Entries Tagged 'movies' ↓

3D truly is a whole new ballgame when it comes to the big screen.

A tight-knit group of New York City street dancers, including Luke (Malambri) and Natalie (Vinson), team up with NYU freshman Moose (Sevani), and find themselves pitted against the world’s best hip hop dancers in a high-stakes showdown …

IMDB

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Impressive how they can convey 3D in a 2D video clip. John Woo is a master.

Thanks Jason.

This seems to come from a 1907 film called Les Kiriki, acrobates japonais (original title). More recently it’s called Kiri-Kis.

A simple but effective illusion.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Linked by Cirque’s Marceline Goldstein on Facebook.

UPDATE: Check Jim’s response in the comments.

An interview with one of the hardest working gymnasts in Hollywood:

Heidi Moneymaker attended the University of California, where she joined the gymnastics group and became uneven bars and vault team champion in 1997 and 2000 and individual champion in 1998 and 1999.

… Heidi competed in the 1999 World University Games and received two Honda Award nominations. With this skilled background, she made the step and has worked as a stuntwoman and stunt actress on television series and films since 2002.

24, Hancock, Mission Impossible III, My Name Is Earl, Serenity, Spider-Man 3 and Star Trek are just a few of the many well known and high profile movies and TV shows that Heidi has done stunt work for and I was lucky enough to be able to get in touch with her recently to ask her about some of her latest projects including being Scarlett Johansson’s stunt double in Marvel Studios‘ Iron Man 2! …

Scarlett Johansson’s stunt double in Iron Man 2

read Heidi’s interview

Carol must be 50yrs-old.

Seems impossible to me. Just a few years ago we were kids training together at Altadore Gymnastics Club in Calgary.

That’s the cover of the 1982 book, Carol Johnston: The One-Armed Gymnast.

Like many girls from my club, Carol went on to compete for Cal State Fullerton. She spoke to the team in 2009.

… Born without a right arm below the elbow, Johnston competed four seasons with the Titans from 1977-80 under Head Coach Lynn Rogers and was a two-time All-American on beam and floor exercise in 1978. She was also a conference champion on the balance beam in 1977. She was the subject of a 1980 Disney film for television production called “Lefty,” …

Lefty was some sort of College nickname. Back home she is only called Carol.

Here’s her movie. Inspiring, but heartbreaking. Thanks “Gymnastics Meets”.

Click PLAY or watch Lefty (part 1) on YouTube.

• Lefty (part 2)
• Lefty (part 3)
• Lefty (part 4)
• Lefty (part 5)

related – Whatever Happened to … Carol Johnston

ABC Afterschool Special – The Gymnast (1980)

If you like Aunt Joyce, you should check out Spanny Tampson’s Big Fake Smile. Funny, but sometimes profane. Big Fake Smile posted a detailed review of a Gawd awful gymnastics TV movie not starring Kurt Thomas.

Now, in light of other more horrifying, craptastic gymnastics-themed after school specials, what we’re about to see here isn’t that bad. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s BAD, but not as disturbing as the previous one. This one actually had Cathy Rigby as a consultant, and it shows, however slightly. I don’t know what was going on during the 80-84 quad to make people think that the public needed to be enlightened to the atrocities in gymnastics, but there seemed to be this epidemic of hating the sport.

Well, perhaps this video will explain to us just why training in gymnastics is the worst thing you could ever allow your children to do, ever.

As always, let’s start at the beginning. …

Click PLAY or watch The Gymnast – part 1 on YouTube.

• “The Gymnast” Part 2
• “The Gymnast” Part 3
• “The Gymnast” Part 4
• “The Gymnast” Part 5

If you can’t bear to be reminded how bad T.V. was back then, simply read the summary:

Big Fake Smile – it is the closest the irish will ever get to christmas

Update: After watching this voyage back in time, rapt, I’ve decided it’s not totally without any redeeming qualities. In fact, there’s even some truth in the dynamic of the older, bigger girl being pushed by the up-and-coming “hot shot”.

The acting is less two dimensional than expected. (O.K., perhaps it’s only 2.1 dimensional.)

Certainly there are fewer gymnastics “errors” than on any episode of Make it or Fake It.

Feel free to weigh in in the comments, if I’m too lenient nostalgic for the days when girls weighed in publicly.

… I know what you’re thinking …

GYMKATA

After all, Maxim magazine ranked Gymkata as 17th “Worst Movie of All Time”.

But you’d be wrong. There’s even a worse gymnastics movie (actually a syndicated TV show / after school special). And it also starred Kurt Thomas.

Click PLAY or watch True Confessions – The Gymnast Part 1 on YouTube.

If you survive the trauma of that horrific fall on a missed straddle-cut on Bars, click through to:

• True Confessions – The Gymnast Part 2
• True Confessions – The Gymnast Part 3

Hmm. Could the writers on Make it or Break It be recycling plot lines from this dreck?

These videos were unearthed by 80sgymfan at wwgym via Fishbulb on the IG Forum.

In 2003 Kurt, a great hero of mine as a gymnast, was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. He runs Kurt Thomas Gymnastics Training Center in Frisco, Texas and hosts the Kurt Thomas International Invitational gymnastics meet.

Gymnasts Hannah Wickens, Kirsty Dalrymple, April Coombs, Scarlett Rolt and Elise Hale goof for Walt Disney to help launch the DVD of the gymnastics film ‘Stick It’.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (2007)

(via GymNiceTic)

I finally saw this low budget Romanian documentary.

