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Airborne (1993)

post #1 of 30
12/15/06 at 2:39pm
Thread Starter 
I love this dumbass movie.

I can be as elitist as the next cinephile, but sometimes a movie sneaks up and absolutely surprises me with where it goes or doesn't go. AIRBORNE is certainly one of those for me. Every time I catch it on cable I get excited. I don't mean, "Oh, okay, I guess I'll waste a few minutes with this." I mean, "Fuck yeah! AIRBORNE!"

It has so many things going against it: Shane McDermott's a bland leading man, every other teenager looks to be well into their 20's (including THE NEXT KARATE KID's Chris Conrad), it's dated with its fads (rollerblading!) and music (early 90's Joey Lawrence type white guy trying to do Jodeci)...

But it somehow makes those things work for it: McDermott's supposed to be a zen-like surfing guru, so the laidback/blank slate thing works, "every other teenager" includes a great sidekick performance by Seth Green, who I think actually was a teenager then, Jack Black, and Alanna Ubach, and rollerblading action is well done, particular a fantastic climactic Big Race sequence. (I won't defend the music. I'm too old to have any kind of nostalgic twinge for that shit.)

Outside of that, the screenplay offers a couple of fun tweaks on the genre (the scene where the kids introduce themselves in class; McDermott's story about nearly killing another surfer; pretty much everything Seth Green and Edie McClurg do), and the direction by X-FILES vet Rob Bowman is solid.

Every time this movie pops up I have to see it through to the end. It's cheesy and dated, but I love cheese and I've been on a few dates here and there.

EDIT: No DVD though, sadly.
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post #2 of 30
12/15/06 at 3:11pm
Seriously, why isn't this movie on DVD? Seriously, they've marketed plenty of DVDs of shitty, forgotten movies of yesterday to kids today. Just toss Jack Black and Seth Green on the cover. Just think of all the poor saps that own Going Overboard.
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post #3 of 30
12/15/06 at 5:00pm
Rosenblatt! Rosenblatt!! I love this movie. Jack Black's Augie character is hee-larious. I continue to wait for the DVD along with The Monster Squad.
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post #4 of 30
12/15/06 at 5:19pm
I loved this movie.Hockey was like football for that high school.And then the dude gets his rollerblades and he tries to impress the girl by bladin' it up in a greenhouse,right?Rock.
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post #5 of 30
12/15/06 at 8:12pm
I love this movie. And it's not that "nostalgia" love that fades as one grows older. I saw this on cable a few months ago and I still sat through the whole thing. It's so cheesy, so cornball at times, but it really does work. The Big Race was pretty incredible and the stunts were pretty good. Here's hoping some kind of DVD is released.
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post #6 of 30
12/16/06 at 12:47am
I'm also on board with annointing Airborne as a cheeseball classic. It's got so much going for it: the lead is acting on a level that might not get cast in a soap opera about surfing, Seth Green and his ridiculous haircut, Jack Black "did you just call me a piece of women's underwear", how rollerblading bridges the gap between surfing and hockey, that short hispanic tough guy I like who's been in a lot of movies I can't remember, a random set of twins that look exactly like Pete Sampras, etc. Some finer points include the exploits of the bad guy from the other high school who rivals the main chick's older brother. A great scene in the diner where they square off and then surfer boy gets involved and ends up offending the main chick, a real emotional pull in there. But yet when surfer boy pantsed (never seen that word written before) the rival down to his jock strap at the big roller hockey game it was lol funny, so it's quite a rollercoaster ride, or should I say, quite a rollerblade ride through a hilly community.
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post #7 of 30
12/16/06 at 4:23am
The lead guy dropped out of sight. Sells real estate in Galveston, Texas. He has no desire to return to show business.
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post #8 of 30
12/16/06 at 4:40am
Was in college in Ohio when they filmed this. Was filmed in Cincinnati. A pal of mine - his brother was in this. An extra.

And THAT'S how you are all connected to this flick now.

Congrats.
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post #9 of 30
12/17/06 at 12:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by le Stephanois
I loved this movie.Hockey was like football for that high school.And then the dude gets his rollerblades and he tries to impress the girl by bladin' it up in a greenhouse,right?Rock.
Which is funny - Ohio is a football state, if they had wanted hockey to be a big HS sport, they should've filmed it in Minnesota.

And yeah, while I'm not THAT excited when I see it on, it's a notch below Road House on the "not horrible ways to waste 90 minutes or so" list.
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post #10 of 30
12/17/06 at 11:07pm
Your bringing up this movie has given me some small insight into myself: I hate early 90's slacker comedies with a passion. Empire Records, Slackers, any of the Kevin Smith movies and this give rise to great fountains of boiling anger and I don't know why. Gonna have to see this again to figure it out.
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post #11 of 30
12/27/06 at 2:59pm
Empire Records rules...I own it.
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post #12 of 30
12/27/06 at 6:41pm
This movie would have made me scared to take a shit in high school.

For that reason alone, I love this movie.

I started a love thread for this movie a couple years back in the drafts list. Probably lost in the ether.
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post #13 of 30
12/27/06 at 6:51pm
Great cheeseball classic. I must have watched this move on cable 450 times when I was in college (early 90s). The only other movie we watched more was Breakin' 2: Electric Bugaloo. Damn, throw me a Busch Light and some Ramen noodle and I am back!

This not having a DVD is a crime.

