize the drama as much as it could have, but if these hapless, unprepared geeks can make it across, anyone can.
-- KK
10 MPH
Hunter Weeks
2006, 92 min.
$18, DVD
Rentable from Netflix
Available from Amazon
Posted on June 25, 2007 at 8:06 PM
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A restless young Californian sets out to walk the length of Japan in order to impress his half-Japanese girl friend, whose father walked the length of North and South America. What makes this autobiographical travelogue worth watching is the sheer fun and exuberance of the hero, nickname Kintaro, as he pulls everyone he meets into his movie. Smile, you are part of my adventure! Walk all day for months? Life is beautiful! Kintaro inspires fun every step of the way, in every frame of the movie, as he plays with film and life, and jokes, bonds, learns, and shares his walk. His joy is incredibly contagious. Once in your life you should do what this guy did. Make a fool of yourself and see what's down the road. Feeling low? Watch this! And as a bonus, this light-hearted documentary shows a mellow side of Japan very few gaijin ever see. (It doesn't say anywhere in the film but Kintaro (real name Tyler MacNiven) won the $1 million Amazing Race 9 reality TV program.)
-- KK
Kintaro Walks Japan
By Tyler MacNiven
2005, 67 min.
Available from the film's website
Free on Google Video
Posted on December 20, 2006 at 5:00 AM
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What vicarious fun! Two actors (one, the young Obi-won Kenobi from Star Wars) decide that what their comfortable lives need is a motorcycle adventure. How about going from London to New York -- the long way around? As in across the channel to Eastern Europe to the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, a few other 'Stans, Mongolia, Russia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada and finally across the US. Somewhere in Kazakhstan they and you realize that this is not going to be ride in the park. There are only 80 miles of paved road in all of Mongolia. And on the Road of Bones in Siberia, built on the lost lives of 2 million prisoners in the Soviet Gulag, there are no real roads at all. It takes nearly 4 months of much mud and bad food. Their ride is filmed by a third hapless companion, and is hilarious, educational, thrilling, and above all, very entertaining. The curious mix of global Star Wars celebrity fame, medieval nomads, Russian Mafia bad taste, incompetent officials, and near-death accidents make it irresistible.
-- KK
Long Way Round
Directed by David Alexanian and Russ Malkin
2004, 360 min.
$15, DVD
Available from Amazon
Rentable from Netflix
Posted on November 27, 2006 at 5:00 AM
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Supremely bored skydivers go for thrills. They push trucks and cars out of planes and ride them down. They recline on a living room couch and watch TV as they plunge to earth. They sky surf. They don wings and glide across the horizon at 90 miles and hour. They perform every antic while free falling you can think of. One loser jumped out without wearing his parachute, on purpose. Yeah, he lived but it's definitely a stupid trick. Boredom is enemy of the sane and the mother of invention!
-- KK
Good Stuff
By Joe Jennings
2001, 125 min.
$20, DVD
Available from Skydive.tv
This true film re-enacts a harrowing adventure by two mountaineers on a remote peak in the Andes, still unclimbed today. Near the top one mountaineer with a badly broken leg disappears over the edge of a cliff in a storm, hangs by a single rope, but is thought to be dead, so the rope is cut. Miraculously the injured man falls into a deep crevice, lives, and crawls out with his hands and rolls down a glacier and creeps back to camp almost dead on his elbows 6 days after they set out. Together with two stunt men, the two climbers re-live their nightmare by re-climbing the route and revealing what they were thinking the first time around. As an act of honesty, bravery and endurance, it's staggering to watch. At every junction you are sure, this is the end! But it isn't. In the climbing community this is considered one of the best mountaineering films ever.
-- KK
Touching the Void
By Kevin MacDonald
2003, 106 min
$11
Amazon
Netflix
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