… famous for the legendary gymnast Nadia Comaneci, and its boarding school, which for decades has trained world class gymnasts.

Pitic and Malina might be two of its future stars, but the long road to the podium is full of deprivation. They are eight and nine years old and have been at the school in Deva since they were six. They train for four hours every day and spend the rest of their time in school.

This documentary follows the girls … leading up to their first and most important competition, capturing an intimate and moving insight into the contrast between their dreams, and the often harsh reality.

Teachers.tv

I’ve got mixed feelings. Perhaps that’s not surprising. I’ve got mixed feelings about Romanian gymnastics.

On the one hand, with a population only about as large as Texas, one of the poorest nations in Europe consistently bested Russia, China and the U.S.A.

Their girls were incredibly tough on Floor and Beam. For decades after Nadia.

On the other hand, I’ve heard more nonsense coaching theory from Romanians than any place else in the world. What kind of coach education system have they had there? None? I’m told there’s an intensive program. I’d love to see the curriculum.

The 3 coaches highlighted in this film are excellent examples of how not to coach.

Yes I realize I’m imposing Western values on Romania. Aside from ethics, what’s shown in the documentary is simply not the best way to develop elite gymnasts.

I do get the impression that things have improved there since Nicolae Forminte took over as National Coach.

Leave a comment if you know where people can download or stream The Secret of Deva.

Related posts:

• remember Adriana Giurca (1982-1993)

• allegations of gymnast abuse in Romania

Romanian-Gymnastics.com posts a Wall of Shame naming coaches who have been accused of being abusive.

(via Stephthemagicdragon on IG forum)

UCLA Gymnastics is well known for having their athletes go on to careers in the Circus after graduation. Less well known is how many girls go on to stunt work.

UCLA magazine posted an excellent article on Bruin gymnasts getting work as doubles on TV and in the Movies.

Five former UCLA female gymnasts work on Make it or Break It.

… Natalie Padilla ’08, Jordan Schwikert ’09 and Ariana Berlin ’10 perform as stunt doubles for some of the lead characters; Tasha Schwikert ’09 plays a gym-nast on the show; and Karin Silvestri-Coye ’98 serves as the show’s gymnastics coordinator. …

2008 NCAA Champion Tasha Schwikert

… Other former Bruin gymnastics stars who have found stunt work in Hollywood include Dee Fischer Murphy ’96 and Kiralee Hayashi ’00 …

… Heidi Moneymaker, has been doing stunts full-time since 2001 …

Read the article – Stunts and Circuses

Related – cool new ad for G2 (Gatorade) features Chellsie Memmel on Bars

Update – check the comments for more information on stunt work gymnasts

It’s the season of gluttony where I live. Perhaps we need rent this movie to slow the gorge.

Food, Inc. is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner.

The film examines large-scale agricultural food production in the United States, concluding that the meat and vegetables produced by this type of economic enterprise have many hidden costs and are unhealthy and environmentally-harmful.

The film is narrated by Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, two long-time critics of the industrial production of food.[ The documentary generated extensive controversy in that it was heavily criticized by large American corporations engaged in industrial food production. …

Wikipedia

Excellent. Scary. Recommended. It had an unbelievably high rating of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

I felt the movie was quite “balanced”. Their charges against big agriculture are indefensible.

… The producers invited on-screen rebuttals from Monsanto Company, Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods, Perdue Farms, and other companies, but all declined the invitation. …

official movie website

companion book – Food Inc.: A Participant Guide: How Industrial Food Is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer—And What You Can Do About It

Related posts:

• Fast Food Nation
• Super Size Me – teaching kids about fast food

Gymkata is a 1985 film filmed in Yugoslavia and starring Kurt Thomas as Jonathan Cabot, an Olympic gymnast who combines his gymnastic ability with ninjutsu to enter a deadly competition in a fictional country, Parmistan. It is based on the novel The Terrible Game (1957) by Dan Tyler Moore.

The film has developed a minor cult following as an unintentional comedy for its dubious premise, poor production quality and low budget. Maxim lists the film as the 17th “Worst Movie of All Time”.

Gymkata – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The scene always bemoaned loudest by every coach is the pommel horse battle:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube:

Gymkata – Amazon

These days Kurt is a successful coach and club owner in Texas.

Thanks Helen.

Want to be in the movies?

We are looking for UK based girl gymnasts aged 12 to 15 who think they may be suited to one of the roles below, Nadia or Bee. If you are interested in being considered for this exciting project then please send us a 15 second clip of you talking to the camera (via youtube or other) …

Jessica Ronane, Casting Director at jessica.ronane AT workingtitlefilms.com …

Dates (Shooting, Rehearsal, etc.):Some rehearsal Nov/Dec (subject to availability). Shoot for 1 week late Dec/early Jan.

details

A friend gave a positive review for Drew Barrymore’s Directorial debut, Whip It.

He found it a positive girl coming of age/sports movie. As you know, there are far too few roles for females in Hollywood films. (Love interest and Princess)

The star is Ellen Page, who I loved as the title character in the film Juno. On The Simpsons she cameoed as a character named Alaska Nebraska, a parody of Hannah Montana.

In Whip It she plays Bliss, a rebellious Texas teen who throws in her small town beauty pageant crown for the rowdy world of roller derby.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

At my gym one of the Moms joined a Roller Derby team. Got fit. Loves it.