Ski Patrol Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Ski Patrol Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 19, 2022

Ski Patrol proudly announces on its cover that it's "from the creator of Police Academy", but that may be damning with faint praise for some more high falutin' type viewers. One way or the other, Ski Patrol is, like the Police Academy films, often incredibly relentless and manic, and it specializes in absolutely stupid humor, which in fact might actually be one of its more charming aspects. The problem with Ski Patrol, something that it shares with at least the "latter day" Police Academy movies, is that it often tries way too hard and never ends up generating significant laughs despite the obvious effort.

One of the perhaps telling points about the overall effectiveness of Ski Patrol is the fact that I think even many diehard trivia fans would be hard pressed to have much information on any of the ostensible "stars" of this film, including Roger Rose and Yvette Nipar. Instead, there's a rather eclectic supporting cast that really provides most of the perceived "marquee value" here, and in that regard it's the ruthless land developer played by Martin Mull that gets the hoary plot machinations rolling. Of course Mull's Sam Maris wants to take over a somewhat decrepit ski resort which is being fitfully maintained by Pops (Ray Walston), and which hosts the "good guy" ski instructors of the film, who are of course pitted against the "bad guy" ski instructors, who are in league with Maris. This particular aspect struck me as much more reminiscent of films like National Lampoon's Animal House with its dueling fraternities than anything else. It's all relentlessly predictable, but probably worse, it's just never very funny.

The supporting cast also offers some relatively early turns for everyone from George Lopez to the wonderful and sadly recently departed Leslie Jordan. Ski Patrol features a perhaps questionable sequence featuring a cross dressing Paul Feig that may not pass muster with contemporary sensibilities. There are some fun ski stunts thrown in on occasion (see screenshot 3), but to unavoidably pun horribly, it's all downhill from there.

Ski Patrol Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Ski Patrol is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual's MVD Rewind Collection imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. There's no technical information imparted on the cover, but kind of interestingly this is one of two MGM catalog titles from the same general era that MVD is releasing more or less in tandem, with the other one being Panther. Admittedly Panther is five years newer than Ski Patrol, which may account for at least some of the differences in the quality of the transfer, but this struck me as looking considerably more dated than the Van Peebles film, especially with regard to consistency of grain resolution, which is pretty widely variant aside and apart from anything like opticals. The palette is actually generally robust, if maybe just slightly skewed toward browns, but the outdoor material in particular tends to pop rather well. Some interior moments are fairly rough looking, especially in the lowest light sequences. There's recurrent if minor age related wear and tear on display.

Ski Patrol Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ski Patrol features an LPCM 2.0 track which adequately supports some of the more raucous elements, including some actual on screen singing and dancing, while also providing good fidelity for goofy sound effects and dialogue. Optional English subtitles are available.

Ski Patrol Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers include Ski Patrol (Theatrical Trailer) (HD; 1:58) and Ski Patrol (VHS Trailer (SD; 1:35), along with trailers for other releases from MVD Visual.

Packaging includes a reversible sleeve, a folded mini poster and a slipcover.

Ski Patrol Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a bunch of slapstick laden humor in this enterprise which may appeal to younger viewers, but there's also some fairly questionable sophomoric content here that concerned parents might not want their kids watching. And that's kind of the problem with Ski Patrol: it aims for some of the unabashed stupid humor of some of the Zucker-esque films, but it doesn't offer enough of the actual smarts that films like Airplane! also provide. There's also a kind of sense of desperation in several performances which are obviously struggling to get to some kind of a punchline. Technical merits are generally solid for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.