• Plush 2
• £19.99 (DVD)
• Chilli Video

Once upon a time there was a US downhill magazine called Plush. Plush: The Video was a 1997 spin-off from that, made by then up-and-coming filmmaker Thor Wixom (who went on to make the Down series). Plush the magazine doesn’t exist any more, but the name lives on in this sequel. You can read all about the history on the back of the DVD sleeve – it’s the stuff between the hyperbole about “pushing the creative envelope”.

Plush 2 is essentially a review of the 2003 US NORBA DH race series, bolstered with some freeride/street comps (Whistler Slopestyle, Red Bull Rampage, Boston Bike Battle etc) and some rider segments from the likes of Cameron McCaul, Aaron Chase and Shaums March. The heart of it is downhill racing, though, which means that if you’re a big fan of DH you’ll probably like it but if you’re not you probably won’t.

It’d be more interesting for the non-DH fan if there was more variety in the race footage. You get a lot of essentially the same shot with different riders in it, which can prove quite instructive if you like your in-depth line analysis but more often just gets a bit dull. It’s not helped by a lot of the riders shown not really doing anything special. The inherently more varied freeride comps put on a better show, but you get the feeling that Plush 2 falls between being dramatic and exciting and documenting the events.

The soundtrack is generic grunty nu-metal, but fortunately the editing doesn’t seem to take a great deal of account of what the music’s doing so you can just hit Mute and put a CD on if you like. You’ll want to turn the sound back on for the interviews, though.

This two-disc DVD edition also includes the original 1997 Plush, which is worth a look just to see how much things have progressed since then…

Positives: Worthwhile record of the North American race/comp season, plenty of material for the analytical viewer.

Negatives: Too much filler, rotten soundtrack.

Verdict

If you’re into your DH racing then you’ll probably get a lot out of Plush 2. If you’re looking for mind-blowing riding, though, there are better flicks out there.