“Jenny Jones: crossing the channel - ESPN.com” plus 1 more |
| Jenny Jones: crossing the channel - ESPN.com Posted: Updated: March 16, 2011, 8:37 PM ET We might be at a snowboard competition in France, but that hasn't stopped half of England from coming out to support their skiers and snowboarders dropping in to the big show. And no one gets more love in Tignes than Winter X Europe defending champion Jenny Jones. Over in the States, however, not a lot is known about Britain's snowboarding pride and joy -- outside of the fact that she's one of the only women to successfully challenge two-time TTR World Snowboard Tour winner Jamie Anderson's dominance in slopestyle. So we thought we'd fill in some blanks. Let's start at the beginning. How did you get into snowboarding? I finished college, and instead of going straight to university, I went to the French Alps and worked as a chalet maid so I could snowboard every day. Where? Where the Euro X is? This was where you learned to really ride? Do you still have friends in Tignes? So how long after you learned to ride was it that you first started competing? After five months of snowboarding? You haven't been doing many competitions this year. How come? I thought you were having a secret adventure in the backcountry or something. Let's talk about your 900s. They look pretty solid. If someone said to me, "Is a 900 in your bag of tricks?" I would say no. But if someone asked, "Are you trying them?" I would say yes. But I can't put them in my bag of tricks yet because I can't land them all the time. So when you're not competing, are you trying to get the tricks you don't have dialed yet? Do you have a lot of support back home? When you're not competing, where do you go? This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Movie Reviews: Submarine, Chalet Girl, Route Irish, Battle Los Angeles - Birmingham Post.net Posted: Chalet Girl * * * It features Birmingham's own Felicity Jones in her first leading film role, as well as Bill Nighy and gorgeous snow-capped mountains. And while those are all good reasons to watch this romcom, it is sadly let down by a clichéd and predictable script. Jones plays Kim, a skateboarding champion who gives it all up when her mother is killed in a car crash.  She stays home to look after her father Bill Bailey, but then gets the chance to earn good money cooking and cleaning in an Austrian chalet for the ski season. Kim doesn't fit in with all the other posh girls from finishing schools, like her roommate Georgie (Tamsin Egerton). She can't even ski but discovers her skateboarding skills are transferable to a snowboard. And, wouldn't you know it, within a few weeks – cue montages of her falling over – she's good enough to enter a competition. And maybe even win. Of course, there's also a plot involving a romance, or should that be snow-mance. The luxurious chalet she's looking after belongs to banker Bill Nighy, his snooty wife Brooke Shields and their handsome son Jonny (Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick). After serving her time in supporting roles in films like Cemetery Junction, Brideshead Revisited and Flashbacks of a Fool, Felicity – who grew up in Bournville and shot to fame as Emma Grundy in The Archers – is certainly good enough to take the romantic lead. She's appealing and funny, when given the chance, though she's not exactly the next Bridget Jones. St Anton, blue skies and snowy peaks are also attractive, and there's a rather good soundtrack. There are a few amusing lines but not enough of them, amid some rather clunky dialogue. "I always tell the mountains my problems, they are good listeners," says one character, while another comes out with the old chestnut: "It's what she would have wanted." Above all, it's incredibly predictable. We know from the start she will fall for Jonny, even though he's getting married. And we know she's going to do well in the snowboarding contest, despite having to overcome a horribly contrived psychological hurdle. See it for Jones, Nighy and the snow, but don't expect many laughs or any surprises. RL Route Irish * * * Route Irish is the name of the most dangerous road in the world, the bomb-laden route between Baghdad airport and the green zone. That's where mercenary Frankie (comedian John Bishop) dies, apparently ambushed by terrorists while protecting a journalist and contractors. Fergus (Mark Womack) is his best friend from their Liverpudlian childhood and former brother-in-arms, who he encouraged to join him in a £10,000-a-month job working for a private security firm. He doesn't buy the story that Frankie was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and sets out to dig deeper into his death. There's a clue in a video shot on a phone Frankie had, which shows an Iraqi family being shot and killed in a car by British mercenaries. Route Irish includes some grippingly grim scenes, especially when Fergus waterboards a soldier to force him to reveal what happened. The liberal sprinkling of swearwords becomes a little tiresome, as does all the shouting and the phlegm-filled way the Scousers pronounce 'Iraccchhhq'. There are some pretty good performances – Womack slowly unravels, Bishop shows he can act as well as tell jokes, and Andrea Lowe also does her best in the limited role of Frankie's girlfriend. But I didn't really care about the characters and found the pace a little heavy at times. There is, however, a shocking conclusion, if you can stick with it that long. RL Battle Los Angeles * * * Instead of watching just another LA-based alien invasion thriller which begins with a line about cities like Tokyo having already fallen, I ended up concentrating on the special effects more than usual. Recent events have shown like never before how digitally-sourced images have a now familiar, related look whether they're shot on TV news or for feature-length movies. Having watched the extraordinary pictures from Honshu and compared them with the scenes here, you have to say that the Japanese news crews and ordinary people with camera phones have been doing a brilliant job in recent days. If nothing else, the Sendai disaster proves that Hollywood's special effects teams have also really upped their game in recent years, viz the Oscar-nominated tsunami which recently opened Clint Eastwood's overlooked Hereafter. Battle Los Angeles also has some fine effects that are worth the admission alone. A counterbalance is the use of digital technology at its worst, whereby ''machine-gun'' editing takes over the plot. The sometimes scarcely watchable, almost subliminal result here is not dissimilar to the style Paul Greengrass took too far during his leap from Bourne to Green Zone. Still, Eckhart is a refreshing alternative to Messrs Stallone and Schwarzenegger in this movie. Most recently seen opposite the Oscar-nominated Nicole Kidman's mourning mother in Rabbit Hole, he's a fine actor with a strong jaw that's suited to action. Directed by Jonathan Liebesman, who remade The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2006, Battle Los Angeles' rather derivative story features Staff Sgt Michael Nantz leading a marine platoon in a typically heavy duty fightback against the invaders. Though no match for the South African thriller District 9, Eckhart's performance alone makes this better than last year's cheaper version Skyline. GY Submarine * * * * And nothing at all like a Hollywood comedy would have been had Ben Stiller been the executive producer like he is here. But Submarine, showing at the Electric Cinema in Station Street as well as Cineworld, lives up to its name by having hidden depths to its endearing sense of humour. Any incidents of bullying aren't of the fingers-over-eyes variety, more valid milestones on the way to finding your own kind of adult maturity. Craig Roberts (Robin in TV's Young Dracula series) is terrific as the amorous teenager Oliver Tate who tries to work out ways of losing his virginity to classmate Jordana (Yasmin Paige). After managing that all-important first kiss, he declares with admirable innocent-abroad sophistication: "Her mouth tasted of milk, Polo mints and Dunhill International." Based on the novel by Joe Dunthorne, Craig's parents Lloyd (Noah Taylor) and Jill (Sally Hawkins) behave as if they are reaching the end of their own relationship, which seems to be further threatened by the reappearance of her first love and new age guru Graham (Paddy Considine). While the parental subplot is fun, it's a little undercooked. But it's impossible to watch this and not have long-forgotten echoes of your own teenage years come flooding back. GY This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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