Metascore
58 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 17 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 17
  2. Negative: 2 out of 17
  1. Reviewed by: Scott Schueller
    88
    Steep is one of those rare endeavors able to touch on the human condition without neglecting the film’s true star: big-mountain skiing.
  2. Filled with breathtaking shots of crazed nutballs on skis plummeting down pitched peaks at high speed, Steep is a visually exhilarating sports documentary that is also more than a little exasperating.
  3. A surprisingly fatalistic, way-above-average ski documentary that lays out a 35-year history of the "extreme" end of the sport.
  4. Although this is director Mark Obenhaus' first ski movie, it is every bit as exciting as the popular Warren Miller pictures, and boasts an unobstrusive soundtrack in place of the heavy metal racket that fuels most sports documentaries.
  5. 75
    Enthusiasts and neophytes alike should be able to join together in gasping at the sight of people plunging down vertical walls of ice, taking their lives into their own hands for a brief, lion-lifed adrenaline charge.
  6. Reviewed by: Scott Schueller
    70
    Certain to appeal to the extreme sport enthusiast, but it also deserves a mass audience for its incredible imagery and window into a lifestyle most can't fathom. It's nearly impossible to walk away without a new motivation to find something that can make you feel the way these skiers do.
  7. An undeniably impressive visual spectacle that follows the sport of extreme skiing.
  8. Nonetheless, there's something life affirming in all of this. Even as most of us recoil with self-preservation at their feats, we also secretly applaud them pushing the envelope of mortality.
  9. 67
    Obenhaus' documentary on extreme, "big mountain" skiing feels, despite its jaw-dropping camerawork and patently fearless subjects, like a relic from 1998.
  10. The skiers' explanations, on the order of "no risk, no adventure," won't wash with people born without the daredevil gene and watching them fly down these vertical blankets of snow, often out of control, is a little like watching a train wreck
  11. If you like your skiing extreme but your documentaries safe, then carve a sharp turn over to Steep.
  12. Reviewed by: Stephen Farber
    50
    Spectacular photography bolsters this shallow ski movie.
  13. Reviewed by: David Wiegand
    50
    Steep begins to feel a mite in need of tighter editing. In truth, the film will appeal primarily to skiers, while others may get a bit, well, snow-blind.
  14. Reviewed by: Aaron Hillis
    50
    Blandly beautiful, inarticulate extreme-skiing documentary.
  15. Reviewed by: John Anderson
    50
    Like its sister films in the surfing-movie genre, the extreme-skiing movie Steep is less a documentary than a sales pitch -- not for a product or a place, but for a sport, one its practitioners feel requires pugnacious self-promotion.
  16. 30
    A tedious movie about excitement.
  17. 25
    What they say is superficial. They never really explain why they risk their lives. In the end, Steep plays like a TV infomercial - and who wants to hand over $11 to watch one?
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 1 out of 2
  1. SharonB.
    10
    This movie is astounding not only for the shear beauty of the mountains but for the incredible nerve of the skiers. Incredible moments in the world of skiing whether you are a ski buff or not. This is extreme skiing like I have never seen before. Definitely worth an hour and a half of your time. Full Review »
  2. JayH.
    2
    This is more of an infomercial for a sport rather than a documentary. They make extreme skiing a major world event, rather than what it is, a bunch of misguided kids doing a stupid and dangerous sport. I am supposed to be impressed. I'm not. To compare the release of "The Blizzard of AAHHH's", an early ski documentary to the assassination of John F. Kennedy importance is as ludicrous as the film itself. Full Review »