Ultimate X: The Movie (2002)

Critic Reviews

• Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

  This Imax sports documentary captures the danger, thrills, spills and sheer altitude attained by the young men and women who put it all on the line for burgeoning 'Xtreme sports' movement.

• Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune

  The film contains so much eye-popping footage that even viewers who have never seen the X Games can't help but be fascinated.

• Robert K. Elder, Chicago Tribune

  Writer/director Bruce Hendricks subtracts from the experience by crafting a corporate propaganda film posing as a documentary.

• Ed Halter, Village Voice

  The format gets used best ... to capture the dizzying heights achieved by motocross and BMX riders, whose balletic hotdogging occasionally ends in bone-crushing screwups.

• Megan Turner, New York Post

  Most of Ultimate X is comprised of truly exhilarating footage of men -- and one woman -- pushing their bodies and their nerve to the edge.

• Elvis Mitchell, New York Times

  Ultimate X is a ride, basically the kind of greatest-hits reel that might come with a subscription to ESPN the Magazine.

• , Film4

  Uses the IMAX screen to showcase sports rather than talking heads, and the result is 40 minutes crammed with high-energy acrobatics.

• Derek Adams, Time Out

  [A] spectacular extreme sports extravaganza.

• , Empire Magazine

  The competitors are clearly unhinged, but they put on a hell of a show.

• Linda Cook, KWQC-TV (Iowa)

  If you think that "ESPN's Ultimate X" is a motor oil, then you need to see this movie, dude.

• Widgett Walls, Needcoffee.com

  For the whacko sports enthusiast, this might be worth owning, just for the sheer amount of information alone.

• Steve Rhodes, Internet Reviews

  If you're an extreme sports fan, this is probably a must own DVD.

• Margaret A. McGurk, Cincinnati Enquirer

  A love letter for fans of the sport, and for the uninitiated earth-bound, a peek into a strange new sports world spinning with adrenaline.

• Mark Palermo, Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia)

  It briefly flirts with player masochism, but the point of real interest -- audience sadism -- is evaded completely.

• Audrey Rock-Richardson, Tooele Transcript-Bulletin (Utah)

  It's a dizzyingly entertaining thrill-ride, complete with a pleasantly surprising amount of humor and self-parody.

• , E! Online

  Even if you can't tell Tony Hawk from Bob Burnquist, you'll still get a rush out of this documentary about the world of extreme sports.

• , FilmFour.com

  The result is that the skill and determination, not to mention bravery or lunacy, of the extreme sportsmen (and women) is shown on a strikingly grand scale.

• Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly

  All of this looks great on the giant IMAX screen -- most things do -- but the filmmakers can't shake the sense that this is an inflated TV special.

• Robert W. Butler, Kansas City Star

  The most enjoyable 40 minutes I've ever spent watching a large-format, IMAX-type movie.

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