"Rise" review - Did it rise to your expectations?

[Lacey]

Posted again:

Just what I expected. We had no pre show, it started at 8, the actual movie lasted I guess the 75 minutes, and the whole thing ended at 10, including a little live after show from the NYC gathering with the two twin sister filmmakers.

It was lovely. Stoic and sad. 80% of the evening was about the skaters and coaches who were lost. Lovely old pictures, movies and flashbacks including shorts from coaches who didn't go, like Luddy, who was hysterically funny, talking through his grief about how Maribel was mad at him for charging $4.50 for a half hour lesson when she charged $5.00 for Olympians, and from some who came just after, like Frank Carroll. 15% included a few spots with Carol Heiss and Hayes and David Jenkins, and with Dick Button, mention of Tenley and short live shot of Kristi and then specific on stage interviews by Matt Lauer with Peggy, Scott, Brian, Dorothy and Michelle. Another 5% consisted of wonderful interaction between an impressive Frank and a well spoken Evan and a wrap up exhibition from this year's nationals. Nada, absolutely nothing with Tara or Sara, seriously they even interviewed Vera Wang and not them. First time all 13 US Olympian Gold Medalists have ever been together, and they didn't get them up for a photo op?

I thought there was supposed to be some sort of fund raising going on. We saw and heard nothing. There was mention of an auction at RISE2011.com and there did seem to be a few send away for trinkets. There will be a DVD in the fall, including not already shown material. And there will be a second showing on March 7th, I think it's a Monday. Our theater was not even half full, so I wonder about that. But it was a nice evening.

[Sparks]

I loved all of it (sans Vera who scared us).
No snarks from me. I am very happy and honored it came to my little city.

[Prancer]

Lowlights: Peter Carruthers shouldn't quit his day job.

My husband went with me and said, "I begin to see why you are always saying, 'Shut UP, Peter!' when you watch skating."

Michelle, Dorothy & Peggy could all use a stylist to help them find attractive outfits to wear when seated in an interview area on low furniture.

My husband asked me if Peggy was pregnant (and he was serious, LOL). I almost choked. When I said no, he asked me what was wrong with her. That was a tremendously unflattering dress she had on.

I expected them to ask for donations, too, especially when Scott started talking about passing the bucket at performances, but all I got was a card telling me how to get my commemorative pin.

[Wyliefan]

Hasn't Vera Wang always been super-skinny?

I thought Michelle's dress was gorgeous on her. Not everyone could make a dress like that work, but she really did.

[talulabell]

I'll post a short review before starting this thread.

i really liked it... I was worried at first, because I was afraid it was going to be too much about the 5 story tellers, but then I thought they melded into the featured stories about the 1961 team really well. It was very touching, and the archival stuff was great.

I have two complaints: 1: a little too much Scott Hamilton, and 2: (as has been said in the other thread), they went on and on about having all 13 gold medalists in the building, and they didnt bring them up on stage?

Our theater also gasped at the site of Vera Wang... she looked sickly. I hope she's ok.

I was underwhelmed by the Evan performance at the end, but that's not really why I went, so no biggie.

[Spareoom]

I thought RISE was pretty cool. Our theater had a minor technical difficulty at the very beginning, about a minute before the movie started. We lost sound and video for about two minutes, but we didn't miss much. Besides that, everything ran very smoothly...I can't even begin to describe how bummed I am for those of you who never got picture and sound restored.

The only critique I have is that I thought they should have advertised the post-show a bit more. Quite a few people in our theater got up and left during the credits, and missed the whole bit afterward (which was quite substantial when you think about it). Maybe it was the last thing mentioned before the film started, but as I said, our theater didn't see the last minute of pre-show so we wouldn't have heard it. The only reason why I didn't leave was because I knew that Evan had taped something for RISE and since I hadn't seen it yet, I could only assume it came later.

[manleywoman]

Our theater was also only about one-third full, but we were in Chicago proper. I know that many of the suburban theaters around Chicago had huge groups of skating clubs attending (and indeed most of the skaters themselves and coaches live in the burbs) so I hope suburban theaters were way more crowded.

Poor Matt Lauer had a long day.

I was very pleased with the result! Not at all an infomercial which the previously provided clip really made it seem like it might be. There could have been many more stories told, but I was surprised to see some images/photos I'd never seen before, which was cool, and some new stories I hadn't heard about Maribel and the Westerfields. The filmmakers did a good job, though I agree that us hard-core fans didn't learn too much that we didn't know before, and they did ignore some skaters all together, like Bradley Lord.

I though Vera Wang looked awful too. Granted, the camera angle they gave her didn't take advantage of the nice lighting that Evan and Frank had, but she looks scarily thin. Still, considering she was showing at Fashion Week her new collection just yesterday or the day before, and she made it to RISE, I was impressed. Conversely, I noticed that Johnny Weir was tweeting that he was going to bed tonight, so clearly he couldn't be bothered to attend both Fashion Week and RISE, which was disappointing. He's clearly not interested in skating, no matter what he says.

Peter Carruthers was embarrassing I have to say. He was never good at the one-on-one interviews. Who the hell was Tracy Wolfsom?

Spotted one of our local Chicago dance coaches in the audience.

Peggy had so much blinding bling on. and I agree that Peggy/Dorothy/Michelle really needed better dresses.

[newbatgirl]

I really enjoyed it. I was afraid it was going to be "RA-RA-U-S-A is the best!", but it wasn't, not at all. It was lovely and touching. I loved how they portrayed the skaters and coaches as human - not perfect, but wonderful all the same.

I have to say Ron Ludington was one of the best parts.

