Cloud 9 (2014)

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

One of the recent Disney Channel Original Movie starring Dave Cameron. Surely I decided to watch it after seeing her in 'Descendants'. An okay film. There's nothing special in the story. It was the same old, same old sports film. Like, a girl who loves snowboarding loses her spot in the team and the boyfriend at the same time. Now she trains hard to prove them all wrong. Would she achieve successfully what she has undertaken is the remaining part of the story that ends with a major snowboarding competition.As usual, a good film for the television audience and particularly the kids. It is a kind of inspiration, but full of predictable. At least I have learnt a few stuff about snowboarding, yet I felt it should have done a lot more with that platform. The other sub-plot like dogs were not bad. So overall the narration looked decent, until the end. If someone says the film is bad, that could be because of the way it was concluded. Too plain, but it always works for a production like Disney's. You can watch it, though, remember there are many fine DCOM that you can try than this.6/10

A snowboarder Kayla Morgan (Dove Cameron), the best girl shredder in Summit Valley, Seattle, competes in a snowboarding challenge and wins for the girls' division. With her Swift snowboarding teammate/boyfriend, Nick Swift (Mike Manning), who is also the son of team coach Sebastian Swift (Jeffrey Nordling), she trains as a part of the Swift Team to win the "Fire and Ice" snowboarding competition. A year ago, a viral video branding the famous, legendary snowboarder Will Cloud (Luke Benward) as an "epic failure" caused Will to end his snowboarding career. He wiped out attempting a move he created in Fire and Ice, called the Cloud 9, and almost died, allowing the Swifts to take the win. Now, Will works at his family's dog-kennel with his mom, Andrea (Amy Farrington). During a prey-Fire and Ice party for the Swifts, Sebastian Swift tells Nick that he needs to do whatever it takes to win Fire and Ice. After the party, Kayla, Nick, and other their two other teammates find Will's sled that he left behind while taking a customer's dog for a walk. Kayla and Nick get on and ride the sled, however, Nick is unable to control it and apologizes to Kayla before falling out of the sled. Still riding, Kayla crashes into the mountain lodge sign, demolishing it and breaking the sled in the process. A security guard finds her and takes her home, and Kayla was abandoned by her teammates to take the blame. Will was informed that his sled was broken.Her parents, Richard (Patrick Fabian) and Madeline, tell Kayla and Will that they will fix the sign, but Kayla has to work at the dog-kennel every day after school to pay for Will's sled unless she told them who else was there at the incident. She refuses, and she and Will argue about her presence at the kennel. In the midst of their talk, Will blatantly tells Kayla that even though she had won many medals, her board technique was rusty and she was only on the Swift team because her dad owned the resort and supplied the team with money.After school, Kayla hurries into the kennel, hoping not to be spotted. While Will took a dog for a walk, Kayla fills the dogs' food bowls. She receives a message from Sebastian that she is kicked off the team because of her misconduct. Furious, she marches up to Nick and they have a serious discussion. He and the others knew about her dismissal from the team but wouldn't do anything about it. When Kayla presses further, Nick comes straight out with the truth he's been trying to avoid and explains that she can't win Fire and Ice, due to her faulty riding. She and her father argue about how he doesn't think Kayla's good enough to try to reach for the stars.The next day, Kayla is seen mopping the floor and arrived at the kennel earlier than Will. When Will arrives, he is with his friends, Dink (Carlon Jeffery) and Sam (Andrew Caldwell). Sam had taken a nasty fall attempting a snowboarding move, and Will lectures Sam about following the exercises he recommended for him and figures out where Sam went wrong. Kayla realizes that Will truly does know what he is doing. Later, Will and his friends leave for some pizza, leaving Kayla in charge. After she locks one of the dogs, Donald, in his cage, Kayla gives another, Buford, a bath. Donald mischievously unlocks the cage and lets the other dogs out. She discovers their escape and chases them through town. Later, she talks to Nick again, and he decides it that they should break-up, thinking she is a distracting him from the competition. When Kayla returns to the kennel with the dogs, she pleads to be fired, but Andrea refuses. Back at home, her friends try to comfort her and bring themselves to watch the viral video and see how Will got injured.Kayla asks Will to train her for Fire and Ice so she can really know snowboarding and work on her technique. She also offers to remodel the kennel to bring in more customers. Will denies that he still loves snowboarding and refuses to coach her. Infuriated, Kayla keeps trying to talk reason into him. He blatantly replies that she did not have a team to compete with, and so there would be no point in teaching her anyways. Kayla sees his old teammates and decided that they could be a team together. Kayla then notices the really famous shredder, Skye Sailor (Kiersey Clemons), and realizes the Swifts have replaced her with Skye. She tries to reason with Will again, telling him not only the Swifts replaced her, but they beat Will too and he hasn't snowboarded since. Will then agrees to train them.At school, she tells her friends that Will will coach her and introduces them to Sam and Dink. She sees Nick and is incredulous when he silently 'what-upped' her. Spotting Skye, she points her out to her friends, who comfort her by reminding Kayla that Skye was wearing double studs, which was "so last season." Later, Skye spots Kayla and offers to give her an autograph. Realizing this was the girl she replaced, she decided to make the autograph to 'Kayla, Everyone's favorite Daddy's girl.' Angrily, Kayla remarks that she will be the winner of Fire and Ice. Will frustrated tells Kayla that she has to prove that, and they started serious training. Kayla isn't doing great at the start, but she is later shown steadily improving and also working on the makeover for the dog care. At one point, Nick sees Kayla and Will together and he doesn't seem happy about it.