JS
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post #14 of 30
12/28/06 at 11:25am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by neaux
I started a love thread for this movie a couple years back in the drafts list. Probably lost in the ether.
Sorry to step on your toes, man. I searched for one but couldn't find anything.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JudgeSmails
This not having a DVD is a crime.
You know what else doesn't have a DVD? RAD. Now that's a fucking crime. It's Hal Needham, man! I still hum those songs to myself every once and a while. I'd also go on a rant about GYMKATA, but after an eternity that's coming on DVD next month, thanks to some fan voting contest Amazon did for Warner Home Video a few months ago.
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post #15 of 30
12/30/06 at 9:45am
I want Megaforce. Fuck you all.
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post #16 of 30
1/5/07 at 3:21pm
I think this thread has a lot of pull in the industry. Airborne is playing on like 6different HBO channels right now and I caught some of it yesterday. Jack Black's bodyfat % was at an all time low back then. I also forgot that Seth Green's mom is the legendary actress who played Ed Rooney's secretary Grace in FBDO and also the mom on Small Wonder.

I second, third, and fourth the need for RAD to be on dvd. I shed a tear once when I realized netflix didn't have it. I need to do a backflip at helltrack, go buttsliding with Lori Laughlin, and see Ray Walston flick people off, asap.
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post #17 of 30
1/5/07 at 3:44pm
Listen bra, I am here to tell you that EVERY ONE OF YOU IS RIGHT! I was in college when this came out, and nothing better than getting drunk and watching this movie. I also noticed it's been on HBO a lot, and I have watched it a few times.

The movie kicks all kind of ass... but still comes in second to RAD. The thought of that bike going through the Kix bowl, still makes me smile.

Personally, I'm most partial to Gleaming the Cube cause Tony Hawk driving the pizza delivery truck with an assload of skateboarders is still a piece of celluloid genius.
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post #18 of 30
6/23/07 at 6:55pm
Just finished watching this on HBO. Just happened to be channel surfing and I missed the first twenty minutes, but I sat there watching it nonetheless. Still no news on a DVD release?
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post #19 of 30
6/23/07 at 9:04pm
It's one of those flicks that's tough to turn off. With Back to the Future II being of course the toughest ever.
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post #20 of 30
6/24/07 at 9:15pm
I think it is the overall simplicity of the story that makes it an easy and addicting watch. It has a nice cast of supporting characters which helps to offset the very vanilla (in face and in delivery) lead. There are a few hints at who Mitchell used to be, which is somewhat intriguing considering the Bohdi-type zen surfer he has become and serves to make his character more than a 'fish out of water' stereotype.

As someone who had to transfer schools in the middle of the year and deal with a bunch of bullshit, I enjoy this movie more now than I did seeing it as a youngster.
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post #21 of 30
6/4/10 at 1:26am
This movie is on Netflix Instant Streaming and it features a Seth Green fashion montage set to "I'm Too Sexy". It must be seen.
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post #22 of 30
6/4/10 at 1:34am
Watched this movie like crazy when I was younger. Think it used to play on the Disney Channel just about every other week.

Besides all the amazing cheesy greatness (I think I'm just a sucker for any 80s or 90s movie involving X-TREME SPORTS!), it has a lot of interesting quirks. This is one of the few movies I can think of where the love interest is the one who urges the main character to fight back to bullies instead of just letting it go. Usually it's the other way around.

True story: Ran into Shane McDermott when I was in Galveston one summer. Nice enough fellow.
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post #23 of 30
6/4/10 at 4:35am
At first I was having a hard time remembering this movie, and then the lady from FERRIS BUELLER showed up and Snake, Seth Green's Lebowski-era Juliane Moore hair, the rollerblading scene where Main Girlfriend is way too giddy, the fact that I had a huge crush on Main Girlfriend, "Everything we need to know is in our dreams man, they're our window to enlightenment", and the climactic race where I can't tell who the fuck is winning, all came rushing back to me.

I have over twenty "classic" movies in my instant queue. I spent tonight watching AIRBORNE and my other go-to 90's cable movie SIDE OUT. Thanks CHUD message board.

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post #24 of 30
6/4/10 at 5:13am
My god I used to love this movie. There was one summer where it was on tv all the time and I watched every showing I could. Nowadays it comes up every once in a blue moon and I'll watch it. I want the DVD dammit!
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post #25 of 30
6/4/10 at 12:40pm
I also had a thing for the uglier "other" girl that Seth Green ends up with. She was in a shitload of 90s movies where she usually played the ugly "other" girl. Example: Marcia's lezzy friend in THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE.
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post #26 of 30
6/4/10 at 12:43pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott View Post
I also had a thing for the uglier "other" girl that Seth Green ends up with. She was in a shitload of 90s movies where she usually played the ugly "other" girl. Example: Marcia's lezzy friend in THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE.
That's Alanna Ubach, man! She's great.

I love the fact that someone actually searched for this thread.
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post #27 of 30
6/4/10 at 1:24pm
I saw it on Instant Streaming and knew this thread existed. I'll know what to do when I revisit SUPER MARIO BROS.
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post #28 of 30
6/4/10 at 1:27pm
This move is great. I must have watched this 30 times in college. Besides ESPN Sportscenter it was the only thing watchable that was on 2-3 times a day during the day in the early 90s. It's still fun to watch and holds up well.
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post #29 of 30
6/4/10 at 1:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott View Post
I also had a thing for the uglier "other" girl that Seth Green ends up with. She was in a shitload of 90s movies where she usually played the ugly "other" girl. Example: Marcia's lezzy friend in THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE.
According to my google search of her name, she recently had a sex scene on the Tom Jane HBO series HUNG. It's pretty good.
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post #30 of 30
6/7/10 at 12:38pm
I'm so glad to discover that this is on Watch Instantly. Such a fun movie, I always wanted to be apart of a massive high school rollerblading race for supremacy when I watched this movie as a kid.
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