Pretty Sweet is the new movie from Girl and Chocolate skateboards. First up, I like it, but it's not mind blowing. A solid 8 out of ten.
Pretty Sweet comes after the likes of other Girl(ish) skate films like Yeah Right and more recently Lakai's Fully Flared.
My general issue with the film is lack of big bangers, the central focus of this film is on flip in flip out ledges or multi trick ledges which some people call curb dancing and while that is really cool and impressive, I think we all know people love to see BIG stairs, gaps and rails. I'm not saying there are no big tricks in it, it's just not the focus.
The music has good moments and not so good moments; overall it's kinda serious which is at odds with Girls image, I'm willing to say that's entirely personal choice on my part though. But in some sections near the beginning they have thrashin fast music and they have edited the footage thrashin and fast too, which means trick trick trick, fast as anything. It was just too much for me to handle, I just couldn't keep up or appreciate the aesthetics of the skating.
My next little qualm was the style of filming when the camera is moving, not really a tracking shot, it kind of swoops in, if you've seen fully flared you'll know what I'm talking about. For me it's a style that really suits the super slow mo tricks and should be used conservatively to have more emphasis when it's being used. Fully Flared used it well but Pretty Sweet had too much. I love it guys but it's too much of a good thing.
Not enough huge terrain, hit and miss music, fast editing and too much movement of the camera are all a little bit annoying but at the end of the day it doesn't matter when you're watching some of the coolest skaters in the world. The old guys like Koston, Carrol, Beibel and McCrank are still keeping themselves busy with little parts while Marc Johnson is back with more awesome and Guy Mariano gets the final section cause he's been killing it. But Pretty Sweet has a bigger focus on the younger generation and they are ripping it, Corey Kennedy and Sean Malto are my personal favourites.
On top of the super sweet line-up this is a Girl video after all so you can expect more special effects and silly shenanigans as well as two comical cameos which are always good to make a movie more entertaining. Lots of tech and good times permeate this video, some recurring themes are ollieing out of anything, 270's out and boardslides on rails you need to pop out of. How can you argue with that?
This is a really good movie, but CAUTION you will need to watch it in HD or else you won't realize how good these guys are.
