Servin' It Up III
We're only a quarter of the way through 2005, but we still feel safe saying Servin' It Up III, the latest from Bay Area stunt monkey Darius Khashabi, is probably the best street-freestyle video you'll see all year. I mean, what other stunter hires a freakin' helicopter to get killer aerial footage for his DVD? Produced by Don McCall at 220 Films, Servin' It Up III is fast, fresh and sharply edited, just like the mind-blowing-fast circle wheelies Darius debuts in this vid. With the bike laid waaay over on the edge of the tire, these large-radius, high-speed circles are signature Darius, redefining a sportbike tire's traction limits as well as our idea of what is possible on one wheel. As if Darius isn't entertaining enough, the video also features guest appearances by the best stunters in the business, including a Miami session with "Downtown" Joe Brown and extensive footage from D's trip to Australia for last year's International MotoFreestyle Challenge with Tony D, Dustin Apgar and others. The high point for stunt aficionados has to be the chapter featuring Darius and Jason Britton tearing it up on the streets of San Francisco-these are the two smoothest riders in the biz, bar none. And don't miss the bonus footage: The temper tantrum Pauly Sherer of Las Vegas Extremes throws after D plays a sticker prank on him is priceless! We've been served. www.servinitup.com
Burn On The West Coast 2
There seem to be two types of stunt videos: those targeted to stunters and those targeted to general, non-stunting riders. Stunter videos tend to focus on the latest tricks in all their gory technical detail and can bore the uninitiated rider. General videos often ignore technique and skill in favor of crashes, lifestyle footage (read: boobs), jackass gags and stale tricks that bore true stunt enthusiasts. Burn on the West Coast 2 is the rare video that captures both elements in one 50-minute DVD. Representing West Coast riders exclusively, Burn 2 features Warren Jamez and J-Beats of Team Famous, Kaneone, Sac Nuts, U.S. Stuntriders and the most talented duo no one's ever heard of, New Mexico's Team Outermost. Filmed on location in Hollywood, San Diego, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Burn 2 action mixes the technical (feet-over 12s) with time-tested crowd-pleasers (mile-long stand-ups)-and no Burn Films production would be complete without a trip south of the border for the off-the-hook Spring Break Bike Week in Rosarito, Mexico. Sick tricks; a profile of stunt supporters and crash-cage-makers Racing 905; behind-the-scenes commentary from the riders; and, of course, a fair bit of lifestyle footage make Burn on the West Coast 2 a great picture of how things are done on the West Side.
Unlawful Tendencies II: T.I.C.
Apparently, T.I.C. is what happens when somebody gets a degree in film production and a taste for stunt riding at the same time. Unlawful Tendencies II gathers the best amateur stunters from the New England region, guys willing to stunt anything with wheels-including streetbikes, quads and even golf carts-and puts it all on display in this action-packed, offbeat DVD. The high-zoot footage, full of fancy camera work, negative-imagery and arty camera angles, is nearly all shot on the streets and is interspersed with lush, cheesecake shots of bikini girls gyrating on some choice custom machines-plus a few goofy interludes such as one scene where riders bust stunts dressed as Batman, Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk. And this is just the beginning-you won't believe it when one rider jumps his Honda streetfighter over a line of 20 sportbikes, Evel Knievel-style, or the nutter who manages some impressive wheelies on a Harley chopper. When they're not busy abusing their stunt iron, the U.T. crew ride some pretty trick streetbikes as well, including a wicked, nitrous-equipped GSX-R1100 dragbike, which the director is kind enough to spend a few minutes slowly covering in luscious detail.
Totalled Out
It's too bad the NASCAR nation doesn't know about St. Louis' Streetfighterz and its new video, Totalled Out. The millions of roundy-round racing fans who sit glued to the TV for hours every Sunday afternoon just to watch the crashes would lose it over this video, which collects the best (worst?) crashes from the Streetfighterz crew from the past couple of seasons. The disclaimer opening the film describes the riders as "somewhat" trained professionals, and this claim is played out over the next half-hour as the viewer is treated to every kind of crash imaginable: looped wheelies, burnouts gone awry, screwed-up stoppies and much more. The video opens with one of the most famous crashes in stunting, Streetfighterz member Dan Farley's highway wheelie gone wrong that sends him careening into a guardrail and leaves his spinal column, in the words of his doctor, "dangling like a mop head." (Don't fret: Farley made a full recovery and is back stunting harder than ever.) This turns out to be the high point of this shortish (just over a half-hour long) video's crash action, though. Like most modern stunt teams, Streetfighterz concentrate on slow-speed stunts, so most of the crashes are anticlimactic tip-overs, with not nearly enough of the high-speed, yard-sale-type crashes that spread busted plastic all over the countryside. This is perhaps the only thing that keeps this good crash video from being great. www.streetfighterz.com