MXP: Most Xtreme Primate

This movie has a monkey in it who snowboards! He doesn't just snowboard he snowboards so hard and in your face that the only way to possibly describe this monkey's method of snowboarding is to call it.... "extreme!"

He is extreme to the max! If you saw the first 17 MVP movies about a primate who first is a huge hockey star, then a skateboarding star, then a huge star in about 139 other sports that there's no way the rules would actually allow him to even play, then you'll love this new movie where he is snowboarding to the extreme!

This movie has tons of drama and heart as you will wonder if the monkey will succeed in the end. Sure he did it in all the other movies but will he succeed again in yet another sport? Surely he can't be a champion in every sport he tries can he?

More important than that this movie has all kinds of "monkeying around" if you know what I mean.... monkey jokes is what I mean!

My score is 600 billion stars!

Disclaimer: I have no particular interest in chimps. My name is a reference to the subject line on the first email I ever sent and has nothing to do with how I feel about watching primates on screen.

Julie considers skateboarding celebrity Jack and her other three chimps to be like family. And when Jack is depressed, she believes a trip to Mexico will cheer him up.

At the airport, Julie learns the chimps will not be able to sit together, but she doesn't mind. Jack is off reading a magazine when a group of children in beautiful costumes, apparently representing different countries, passes by. The child wearing a sombrero and serape like Jack's has to use the restroom badly, but the woman in charge of the kids can't be bothered. The kid goes anyway, and when Jack joins the group, no one notices the kid is missing.

Julie eventually discovers Jack is not on her plane. There is nothing she can do once the plane lands, because a hurricane is coming.

In Mt. Blackbrush, Colorado, 12-year-old Pete is having trouble adjusting after he and his older brother Jay have moved with their father from Oregon--and if that's not enough, the boys' father has to leave for several days. Pete is a talented snowboarder and Jay belongs to a rock band.

When the boys say goodbye to their father at the Denver airport, the colorfully dressed children--and Jack--arrive at the same time. Jack hitches a ride in a van which happens to be headed to the Mexican restaurant where the boys will be eating.

Jack happens to be there when bumbling crooks Gilfred and Stanley get kicked out of a limo for botching a robbery.

Pete joins a snowboarding group but he's still treated like the "new kid". A competition is coming up, and the winner gets to meet Bjorn Leines. But Pete has no partner.

Jack and Pete finally meet and go to the store where Shirley works--where Gilfred and Stanley are hiding behind magazines as they prepare to rob the place. But Jack is on the cover of one of the magazines. That's him! Wait, new plan!

If you're as smart as Stanley (or is it Gilfred), you can figure it out from here. (If you're no smarter than the other one, you shouldn't watch any movie more challenging than this.) Hint: I saw "Air Bud: Golden Receiver" several weeks ago and immediately recognized it as the movie Jack was watching. No, I don't know whether the chimp from that movie also played Jack.

The chimps here are talented; the humans are not. Actually, the snowboarders show a lot of talent, but since we don't see their faces I'm guessing they are stunt players. Not only are they very good, but so is the filming of their action.

The chimp or chimps playing Jack is/are amazing. Of course, we are likely seeing the results of a considerable amount of training and rewards for performance. But the character Jack shows outstanding intelligence.

As for human actors with lines, I suppose Devin Douglas Drewitz and Trevor Wright are at least good enough not to be bad. Another performance worth seeing came from James Crescenzo as the boss who torments Gilfred and Stanley--who are funny characters even if the actors aren't especially good.

One gag with the two bumbling idiots and a large snowball worked really well. It would be easy in a cartoon, but too dangerous for actual people. But with creative design and editing, it's great.

This is really a movie for kids. There is no offensive content, and most of the music is really loud rock not intended for anyone over 25. If it wasn't edited for TV, this deserves a G rating.

But I'm no kid, and I enjoyed this a lot.

So the trilogy ends here. Whatta ride! It has been a pleasure. 😓

'MXP: Most Xtreme Primate', in seriousness, is the worst of the three, hardly a surprise I know. Yet again I didn't dislike the time I spent watching this, though there is simply nothing to really praise about it. The story is more mundane than prior installments.

Things aren't helped by the fact that the snowboarding gimmick wears thin quick due to it's near verbatim reproduction of the skateboarding subplot from 'MVP 2: Most Vertical Primate'. The other subplot with the thiefs is quite bad too, these two characters barely feature and yet still manage to whip out two racially insensitive, at best, 'gags'.

The cast are fine, nothing really worth noting. I did notice a young Alexander Ludwig appear for a few seconds though, interesting that these Robert Vince pictures do tend to have a familar face pop up in random spots; Ludwig here, Zendaya (!) in 'Super Buddies'...

This one of the three-part does, at least, have the 'best' end credits, gag reel and canonical amateur garage band included! So long, Jack!

In 2004, Martin Scorsese directed his 20th film "The Aviator", starring Leonardo DeCaprio. This same year, Robert Vince directed his 5th film, "Most Xtreme Primate". These two films were same year, and both came from legendary directors. There was only one difference, one got a lot more recognition, and the other was objectively better. Now it should be obvious to you, the person reading this review, that the superior movie between the two is without a doubt "Most Xtreme Primate". For Scorsese fans, this may come as a shock, and you may disagree with me on this. But please allow be to explain exactly why that this movie is better than Scorsese's flick. FIrstly, casting. The simian playing Jack in this film is superb at acting, and truly makes the audience think he is a chimpanzee snowboarder. On the other hand, Leo DeCaprio plays Leo DeCaprio, and all the audience can see is Leo DeCaprio in a funny pilot costume, instead of Howard Hughes, whom he is supposed to portray. Secondly, the plot. The film "The Aviator" follows Scorsese's predictable plot of a tragic hero, and details the downfall of Howard Hughes, and the events that led to his eventual breakdown. Anybody who has seen any Scorsese film would be able to predict this from the first 5 minutes, and it gives the viewer an obvious result. On the contrary, "MXP" manages to defy the trope that many film makers are forced into, by choosing to defy the current norms of cinema and do what many films are afraid to; give the protagonist a happy ending. Jack is neither a good or bad chimp, and in a Scorsese film, he likely would end by tearing someone's face off or something along those lines. But Robert Vince is not scared to provide the simian with a pleasent ending, and is with this, makes the film much more unpredictable and gives the viewer a much greater feeling of suspense. And finally, this film has one thing that "The Aviator" could never have. This film contains a chimpanzee on a snowboard. Nothing Scorsese could ever make can beat this film, and that is an objective truth.

Upon first viewing I was surprised by the depth of character the talented monkey-cast presented in MXP3. The simian thespians are present in every scene, emotionally and physically, and impressively match and in some cases surpass the emotional depth of the leading boy of the film, Devin Douglas Drewitz. Young Trip-D, as he likes to be called on set, provides the movie with an obstinately melancholy performance, tantalizing the monkeys' emotional receptors like so many ripe bananas. Trip-D's angst and sorrow, expertly captured by cinematographer Mike Southon, is as palpable and inspirational as his name is alliterative. Sadly, before my much anticipated second viewing, I learned that the primate performers playing the lead role of Jack, as well as his off-set monkey girlfriend playing Lucy (quite the looker if you ask me) are active scientologists. Furthermore, these two donated the majority of their paychecks toward dianetic research. Had I been privy to this information prior to my first viewing, I never, NEVER would have spent 75 dollars on the collectors edition DVD and silver-plated palm frond from the much talked about Mexican restaurant scene.