Viewed and Reviewed: Montevideo

I can’t help but feel a little bit bad for all the video companies that actually paid for duplication and are trying to sell DVDs this year. Not sure if you’ve noticed, but there are about 1000 free videos, some of them of incredible quality, just hanging out on the internet. This is not to say that sitting at your computer and dealing with vimeo glitches or your computer taking a nap is anywhere near as good at popping a DVD in and letting it run while you get ready to shred. But snowboard videos have always existed in an over saturated market, so the ample free offerings are just another reason so many of this years DVDs will likely rot away in unopened boxes in someone’s garage.

This little rant is my excuse for the fact that Montevideo, the new release from the Tahoe-via-Ohio-based Autumn Line, has taken me so long to review. The video showed up well over a month ago, and immediately took its place in line next to my DVD player. Then, between trying to keep up with every other free video and the rest of this year’s releases, well, I just got around to watching it this weekend. As I told filmmaker Mark Wiitanen, I am a jerk.

To try and make up for my jerkiness, I’ll start with what I liked about this video. It’s funny. The video is done in an 80s video game theme, including some authentic 80s snowboard shots and video game-style battles between riders. The whole thing is fun and obviously not trying to take things too seriously. As for riding, there is definitely some good stuff. Personally I enjoyed Gabe Taylor’s buttery pow shots and Taylor Colton’s super smooth and creative jibbing. However, I should note that counting pre and post rail rotations makes me dizzy, so there is probably some super tech jib shit that will stoke out the kids who don’t actually remember the 80s.

I can’t be entirely positive about this video, though. First off, I am not a fan of over editing, and if there is one thing that is consistent through the movie it is the after effects. There were more than a few times I just wished they just left the damn clip alone. Another thing that bugged me were the literal ads for each of the sponsors between parts. While I am sure said sponsors were “totally stoked” on this concept, it was sort of, no, totally annoying. Finally, after checking out a ton of other videos already this year, I’d say this one was worth watching, but not a “do not miss” sort of thing. And if I am going to go out to my local shop and buy a video, I want the most epic video ever. But maybe that’s just me.