In 1993, in-line skating (roller skate) was not as democratized as it is today. The practice was common, on the rise, but it was not a classic in all sports stores.
The sport, relatively new at the time, needed a good publicity stunt to encourage youngsters to line up their wheels.
What could be better than a teen movie to rally young people to the cause.
You may not know this, but you probably know this roller skating movie because if you grew up in the ’90s, it was abusively played on TV as soon as a hole in the grid appeared.
So here for our summer fun is a trip back in time to sleazy expressions and sweaters. tie dye.
In the air, like clockwork
Mitchell, a teenager who loves surfing and roller skating, must leave his warm California to live with his cousin in Cincinnati in the dead of winter. Also, he is with the surfboard in his hand as he steps off the plane as he begins his most complete change of scenery.
For his snow baptism, he will also have to navigate a new multi-purpose vehicle with, of course, the usual obstacles of the time: thugs and a hostile environment.
He will have to make a place for himself using his talents on the skates. First on the ice, where he is not very comfortable, and then on the cobblestones when his parents have the brilliant idea of sending him their skates by mail.
And that’s where the great skate commercials begin, AND IT’S GLORIOUS.
It’s not complicated, Mitchell skates everywhere, all the time, grinning from ear to ear.
She even goes on a date on her fabulous roller skates.
Airborne, however, is more than just an ad to convince you to buy skates. It is also a springboard for two young actors still unknown at the time: Seth Green and Jack Black.
Well yes, like Watatatow at home, the actors had to start somewhere and this type of film lent itself well to the game.
But why is nostalgia activated when we talk about Airborne? Because it’s perfectly awkward as a movie. The story can be summed up, and understood, in a few seconds and basically it was a perfect TV movie at the time as you could jump into the story at any time and understand everything.
The bad teens are very mean, the good teens are very nice, but in the end, they all come together around a common quest: to win a roller-skate race.
It’s not even a joke. All of Mitchell’s bullying and months of misery will be erased to win a skate race against another school of even better steps. In addition, this race could be spoken of as a death trap for teenagers. These days you wouldn’t see that in a movie, but in 1993 it was a small beer. After all, going downhill with cars is common when you have a hard hat and small gloves.
Airborne, that’s all. A cheesy anachronism, a part of our adolescence and a summer movie to watch and rewatch without getting too bogged down in the realism of the thing.
Also, there are hockey games in the first half and there is quite a stir. Ice hockey and roller hockey. It’s only natural that the film has marked our schools in Quebec so much, there’s nothing that encapsulates the era quite like Roller Hockey (and teenagers who torment others in a high school).
For your next rainy days, here is our recommendation.