neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Extreme Ops
	Christian Duguay Rufus Sewell, Devon Sawa, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Rupert Graves, Heino Ferch, Joe Absolom, Jana Pallaske, Jean-Pierre Castaldi, Klaus Löwitsch 2002		It's important to lower your expectations before viewing "Extreme Ops." Since it's an exploitation film built around real and special-effected extreme-sports activities, there's little need for plot or character development — and there's virtually none of either. Sheer hysterical action is what you get, barely enough for a DVD rental or cable viewing. Rufus Sewell ("Dark City") plays a daredevil director of TV commercials who's working on an extreme-sports-oriented camera ad with punky snowboarders and an uptight-but-sexy gold-medal skier (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras). They go to the Alps to shoot a scene with the athletes racing an avalanche. They stay in a drafty, unfinished mountaintop chalet where an evil Balkan war criminal, believed dead, is hiding. The strongman decides to kill them before they can reveal his presence. It's all downhill from there — literally. A trailer for "Extreme Ops" suggests that the athletes are trying to stop the villain's unexplained plan for world domination. They're actually just trying to ski as far away from him and his henchmen as possible. Truth in advertising? Too extreme.