Ski School

A retrospective by Chris Seaver & Michael O'May

Chris remembers Ski School:

Ski School was a flick shot in 1989 by a magical company known as Movie Store Entertainment. I'm SURE you have all heard of the company right? Huge I tell ya, HUGE! A classic was born that year my friends. I did not get to witness it when it came out, but in 1991 when I saw it on home video I was gobsmacked at just how funny it truly was. 
Ski School is a rare gem of a B movie. One that is actually entertaining! I can not tell you how many lines I have taken from this film and thrown them in some of my scripts as winks and homages to see if anyone would pick up on it.  And when I bring this movie up to a LOT of people, their faces light up and they just laugh and say "Oh man I love ski school".
Its def a B-movie cult classic.

Ski School takes the frat-goofball comedy of the 80s and slamming it into a snowy mountain where pretty much the only thing that goes on is...THE PARTY! Sure there is some ski action in Ski School, but not much, and lets face it, you WANT to focus more on the tomfoolery of the gang  and the sight gags than on the slo mo ski shots. The "plot" is simple. Ski-Party-Ski-Party-Party-Ski and pull goofy high-jinx during all of this on the dicky rich gang known as Section 1. It's perfect in its simplicity.

Section 8 is home to the 2 real stars of the piece. Dean Cameron and Stuart Fratkin. These two thespians throw down the comedy gauntlet and spill forth
hilarity in motion. I was a fan of these guys before I saw this and I was THRILLED to see them together,
making with the wacky mix'em ups. I loved Dean in Summer School (which is another flick I adore), and Stuart was in 2 B-movie faves of mine, " I was a teenage sex mutant" and "Teen Wolf Too" (I actually own a one sheet poster of both Teen Wolf Too and Ski School).  Also of note, the film starred Charlie Spradling, who you B-movie fans will know was a Full Moon staple actress appearing in Puppet Master 2, Bad Channels and Meridian. These 3 are really the only reason Ski School works for me. They are all wonderful actors and their comic timing and bafoonery are shown in full force. The only actor that would have made this flick better than it is? Billy Zabka! (The Karate Kid, Just One of the Guys, Back to School).  That guy should have played the rich dick head who wants to kick the party dudes off the mountain. He would have pushed the flick past its 10 grade, right into the 11 notch.

Finally this past August it was released on GLORIOUS full screen digital mastered DVD. Oh the passion MGM put into the disc...you can smell it. All kidding aside its better than the roughed up VHS I have had for years and its nice to have it on DVD to own forever and ever, and then beyond!

Oh by the way, there was a Ski School 2. Yeah....Not a fan. No Dean and Stuart together again? Then no Money from my pocket.  If you need that Dean and Stuart dynamic duo fix, go to StuartFratkin.com where you can purchase episodes of their short lived but HILARIOUS tv show, "They Came From Outer Space."

In closing my friends, do yourself a favor and pick Ski School up ASAP. It truly is a Cult comedy classic and one that never gets old.  And remember, "Its never
how far you go, its how go you far!"

The past month or so I have been in contact with actor Stuart Fratkin, who is a B-movie icon in my eyes. I am courting him to play the role of Uncle Fitz in my film
Ski Wolf. Things are looking good on that front and you will all know when the deal is sealed so to speak...Meanwhile, conversing with Stuart I asked him
if he would participate in a Ski-School retrospective for Micro-Shock. I sent him some questions hoped he would send answers back, you know the deal...BUT
Stuart surprised me you see, cus hes a wiley one. He offered to take the questions and answer them through a VIDEO Q and A that HE would shoot and edit himself. How super sweet is that folks? I said HOW SUPER SWEET IS THAT??? Anyway here now is the Video Question and Answer session from Fitz Fitzgerald himself, Stuart Fratkin.

Thank you SO much Stuart for everything man. You rock

Mike's Take:

Not many people know it but Micro-Shock came to be in large part because of Ski-School. Chris and I were sitting around reminiscing about this and that when the topic of Ski-School came up and why in the hell no one talks about in anywhere, then more movies came up, and even more. You could see the light bulb above Chris’s head I swear when he said “We should open a website to talk about them”

Now hear we are at the mighty Ski-School retrospective. I first saw this movie ages ago on USA up all night and it still takes me into its magical world every time I watch it. Ski-School lives in a very bizarre and mostly forgotten cinematic sub genre that got its start somewhere around “Animal House”. This genre is the party movie. A film that really has no plot it just wants to invite you into the fun all its characters are having without having to worry about any sort of responsibility or consequence. God knows Ski-School delivers this is spades.

Ski-School for the uniformed is about a group of rag tag ski instructors that while they are supposed to instruct just end up parting 24 hours a day only to break once in a while so they can either shit or fuck. The non stop party gets interrupted though when greedy land developers want to buy the mountain and stop the shenanigans via their blonde 80’s asshole rival ski instructor. Lucky for us these land developers are up against Stuart Fratkin and Dean Cameron a.k.a. the party squad.

So how do you save the day? You party, you drink, you fuck, you party more and you crack some gay jokes. That’s the movie in a nut shell and that’s why I love it.

I remember after seeing this for the first time when I was ten and thinking, wow is this what life will be like when I’m in my twenties. I’m in my twenties now and sadly it isn’t. But the escape this wacky ass movie offers is what I love. For 90 minutes I can join Dean Cameron and think of the most insane prank in the world, like stuffing a dead clown full of radioactive dildos that somehow explode and make my blonde arch rival look really gay while also giving him leukemia. It would work in the Ski-School universe, and you would end up getting laid somehow too, because that’s just how it goes.

So when times are tough and cold (like now) I can easily imagine Dean Cameron outside my window ready to throw a beer at me while Stuart Fratkin howls at the moon from a nearby roof for no good reason other than to get the party started.

See the Stuart Fratkin Q & A Video

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