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Razors Icons Review

Two or three days ago I talked with my friends about media productions of last months, and we all came to conclusion that there wasn`t anything worth to discuss about. Every of recent flick lacks of something. One has bad tracks, other too simple editing or shows the same spots all the time, while yet another has a profile of someone who doesn`t match to the whole etc… After pretty long analysis of all last DVD which came to our hands, most of us agreed that the new Razors team video – Icons will be another thing to remember, and won`t dissapoint us. Why we thought that way? Well first of all take all current Razors team riders: Brain Aragon, Dre Powell, Mike Johnson, Don Bambrick, Eric Perket, Julian Bah, Brent Hicks, Jimmy Hake, Jeremy Spira and lots of european skaters among which are Piotrek Combrzyński and Mateusz Kowalski. Another thing is that all previous Razors Team media were at least very good and what`s more the guy responsible for the editing is Adam Johnson (KFC, Vibralux). It`s not my first review of a skate video and hopefully not last, so I would like to approach to it as objective as I can. Also I would want that all of the readers would know why I wrote this review in this way, so at the beginning I will point things which I personally expected from Razors- Icons:
- answer to the question: Why Dre Powell is still a Pro
- answer to the question: Why it was Don Bambrick and no lets say Julian Bah or Brent Hicks, became a Pro for Razors,
- lots of tricks from Europe, including some Polish guys
- cool editing and songs
- enjoyable bonuses. I will write this review in a classic way, by giving my thoughts about each section in particular. Well, let`s start with the cover – black and white, with sketches of team riders is very nice (without the poor, graffiti style Icons sign which doesn`t match to the whole at all). Yet the cover itself or I would rather the info which can be found on it was quite surprising to me. After the offical premiere of Icons, Razors announced the new team, which is not quite the same as it it is put here (I don`t take Pro Team into a consideration for now): Dustin Halleran, Jeremy Spira, Micheal Collins.…wait a moment but what happened with Julian, Brent or Jimmy Hake? As usual the film opens with Intro which I enjoyed a lot but on the other hand it annoyed the hell of me. Why? Because showed bails and tricks were edited to this track from Requiem For a Dream! I get it that at movies which are being produced in the same time the tracks may double, but using the song which was used soooooooo many times in different edits is little overwhelming. Another minus is that it lacks of skaters` names, but I guess the clips are changing so fast so it would be tricky to do it in proper way. Heh and the important thing that we can see here a clip of Piotrek Combrzyński! The first profile belongs to Eric ‘Ski’ Perket. Graffiti style titles catches your eye immidiately…I know that they are different tastes, and some may like the idea of graffiti but it can be clearly said that the quality of this titles is really poor. As far as the rest, you know what to expect from Eric. Hammers, huge gaps, drop rails, fastslides and some ‘calm’ ledges tricks, to be honest this is the best profile of ski I have seen so far, and with cool AFI song this profile is very entertaining. Next we have a Montage section. Here, as it was mention on the cover presented skaters are: Dustin Halleran, Jeremy Spira, Micheal Collins and as guest stars such people like Braina Shima, Eric Bailey, Chris Farmer, Chris Haffey, Montre Livingston, Jon Jon Bolino, Sean Kelso, Avichai and some more but it`s hard to recognize them without subtitles. Well isn`t someone missing from that list? And I am not talking about Hicks, Bah or Hake (which by the way is still strange) but what happened to the whole European Team? I will answer to your question: Yes it is the only montage section and further only one person from Europe has some clips, but let`s leave it for later. This montage is somehow a compilation of mini-views. Jeremy Spira – fast, stylish and creative. Dustin Halleran – good but something is missing. Michael Collins – together with changing the sponsor (Deshi to Razors) he changed his wardrobe again which makes his tricks looks different then usuall. He still skates very fluently but it`s not the same as lets say his section in Meantime. The section ends with tricks of Jon Jon Bolino who turned out the to be the highlight of this montage, JJ too changed his sponsor (Deshi to Razors), lots of acid