" All done, both to success and failure, at break neck speeds by people who make the boys in Jackass look like little school girls. "

      Title: ESPN's Ultimate X: The Movie by Buena Vista Home Entertainment

      Format: Sports DVD

      Reviewing Monkey: Dungapult

      The Hype: Originally an IMAX flick, this 40 minute feature is all about the watching extreme sports at their finest.

      What This Monkey Thought...

      Visuals and Directing: Damn. That's it, one word, damn. Featuring some of the very best the biz offers including, among many others, Tony Hawk and Dave Mirra this thing is one fast ride of industrial rock and kick ass tricks. Centered around performances at ESPN's X-Games, it showcases skateboarding, motocross, bmx, street luge, and a couple of snippets of other sports all done, both to success and failure, at break neck speeds by people who make the boys in Jackass look like little school girls. It's heavy, it's fast, and if your jaw closes all it'll do is force the drool out the back of your head. 5 out of 5

      DVD Extras: The coolest thing in this video, hands down, are the numerous sound options it gives you. Not that it doesn't have extras as well, but when a DVD like this gives you THX and Dolby 5.1 it actually lives up to that old adage about "putting you in the middle of it all". With the crowd screaming all around you and the whirr of wheels on wood being so vivid that you could be riding the board yourself it ends up being more than just interesting, it's engrossing.
          And as for actual extras, there's a few of those too. Trick breakdowns, music videos, and nifty little shorts all add to the ambiance and give you some very cool insight as to what it's like behind the scenes. 4 out of 5

      Value vs. Price: All right- we've established that, so far, this is one kick ass DVD. Lots of action, some cool extras, and enough air to fly an Apache through. Now all it would need to be perfect is a nice, reasonable price tag. Unfortunately, instead, what you get is an hourly rate that would make Heidi Fleiss blush! While, granted, it's an action packed ride the whole feature bucks in at less than 40 minutes (not even an hour!) and, thus, when I saw the $30 price tag, my eyes shot out like one of those Warner Bros. Cartoons (which, by the way, requires surgery and a hammer to correct). That's almost a buck a minute! And not nearly as much fun as other things you could do for the same price…like paying bums to fight. 2 out of 5

      The Verdict:

All in all, this DVD is sweet and a total rush to watch…I just wish the price was more reasonable.

      The Good: The best (and worst) of the X-Games set to a killer soundtrack.

      The Bad: 30 bucks!?!? What the hell were they thinking?

      The Overall Ugly: Buy it…used.

      What it's Worth: $10-15