Solid ski flick

The story revolves around two guys from Detroit deciding to throw the dice and move to Aspen where they're hired as ski instructors. TJ is a walking stud (Paul Gross) while his buddy Dex is a problem waiting to happen (Peter Berg).

Someone described it as "Top Gun on skis" and that's a good brief description as both films balance the drama with action and have rockin' soundtracks. But there are huge differences in that "Top Gun" takes place at a prestigious military flight school and therefore involves military personnel, whereas "Aspen Extreme" is about two regular dudes who ride into Aspen with only their van and essential belongings. Furthermore, "Top Gun" takes place in San Diego, whereas "Aspen Extreme" takes place in Aspen (naturally), where the film was shot (along with some opening scenes in Michigan).

There are a couple of scenes that standout: One where Dex foolishly decides to make some easy doing something illegal. The sequence effectively shows how prone to paranoia you can get when you know you're doing something wrong. Another scene effectively reveals a character's casual (and sick) love-'em-and-leave-'me mentality, and I'm not talking about a dude.

The mountain scenery is breathtaking, but there's one eye-rolling scene where one of the guys falls into a deep crevasse.

Some people complain about the flick devolving into melodrama, but I didn't get that impression. The story takes place over the course of a couple of winters and is just showing the highlights. With the exception of the aforementioned crevasse scene, nothing struck me as radically over-the-top or out of the realm of possibility.

Teri Polo is a huge plus as Robin; young and beautiful.

"Downhill Racer" is a favorite ski film of mine and this doesn't come close to its greatness. Still, it's well-done for what it is.