Brink!

Plot: Andy "Brink" Brinker and his friends all enjoy in-line skating. While their rivals, Team X-Bladz (Yup, that's what they're called) are professionally sponsored, Brink's crew are "Soul Skaters". This means they skate for fun instead of money. Because you can't just say you skate for fun if you can make up a silly term for it.  

Brink finds out that his family is having some money troubles, and secretly joins Team Money to help. His friends find out (of course) and are mad at him. Through the magic of plot convenience, the Soul-Skater gang challenge Team Money -specifically Brink- to a race. The leader of Team Money sabotages the race because he's a dick. One of Brink's friends gets injured and now the Soul Train is super mad at Brink.

Brink has a talk with his dad, then quits Team Money and makes nice with his friends. The newly reformed Soul Skaters compete against Team Money and are victorious because of course they are. Hooray for fun!

My thoughts: Is it predictable? Yes, very much so. Is it fun? Yes, very much so.

None of the actors are terrible, and actually do pretty well whenever the script dips into melodrama. The father in particular is excellent, and the lead is so positive and high-spirited that you cannot help but like him. He was also the voice of Sid in Toy Story! So now you know that. 

In fact, almost every character is incredibly likable. Even the skaters from Team Money are not that bad, only their leader. Who is a villainous little shit. 

The skating scenes are handled very well. It captures the motion and energy of the sport, without giving me a headache. You see, in the last few years movies have developed a tendency to have its audience not entirely be able to make out what is happening during an action scene. It gives those scenes a nice "you are there" feel.

Not like this old junk. Pick up the pace, would you?

Having been made before the popularization of split-second edits and shaky camera work, Brink! is resigned to showing how actual skill is involved in aggressive inline skating, and that many of the actors are performing these stunts themselves.

Overall, I ended up enjoying it for what it was. It's formulaic as all-get-out, but it has such heart and a good message ("You are defined by the company you keep and how well you keep it, not by what you happen to do"). If you happen to stumble across it, give it a try.

Next up: Halloweentown.