Ski School (film)

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Ski School
Poster of the movie Ski School.jpg
Directed by Damian Lee
Written byDavid Mitchell
Produced byDamian Lee
Curtis Petersen
Starring Dean Cameron
Tom Bresnahan
Stuart Fratkin
Darlene Vogel
Charlie Spradling
Patrick Labyorteaux
Mark Thomas Miller
Ava Fabian
Spencer Rochfort
John Pyper-Ferguson
CinematographyCurtis Petersen
Edited byReid Dennison
Music bySteve Hunter
Distributed byMoviestore Entertainment
Release date
  • January 11, 1991 (1991-01-11)
Running time
95 minutes (US), 89 minutes elsewhere
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Box office$18,476 [1]

Ski School is a 1991 comedy film directed by Damian Lee and starring Dean Cameron. Its plot concerns a fictional ski school. A sequel, Ski School 2 , followed in 1994, also starring Cameron.

Contents

Plot

A hard-partying section of the school, Section 8, led by Dave Marshak (Dean Cameron) must face a more buttoned-up section of the school led by Reid Janssens (Mark Thomas Miller) to save their jobs. They recruit hotshot newcomer John Roland (Tom Bresnahan) to help them win an end-of-the-season skiing competition and also play a series of hilarious pranks on Reid and his cronies (especially, Derek and Eric) along the way.

Cast

Production

Ski School was filmed at ski resorts in Oregon and Whistler, British Columbia. [2] [3] According to Dean Cameron, though, they were able to film on a modest budget because it was shot in the springtime so they "got May rates". [2] Pick-up shots were done in Los Angeles about a year after principal production. [4]

Cameron said in a 2016 interview that the film was sold to producers based solely on its title and a mockup movie poster, before a script was written and before any actors were cast. Cameron said they were given five months to make the movie to secure the financing. [4]

According to Cameron, John was intended to be the lead character until actor Tom Bresnahan was injured while skiing and Dave Marshak was elevated to the lead. Cameron said that he "played Dave Marshak as Bugs Bunny." [4]

According to Cameron and Stuart Fratkin, much of the comedy in the film was improvised or else written by the actors themselves. [4] [5] [6]

Fratkin later wrote that he initially read for the lead role, but lost the job to Cameron. He wrote that he hesitated to accept the offer to play Fitz until his agent secured second billing for him. [6]

The film's soundtrack features two songs by the band Lock Up, a late-1980s musical outfit featuring Tom Morello on guitar, antedating his Rage Against the Machine fame.

Release

The film was released theatrically in the United States on January 11, 1991, although released in Canada the previous year by Cineplex Odeon. Later that year, it was released on videocassette in the United States by HBO Video. In 2007, MGM released the film on DVD. Despite the fact that the back of the DVD says the film is presented in widescreen, it is actually presented in pan and scan.

After its release on home video, Cameron and Fratkin embarked on a promotional tour to pitch the movie to video rental stores. [2]

Homage was paid to the film franchise by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia in season 11, episode 3, where Dean Cameron makes a cameo appearance as a burnt-out "party dude" living on the ski slopes. [4]

Reception

The film was panned by critics. A review in the Edmonton Journal was headlined "Ski School a wretched lesson in how not to make films." [3] A review in the Montreal Gazette called it "truly abysmal" and a "brain-cell-destroying debacle." [7]

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References

  1. ↑ "Ski School (1991) at Box Office Mojo". boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 2009-11-14.
  2. 1 2 3 Ross, Bob (8 March 1991). "'Ski School' duo just wants a (video) break". The Tampa Tribune . p. 6. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  3. 1 2 Horton, Marc (2 February 1991). "Skl School a wretched lesson in how not to make films". Edmonton Journal . p. B4. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Driscoll, David (January 30, 2016). "D2D Interview: Dean Cameron". K&L Spirits Journal. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  5. ↑ Ross, Bob (8 March 1991). "'Ski School' duo just wants a (video) break". The Tampa Tribune . p. 7. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  6. 1 2 Fratkin, Stuart. "Ski School". stuartfratkin.com. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  7. ↑ Brownstein, Bob (11 February 1991). "Theres bad, then there's too bad". The Gazette . p. 16. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
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