Powder’s worldview

The Warren Miller ski film is such a patented formula that we know exactly what to expect. In “Impact,” the 55th Miller movie, directed by Max Bervy, the script’s the same (and terrible), the jokes are cheesy, the acting vignettes are embarrassing, the narration is wooden and the soundtrack is never as hip as it should be.

But somehow, the skiing, locations and especially the cinematography get more sensational each year.

“Impact” wisely does nothing to disturb the brand, dropping world-class skiers onto world-class stages -- France, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Alaska, Montana, Colorado, the Sierra Nevada -- for a relentless montage of chest-deep powder runs, adrenaline-soaked heli-skiing, ridiculous aerial stunts and how’d-they-film-that, white-knuckle descents down near-vertical mountain faces.

There are enough bone-wrenching wipeouts and shredding guitars to please the “Jackass” generation.

But most Miller films are, like the mountains, so grand and eternal, you never tire of going back.

-- Chuck Thompson