Once again the Disney Channel has provided us with a typical story of self-discovery, laced with conflict and the formation of new friendships. In this story we meet Kayla Morgan (Dove Cameron), a pampered snowboarder whose Father owns the ski-lodge where she snowboards. Also heading the cast is Will Cloud (Luke Benward), a snowboarder turned dog groomer after a particularly memorable fall during his failed attempt at the coveted Cloud 9. When it is revealed to Kayla that she only won a place on the snowboarding team as a result of her Father owning the resort, she turns to Will to learn the Cloud 9 to prove to everyone that she truly is the best female snowboarder around.Both Cameron and Benward delivered good performances throughout the film, though there were times when their chemistry together was not very believable. The entire cast, including Mike C. Manning (Nick Swift), Amy Farrington (Andrea Cloud) and Jeffrey Nordling (Sebastian Swift) brought this story to life in a very believable and enjoyable manner. It is a shame that Kiersey Clemons (Skye Sailor) did not have a more prominent role in the film as her acting was very enjoyable to watch. Praise must be given to the stunt coordinator Kathy Jarvis and to the stunt doubles who did an incredible job with the snowboarding scenes. My eyes were glued to the screen, anxious to see whether they would land their jumps or not, and I found myself breathing a sigh of relief when they did.The story itself progressed at a reasonable pace despite its predictability. There never seemed to be a time where the story was lacking or where the pace of the film was too fast. Two big thumbs up to the screenwriters Don D. Scott, Justin Ware and Katie Wech for penning such a captivating film.Utah, USA is a beautiful place and that beauty was reflected in this film. The scenery in Cloud 9 was incredible and was a perfect back-drop for a film centered on snowboarding.The ending let this film down in as much as it was disappointing and relatively anti-climatic. The film itself was very enjoyable to watch and I found myself waiting anxiously to see what the final outcome would be, and though the film was very predictable, I found myself disappointed with how it ended.All in all this was a very enjoyable, although predictable, Disney Channel Original Film, and is deserving of the 7/10 rating given.

Dove Cameron of Liv&Maddie and Luke Benward recently an interest of Bridgit Mendler on Good Luck Charlie team up for this latest Disney feature film Cloud 9. No this is not about literal heavenly heights, but it might as well be for it is an especially grueling challenge for snowboarders. In fact we see that one can't even walk up to it, one has to be airlifted before one makes the dangerous downward descent.The story casts Cameron as the daughter of the owner of a ski resort and that gives her access to a team sponsored by winter sports business owner whose son Mike Manning is the snowboarding current star. But when the resort drops the team, Manning drops Cameron and the team does as well. Seems she's not as good as she thinks she is, but was there for politics.Two blows to her ego really leave her down in the dumps. But fortunately there's Benward who was an up and coming snowboarder, but who wipes out on national television and that's left him lacking a bit of confidence.This was a good one from the Magic Kingdom and it was a nice story seeing how these two wounded young people help each other out with their sport and their lives. I also commend Amy Farrington playing Benward's mother who runs a local kennel. Who'd have thought that dogs would be therapeutic?Some nice scenes of snowboarding also highlight this Disney Channel film. Definitely one of their better products.