YWS Video Review: Tilt Mode Bonus Round

So here I am again for another video review of a video that has been out for quite awhile (in terms of skateboard-world time). However, this one is just too fucking good not to review.

Anyone who saw Tilt Mode's early 00's video classic Man Down should know that Tilt Mode videos are all about fun. And in this day and age in skating, this is something that can be sorely lacking. Sure lots of company's videos like to fake like they are having fun, and lots may even think they are having fun, but compared to the Tilt Mode dudes, it seems like none of us have any fucking clue what fun actually is. The newest Tilt Mode has everything you would come to crave and expect from a Tilt Mode video. Hijinx, drinking, partying, montages of random people with silly nicknames, inside jokes, and just all around silliness. It even starts off with a post-apocalyptic ramp jam complete with kids in a cage that me and my friend Jarrad concluded was just a regular day in San Jose that someone happened to stumble upon with a video camera.

But don't think that this video is all silly business as the skating is definitely top notch. The opening section starts out with Nestor Judkins, whose section is definitely the current front runner for me for favourite video part of 2009, a title which I am sure he will not be bumped from. Midnight Special, high pants, Adidas, great tricks and style, boobs, and front shove 50-50s on Hubba, how can you go wrong?

Lots of other super sick skating in this video though. Louie Barletta comes through with his trademark mix of dork tricks and actual bangers, topped off with the hairdo and sweaters that only he could pull off without being a kook. There's a shared section featuring Jesse Erickson and Julian Quevado that makes you feel like you're catching up with old friends from Man Down. Another shared section with pop-masters Cairo Foster and Paul Sharpe (who I am a huge fan of). And last but not least a really good section from who I think is one of the most underrated skaters in the industry today, Jose Rojo. Caswell Berry also has a sick section, but I can't really get into it due to my total and absoloute loathing for southern rock. On top of that I really enjoyed the Asian Jons' sections, but really disapproved of their usage of some regular-ass hip-hop, as well as one of the Jon's obviously lame hipster-wear. (Unless this is some sort of Tilt Mode joke on me, in which case I think it was too subtle.)

But if you think the goodness of this DVD ends with the main video, you'd be wrong, as there is a very lengthy b-side section which includes extra footy of all the main dudes, plus a San Jose smorgasbord of Tilt Mode shredders, including a Colt Cannon section which painfully reminds us why the frat boy was dropped from all of his sponsors, judging by the botched frosted tips, bare butts, and Britney dancing.

(By the way am I the only one who sees Tony Tave headed for the same fate? Same sponsors, came on strong and sort of fizzled out, and did you see that picture of him in the Thrasher in the pajama pants and bear paw slippers? Yeesh!)

I'd say though my favourite section in the b-side would have to be Warren Jenkins who valiantly goes 12 for 12 with a case of beer and tricks on a bank under a bridge. Not much more needs to be said about it, but it is a glorious sight to behold.

But if I had to narrow it down, I'd say that the part of the video that I got the best laughs from was the end of Jerry Hsu's section, where we're introduced to a little character named "railchomper215". You see, as Jerry's section started and "Starving In The Belly Of A Whale" by Tom Waits started up, I said to my friend I was watching the video with "Pffttt lame! This song was already used in PJ Ladd's Wonderful Horrible Life", only to make it to the end of the section to see railchomper215 logging on to the internet to complain about the exact same thing, then having Jerry knock his head off with a baseball bat, resulting in a bloody mess.

"Holy fuck I AM railchomper215!" I exclaimed after the baseball bat assault. "This sucks!" But what goes around comes around, and I'm sure the Tilt Mode guys caught a large number of us in the same faux pas.

So when you add in to all of this the fact that the video comes with a bonus disc including the first Tilt Mode video and Man Down, two classic videos made so long ago that I still thought Marc Johnson was cool, that makes Bonus Round not only extremely worth your money, but an absoloute, guaranteed, must-buy! Seriously, this is another one of those videos that you could probably download, but the people who made it really deserve your money, and it will actually make you cooler having it on your DVD shelf. Buy it.