tricks, cool swithc ups, nice spots but what`s important – flawless and solid skating. Overall that Montage setion although good editing and amazing tricks was rather a dissapointment..Let`s go next. The very first profile of Stefan Horngacher inn Razors Team video and unfortunately the only european accent in this production. The same as with the intro I have mixed feeling about that section. Great selection of song (The Beatles) puts a good vibe and the first trick – the attempt of huge disaster royale (it was used as poster in the last issue of Bemag) teases us and won`t let you to skip his part. Horn`s profile can be divided into two parts: Light – small ledges tricks, which lack of diversity and difficulty and Hard – tricks which weren`t seen anywhere and You would never thought about doing them. To sum it up, besides the ‘small filling up’ tricks Stefan`s section surpised me in a very positive way and although I think there far more interesting European razor riders, his profile in Icons is well deserved. Coming next is Dre Powell. According to me, for the last years he didn`t amaze us with anything and I think he should give up his Pro rank in the favour of Julian Bah. Also let me state that the last Profile of Dre could be seen in Ego which is so ooold! Why am I pointing that? Because his part in Icons is made of clips which 70% of were used in Say Words 2 (an online production available for free for some time now) and although its good skating its nothing new. For me using the same clips for two different movies, for which Dre had two years to film is simply pathetic. The tricks alone as I said before are nice, very nice, used song is sooo slow and repetitive. Judge this section for yourself. The section of Mike ,Murda. Johnson is …another dissapotment. Murda is one of my favourite skaters out there, however his profile, just like the song used is nothing more than another repetition. I even don`t mention clips which were used couple times before, but mostly about the same spots around Philly area which we have seen thousand times. Just like in Horn section, there are many tricks which would be almost impossible to repeat but their charm is destroyed by spot selection. To not go so far away, I`m sure you`ve all seen Checkamte already where for example Kelso Brothers had filmed hundreds of tricks on those spots earlier. The last two sections are held by Don Bambrick and Brian Aragon and I can honestly say that they will sell this video. Aragon just can`t stop to amaze me, section after section. Common complains about boring ‘perfect’ Prince`s style can`t be applied here at all. Yes, there are perfect 450 royales or 360 fs torqes to bs royales on rails you always dream of, but also most of the tricks from Brian`s ONE interview are here, crazy lines, everything edited to mixed song of Daft Punk. The last but not least section - Don Bambrick. This guy switched skates after Salomon dropped from inline industry. If you too were wondering why it was Don who received Pro rank among Razors Am`s, after watching this section you will have all the answers. Another section after Brian`s which is ‘complete’, nothing is missing here. Also, its funny but check in how many clips Don doesn`t have a capJ If I had to say sth bad about this part it would be constant motive with cigs, but whatever…maybe Don is exactly just like this. Credist section is cool, as usual bloopers and funny situations filmed during collecting clips. Standard way to finish a movie, yet always great to watch. As far as Bonus material is concerned, I still was hoping to find some materials from Europe here – but without any result. There are bunch of clips with Halleran, Alex Nunez Profile, section remixes, Dre`s clips and not very funny hotel shots with razors crew. Let`s wrap things up. Again, I know it might be annoying but I really think that the biggest con of Icons is lack of European expousure, and no profiles of people who are on the main Razor team. Maybe it`s the lack of clips but I know it for sure that tapes of Koval and Piotrek did come to AJ hands, and I can say that some of their clips were fire! Another thing that Powell section was available long before online, and poor quality of graffiti subtitles. About the good points. Editing and directing is without question a ‘top’ work. All clips are perfectly filmed, you won`t see dirty lens, shaking hand or anything like that. Everybody will find something good as far as music is concerned, but the intro track should be skipped for sure. Three best sections are Montage, Brian Aragon and Don Bambrick. Out of ten I give Icons solid 6! Szymon