I totally agree with your assessment of the movie. And everyone in my theater fell in love with Ron Ludington. We all want Ron Ludington dolls.

I'm outside Philly and we had a packed theater. I'm happy for that.

[stjeaskategym]

The film was absolutely wonderful. And my theater was just about completely full. The only downfall was Carruthers, as usual.

[Spareoom]

Our theater was also only about one-third full, but we were in Chicago proper. I know that many of the suburban theaters around Chicago had huge groups of skating clubs attending (and indeed most of the skaters themselves and coaches live in the burbs) so I hope suburban theaters were way more crowded.

I went to the theater showing in Joliet, and our theater was about half full. There were quite a few people with connections to Evan's old club...my sis and I sat next to one lady who said that she used to judge Evan in competitions when he was younger, and that she knew his family. There were definitely more people there than I expected; not a ton, but I think a lot of theaters in the area were showing the film, so the crowd was probably more spread out. I was surprised that my local theater was showing it at all; I thought I'd have to hoof it over to Warrenville or something.

ETA: I just looked at showtimes and pretty much every theater out here was showing the film. So yeah, I'd say it's probably safe to say that there was good attendance overall in the Chicagoland area.

[chipso1]

Both screens at the theater I went to in St. Paul suburbs were completely sold out too.

[The Village Idiot]

I wish I could report that it was wonderful, BUT, the theater I went to (3rd Ave and 11th St, NYC) had "technical issues". We never got a picture at all and we didn't get any sound until 8:20 and then only for 2 minutes. Needless to say we all got refunds and a free movie pass.

The Village Idiot - were you at the same theater as me? I suspect you were.

Yep. Same theater. How pathetic was that? Meanwhile Union Sq (sold out) went off w/o a hitch.

[vesperholly]

Who the hell was Tracy Wolfsom?

At first I thought they said Tracy Wilson, and I got all excited.

Carruthers was a little ... off. He and Dorothy must've had the same Smuckers cocktail. My audience gasped when they saw Vera Wang as well. Reminded me of that old Family joke about Kate Moss disappearing when she turned sideways. Wear sleeves, Vera!!

I was a little disappointed how they didn't have more tales of skaters directly affected by the Memorial Fund. I could've done without the emphasis on Lysacek's Olympic gold. Also, they kind of glossed over the whole bit about the void of coaches. Pretty sure the influx of foreign coaches was one of the reasons US skating became so strong again so quickly.

The most moving part to me were seeing the photos and videos of the skaters (though they didn't even mention all of them, like the Hickoxes or Rhode Lee Michelson). I was hoping for more video of 1961 Nationals, too. Then again, us hardcore fans have seen it already.

The lack of contributions from Kristi, Tara and Sarah was really surprising to me.

[JamieElena]

(Have to agree with Prancer about Carruthers -- what was UP with him? I thought he was about to spontaneously combust or something.)

Our group's consensus was that he was a bit lit...there was some definite word slurrage happening during the opening. Or our sound feed was bad. But I don't think so.


As a whole, the movie was good. I thought I was gonna be a puddle of tears, but I wasn't...I was more emotional watching the actual filming of the final scenes in Greensboro. I left the movie well, uplifted. If I can swing it, I'll definitely go see the encore, especially to watch the old footage scenes more carefully - the clips from the 1960 Olympics were cool.

Oh and I think I spied Garden Kitty in the audience at the NYC event....

[barbk]

Hasn't Vera Wang always been super-skinny?
.

There's skinny. Sasha's skinny. Mary Beth Marley is skinny. And then there is scary skinny. Vera looked skinnier than Pang looked at her thinest. Concentration camp skinny.

[JeffClair1979]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that Carruthers and Hamill were hitting the sauce at a nice clip before the show And someone get Vera Wang a sandwich, for criminy sake!

Loved the movie. They packaged it really well. I went in there thinking that they were going to go the tear-jerker route, but was pleasantly surprised when I found myself smiling more than I was tearing up. Very well thought out and nicely executed

[barbk]

I teared up when they started talking about how the families of the victims found out about the crash, and especially about poor Maribel Vincent Owen's mother, left by herself.

[LilJen]

Carruthers was a little ... off. He and Dorothy must've had the same Smuckers cocktail.

I turned to my friend during the "therapy session" and asked whether Dorothy was drunk. Peter--was he just really, really nervous? I mean, the guy is on TV commentating all the time, so you'd think he wouldn't turn into a blithering idiot for this. It was odd.

I enjoyed the movie, loved the history and all the old footage so you could get a taste of what these skaters were like. The survivor guilt from the dance partner who'd stayed home, Ron Ludington who'd stayed home because he was totally broke Can you IMAGINE??

I thought Scott Hamilton was quite verklempt and sentimental in the movie, and I guess the interview afterward explains why--he was just at that moment dealing with the news of his brain tumor.

[skatemommy]

I'm surprised that when they interviewed Jerod Swallow that he didn't mention that there is a huge plaque/award dedicated to Doug Ramsey in the lobby of Detroit Skating Club?

[SwingDancer]

I turned to my friend during the "therapy session" and asked whether Dorothy was drunk. Peter--was he just really, really nervous? I mean, the guy is on TV commentating all the time, so you'd think he wouldn't turn into a blithering idiot for this. It was odd.

I enjoyed the movie, loved the history and all the old footage so you could get a taste of what these skaters were like. The survivor guilt from the dance partner who'd stayed home, Ron Ludington who'd stayed home because he was totally broke Can you IMAGINE??

I thought Scott Hamilton was quite verklempt and sentimental in the movie, and I guess the interview afterward explains why--he was just at that moment dealing with the news of his brain tumor.

Wait, is Scott sick again? Oh No,