"Aspen Extreme" (1993) is a ski flick about two guys from Detroit who decide to throw the dice and move to Aspen where they're hired as ski instructors. TJ is a walking stud with loads of charm (Paul Gross),but his buddy Dex, albeit likable, is a problem waiting to happen (Peter Berg). TJ catches the eye of two women: a local DJ, Robin (Teri Polo),and a high society vamp, Bryce (Finola Hughes). Meanwhile TJ and Dex seek to win an important powder skiing contest.

Someone described "Aspen Extreme" as "Top Gun on skis" and that's a good brief description as both films balance the drama with the 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, Colorado, where the film was shot (along with some opening scenes in Michigan).

You would think that the sport of skiing would have delivered up numerous movies over the years, but I can think of only two serious films on the topic -- this one and 1969's "Downhill Racer" with Robert Redford and Gene Hackman. Go figure. In any event, "Downhill Racer" is a favorite film of mine and "Aspen Extreme" doesn't come close to its greatness. Still, it's well-done for what it is.

There are a couple of scenes that standout: A scene where Dex foolishly decides to make some easy money as a drug courier. 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 roll-your-eyes scene where one of the guys falls into a deep crevasse that has water in it (at that elevation in the middle of winter?). But, hey, it's Hollywood.

Some people complain about the film devolving into melodrama, but I never got this impression. The story takes place over the course of a couple of winters and is just showing the highlights. With the exception of the scene noted above, nothing struck me as radically over-the-top or out of the realm of possibility.

Teri Polo is a huge plus as she's very young and beautiful.

The film runs 113 minutes.

GRADE: B-

If there's one thing I can say about Aspen Extreme, it is that it is not at all the Top Gun of the ski slopes, it's The Great Outdoors of the ski slopes. And by that, of course, I mean it's The Great Outdoors without John Candy or Dan Aykroyd. And by THAT, of course, I mean it's The Great Outdoors, but not funny. Oddly enough, the movie is more a combination of The Great Outdoors and Dumb & Dumber than anything else, but all of the comedy has been removed. In fact, the only thing that the movie takes from Top Gun is the cloying cheesiness and relentless predictability. Not that I didn't enjoy it.

My roommate recommended the movie to me, lending it to me out of his DVD collection so I thought I'd check it out. I wasn't entirely disappointed in the movie because it featured some spectacular skiing scenery, but I enjoyed it for how bad it was just as much as I enjoyed the acting, story, etc.

The story is about two guys living in Detroit and both working dead end jobs, when one of them gets a promotion to another dead end job and decides to just pick up and get out of town. I respect that, there's hardly a better way to make your life interesting when it's become too routine than to completely mix it up in a way that you don't know what it will all lead to. Just pick up and leave, when you think about it, there's no way you're going to become homeless (although you might spend a few nights in your van…).

They start out not knowing anyone in town and end up with one of them sleeping with the richest woman in town (that's Lloyd in bed with Mary Swanson) AND the most frigid, uptight woman in town (remember that cheesy teenage romance in The Great Outdoors? Yeah. That.),while the other ends up getting involved with moving massive amounts of drugs to make a little extra money. By the way, if ever there walked the earth a man who could not keep his cool, he is in this movie. Dexter's paralyzing quickness to freak out is nearly a character in itself.

T.J., the more successful of the two, has vague aspirations to become a writer that come up when the screenplay needs them to, and is torn between sleeping with a good-looking wealthy (and oddly motherly) woman and sleeping with a more regular girl with a job as a radio host who cares more about him but is frigid, grumpy and completely uninteresting because of her total lack of personality beyond her aloofness.

The film is best when it shows breathtaking shots of extreme skiing, but even then tends to trip up when it tries to tie un-matching shots together as it does numerous times in showing skiers going down the hill. There are times when it is amazing that they thought two shots could go together, but I'm willing to accept that for the sake of the story, which unfortunately is not very good. You have the love interest, the conflict to the love interest, the best friend in need, the over-the-top villain (and they do NOT let you forget that this guy is VERY bad),etc.

Overall not a bad movie, but comparisons to other classics like Endless Summer and Top Gun may run the risk of giving false expectations. This is direct to video fare, but in that genre you could certainly do worse.

It's much better than Ski School, for example

'Aspen Extreme' should satisfy some lazy Saturday afternoon fun, if you're in the mood for a decent early 90s action/drama. This movie centers on two guys from Detroit who travel to Aspen to work as ski instructors in a posh resort. Paul Gross is the rather handsome, somewhat shy T.J. Burke, the star skier of our story. His friend is Dexter Rutecki (Peter Berg),a sort of cocky guy and second string skier. The friends kind of clash and things don't exactly go as planned. In the first place, Dexter only gets in on probationary terms because his ski trials don't go well while T.J. is picked for the better ski instructor job almost immediately. Then, T.J. starts spending a lot of time with a wealthy woman (Finola Hughes) while Dexter starts getting into dangerous pursuits, dealing drugs. This consequently upsets the guys plans to ski as a team in a severe downhill competition (a ski movie wouldn't be complete without the grand downhill finale). And when Dexter meets his downfall, T.J. wonders whether it is worth it to try for the competition, or whether he should just pack up and go back to Detroit. (Look for William MacNamara briefly in the end).

Despite some of the clichés of the story, this movie stands out among other ski movies of the day in particular because of the tremendous ski sequences, which are abundant (while some movies just use it as a secondary element). Anyone who enjoys skiing might enjoy this film for that aspect alone. It really makes you want to get off your tush, grab some snow gear, and hit the slopes. Plus, the movie has enough going on with its two different main characters (T.J. and Dexter) to keep you going. So you're not just stuck with the routine ski instructor finds love and skates in the downhill competition story. It is definitely worth trying out.