| 88 |
Chicago Tribune
Scott Schueller
Steep is one of those rare endeavors able to touch on the human condition without neglecting the film’s true star: big-mountain skiing.
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| 75 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
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.
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| 75 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
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.
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| 75 |
Portland Oregonian
A surprisingly fatalistic, way-above-average ski documentary that lays out a 35-year history of the "extreme" end of the sport.
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| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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.
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| 70 |
The New York Times
An undeniably impressive visual spectacle that follows the sport of extreme skiing.
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| 70 |
Washington Post
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.
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| 70 |
Los Angeles Times
Scott Schueller
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.
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| 67 |
Austin Chronicle
Obenhaus' documentary on extreme, "big mountain" skiing feels, despite its jaw-dropping camerawork and patently fearless subjects, like a relic from 1998.
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| 63 |
New York Daily News
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
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| 63 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
If you like your skiing extreme but your documentaries safe, then carve a sharp turn over to Steep.
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| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
David Wiegand
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.
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| 50 |
Variety
John Anderson
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.
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| 50 |
Village Voice
Aaron Hillis
Blandly beautiful, inarticulate extreme-skiing documentary.
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| 50 |
The Hollywood Reporter
Stephen Farber
Spectacular photography bolsters this shallow ski movie.
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| 30 |
Chicago Reader
A tedious movie about excitement.
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| 25 |
New York Post
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?
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