StartFragmentWARREN MILLER – CHILDREN OFTHE WINTER REVIEW 11/25/2008 – Santa Cruz:Well the boys and I decided to check out the new WME film Children of theWinter (#59), which had low expectations based on last seasons flick –Playground. I don’t know about you guys, but WME releases seem to have lost itsheart ever since Kurt Miller $old it to Time, Inc. several years back (Warrenmust be a tad bummed). With the new-schoolers (Matchstick, Poor Boyz, TGR,Rage) taking over the niche box office it’s a wonder if Time4Media Group hastheir sites on any of the new blood! Anyhow, we rallied atSeabright Brewery for some grub and suds and talk about some of the Tahoeevents coming up that need filming. We headed over to the Rio grabbed our seatsto a nearly sold out crowd (680) and started filling out our coupons forchances to win…ANYTHING (Like as if we don’t already have enough junkemail!). The WM emcee came out topump up the crowd, which seemed subdued, what ever happened to the rowdy skicrowd…guess we are much older and sleep deprived! SETTLE IN, FILMS STARTING! The crisp lines of HD arestill a wonderful sight on the big/small screen and the opening scene readiesthe eyes for its candy! Jonny Moseley narrates us through a journey that 98% ofthe audience will never see in their lifetime and that’s the main reason we allflock to these incredible films, to be a part of such a ride…even if its justfor an hour. World-class athlete’sappear: Daron Rahlves, Andy Mahre, Marco Sullivan, Seth Wescott, and WendyFisher tear up big mountain lines. A great segment with legendary pipelinesurfer Gerry Lopez pulls in great perspective on the link between wet and dryH20…my personal favorite. (All the top ripper park-rats are filming with thenew-schoolers and are void of this film) The Billy Poole memorialsegment was a great tribute to the man who passed away during the filming ofthis movie; it’s hard for most of us to remember just how dangerous this sportis while riding the groomers. INTERMISSION: I still can’tget use to an intermission - I do remember them, as a kid at the local drive-inbut that was to sell as many Trotsky burgers that your lower intestine couldhandle. PISS BREAK OVER: As the filmtakes us on a roll around the world, it starts to feel a little muddled. Then asegment stops in Vermont where band members from Yukon Kornelius and actor Jason Biggs bounces back and fourth from small club jamming tolearning how to snowboard, this segment should have been left on the editingfloor. The other annoyance is theincreasing blatant product-placement, seems to be getting worse with each film,guess it is the sign of the TIMES! Interesting to see severalpeople leaving two thirds of the way through the flick, were they bored,hungry, late or horny? All in all, it was a greatnight out (Fueled by hops and barley) and on a scale of 1 (forget it) to 10(theater, own it), I would give this a 5.5 (rent it) I still look forward to WMfilms, but I think next year I will spend my hard earned coin on thenew-schoolers flicks…and rent #60. OUT EndFragment