Getting Up Close and Vertical With the Summer X Games

Does the sight of bicycle motocross riders sailing through the air silhouetted against a sunset sky or street lugers careening downhill at 80 mph, inches from splattering themselves on the asphalt, strike you as particularly athletic or artistic?

Your response to that question will go a long way toward predicting your reaction to “ESPN’s Ultimate X,” the new action-sports, large-format documentary by filmmaker Bruce Hendricks.

Essentially an extended commercial for the all-sports network’s extreme sports coverage, the film nevertheless transcends its agenda to deliver awe-inspiring, at times sublime, visuals and offers a fascinating glimpse into the subculture of extreme athletes whose derring-do puts the X into the games.

Shot in Philadelphia at last year’s X Games, an Olympics-style event for elite skateboarders, Moto X and BMX riders, street lugers and other extremists, the film aims not only at the faithful but also seeks new converts.

Hendricks and producer Art Repola were not satisfied to merely shoot a 40-minute highlight reel and wisely chose to punctuate the highflying, gravity-defying action with the voices of the competitors. The result is less the vicarious thrill ride one might expect, with almost equal time devoted to more traditional documentary elements. It combines poetic, slow-motion shots that capture the athletes in midair, twisting and turning as they perform mind-bending stunts at vertigo-inducing angles, with interviews that allow some insight into why anyone would do this in the first place.

The film makes clear that these are not cut-rate, second-generation Jeff Spicolis but first and foremost athletes, and it doesn’t take much footage to convince us. The total abandon and lack of concern for their physical well-being amaze as much as their commitment to nailing the stunt.As a made-for-TV event, the X Games survives on sponsorship. In fact admission to the games is free, with fans waiting in long lines to secure prime position to witness their heroes up close and vertical. What we may be seeing here is a generation so media-savvy that the commercial assault simply doesn’t bother them. One athlete, seemingly oblivious to his logo-saturated surroundings, was glad his sport had not gone “corporate.”

Early on, an analogy is drawn between the lack of acceptance by parents and critics of early rock ‘n’ roll and its later widespread popularity because the kids get it. And the kids of today apparently “get” action sports.

If you’ve never heard of Tony Hawk, Mat Hoffman, Travis Pastrana or Bucky Lasek, this film that will bring you up to speed.

The film’s strengths may actually work against it with younger fans who might be disappointed by the few stomach-churning, white-knuckler moments. In a fairly obvious nod to reaching a broader audience, the filmmakers forgo a quick-cut editing style such as employed in the insider documentary “Dogtown and Z-Boys” and the more assaultive, adrenaline-driven music usually associated with the extreme scene, for a more accessible approach that will play to parents. The devoted action sports fan will, however, get to see the performers from new angles and on a grander scale than ever before. For the uninitiated, anyone seeing “Ultimate X” will be hard-pressed to let this summer’s X Games pass without at least a peek.

*

MPAA rating: PG, for daredevil sports action and mild language. Times guidelines: plenty of “don’t try this at home” stunts.

‘ESPN’s Ultimate X’

Presented by Touchstone Pictures, in association with ESPN, released by Buena Vista. Writer-director Bruce Hendricks. Producer Art Repola. Executive producer Douglas C. Merrifield. Cinematographers Reed Smoot, Rodney Taylor, C. Mitchell Amundsen. Editor Morgan Griswold. Running time: 39 minutes.

At selected Imax and other large-format theaters.