Old hands at sports documentaries tried to enter the dramatic arena in ONE LAST RUN, and it looks it. The film has no story to speak of, just amazing skiing sequences piled on the lightest dusting of story.
Joe (Jimmy Aleck) woodenly narrates how he and buddies Nick (Russell Todd) and Tom (Craig Branham) have met annually for wild ski expeditions, but they're all feeling a bit jaded and have reluctantly decided that this year's run will be their last. At Lake Tahoe the trio find themselves snowed in
overnight at a cozy chalet bar filled with other winter-sports enthusiasts, including Nick's old flame Jane (Ashley Laurence). After much drinking, introspection and ski-related product placement, Nick reunites with Jane, and the three men decide to continue meeting year after year.
That's it for the narrative, filler that marks time between skiing interludes. When characters are introduced extended flashbacks follow showing their prowess on the slopes. "I always thought Nick fell in love with [Jane] because she's a better skier than he is, especially in deep powder,"
comments Joe, cueing lengthy, striking shots of the lady whizzing across the majestic landscape. A clownish hot-dogger named Charlie (Nels Van Patten) pops up; cut to him skiing while set on fire, then skiing into water. Also thrown in, for no other reason than visual interest, are scenes of
"skeezers"--surfboards used in snow--and the crazy dudes who hang ten on them.
The impressive ski stunts come courtesy of second-unit work by Warren Miller Entertainment. Miller, a legendary chronicler of the ski set, has made a career of turning out feature-length sports documentaries since 1947, perfectly plotless spectacles like WHITE MAGIC and EXTREME WINTER that
consist of skiiers, surfers and sailors doing what they do best. ONE LAST RUN clumsily tries to integrate the Miller footage into a fiction scenario, and while the snowy stuff is as breathtaking as ever, the single-set scripted segments are just a flimsy distraction, even with supporting roles
from sexy Tracy Scoggins, world speed champ Franz Weber, and a paternal Chuck Connors as the bar's proprietor. The picture is hardly painful to behold but still not recommended for anyone but true ski fiends devoted to the Warren Miller canon.
The credits state the skiing was filmed all over the world, literally: Colorado, Chile, Japan, British Columbia and elsewhere. The movie itself took a less circuituous direct-to-video route for its own tour. (Substance abuse.) leave a comment
