Generally speaking if you enjoy films from the Banff film festival you will probably enjoy this one. Gorgeous scenery, a personal story, and a general overview of the parks.
14 Reviews
Reminds me of Banff films
bprinciples8 April 2019
Beautiful park shots
ComedyFan20101 April 2019
It is a really short documentary so we can't really see much of the great number of amazing national parks in America. Yet what we see is beautiful. Some amazing shots that make one want to just get up and go on a trip. Especially the Yellowstone park. In addition the documentary is not just about parks but about a group of people who do rock climbing there. not surprising since it is called "adventure". I liked the balance as there is not too much of it so most of the time one still watches the parks and at the same time they also offer some great shots such as their mountain bike riding. Loved the beautiful ice shots at the end and adorable prairie dogs which got a few minutes footage.
Not bad, but comes a bit short on the subject
Horst_In_Translation2 May 2018
Warning: Spoilers
"National Parks Adventure" is an American documentary short film from 2016 that runs for slightly over 40 minutes and is the most recent filmmaking effort by three very experienced documentary filmmakers, namely Oscar nominee Greg MacGillivray and writers Stephen Judson and Tim Cahill. So the outcome is sligthly underwhelming, the documentary is not really about the nature, but feels more like a travel diary most of the time that should people inspire to go see the national parks, but does not really tell people about what makes them so special in terms of animal variety for example or really spectacular nature sceneries. Then again, the "adventure" gives this somehow away too, so that you cannot say that they were trying to sell this film as something else and which is eventually also why I give the outcome here a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out. It wasn't really a close call either. I just feel that the opportunity here was certainly present to turn this into something more special and more memorable because the subject has so much to to offer. Then again, it is a really daring challenge they have here because including several national parks in a movie that stays considerably below the one-hour mark is almost an impossible challenge. Taking this into account, they did fine overall for sure. Go see it if you can. I was surprised how this film is really not too easy to get one's hands on. If you do, then don't miss out. Oh yeah, narrator is Oscar winner Robert Redford and he's doing a decent job too, so if you like him, there's another reason why you wanna watch this one.
Disappointing
CAG_13378 January 2020
Affecting.
REXNE17 April 2020
Unlike the documentaries we know, travelers were also involved. I can not say that I liked this side of it, but National Parks had amazing views, looking at nature is one of the things that affected me, and I was also very impressed in this documentary. 7/10
Wasted Opportunity
tgn34412 October 2016
I stumped-up full price to see this 50 minute film expecting to see a documentary on the National Parks. Some of the shots were jaw-dropping: Grand Prismatic Lake and the Grand Canyon in particular. However, these kinds of vistas were few and far between. I was treated to the sight (in 3D & IMAX) of three people sitting inside of their car having a singalong, a girl balancing on a rope and a guy climbing 30 or 40 feet up a frozen waterfall. Instead of concentrating on this group's journey, and the fun time they had mountain biking, I would have liked to have seen more of the Parks of Utah. No mention of the Blue Ridge or Natchez Parkways either. The whole film struck me as a wasted opportunity to showcase the beauty and diversity of the National Parks. 4 stars for the truly impressive shots of the parks (which are not long enough anyway).
Truly Disappointing
jmillerdp3 July 2016
Considering you gotta fork over a full-price ticket to see a short- subject film, I was certainly disappointed.
The film inexplicably features three people who use the National Parks as their personal playground. Bizarrely, the film spends 10 minutes or so watching them cooking, riding in their car, tightrope walking, whatever. A true waste of time. Maybe these three people in the movie were related to the director? I have no idea.
Add to it the bizarre disservice done to who should have showed up in the movie and been the centerpiece: Native Americans. Having three white people as the centerpiece was a truly strange way to "celebrate" our National Parks.
If you have ever heard the stories Native Americans have about the lands of our country, you would be transfixed! Truly fascinating. If we had heard about how they worship the land and believe in its power, it would have made a tremendous difference. Instead, all we get is a brief reference to it by off-screen narrator Robert Redford.
A true missed opportunity, and a true disappointment.
**** (4 Out of 10 Stars)
The film inexplicably features three people who use the National Parks as their personal playground. Bizarrely, the film spends 10 minutes or so watching them cooking, riding in their car, tightrope walking, whatever. A true waste of time. Maybe these three people in the movie were related to the director? I have no idea.
Add to it the bizarre disservice done to who should have showed up in the movie and been the centerpiece: Native Americans. Having three white people as the centerpiece was a truly strange way to "celebrate" our National Parks.
If you have ever heard the stories Native Americans have about the lands of our country, you would be transfixed! Truly fascinating. If we had heard about how they worship the land and believe in its power, it would have made a tremendous difference. Instead, all we get is a brief reference to it by off-screen narrator Robert Redford.
A true missed opportunity, and a true disappointment.
**** (4 Out of 10 Stars)
Another cliche documentary
iggypimp-2948211 November 2018
There were a few decent scenes but its ruined by a poor soundtrack and a non stop subaru commercial. Not everyone that goes to the national parks are wearing puffy jackets and knitted hats in search of adventure. I would also like to add that there is more to this great country than the few places that are constantly covered in every nature documentry. This is just another film that perpetuates the idea that the national parks are only for crunchy granola eating hipsters.
Awful "foreground" music
ajtroxell19 May 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Love Robt Redford's narration, spectacular photography, don't care about the 3 (who cares?) peoples' climbing adventures. Totally spoiled by the annoying dopey overly LOUD music. Ditch the singers, keep Redford, quiet the music and turn up the nature sounds and it would be a pleasure to watch.
Lacks purpose
Calicodreamin19 April 2020
While the scenery and cinematography were quite breathtaking, this 45 minute documentary lacked direction. The doc somewhat follows a group of people as they trek around a few national parks. I felt the special could have done better to highlight more parks and stuck to the history and general info, the people weren't necessary.
Not a Documentary
ericfeichthaler19 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I LOVE the national parks. I have been to 51 of them and they are my favorite places in the world. I went into this expecting jaw-dropping camerawork and scenery along with some interesting history lessons. Unfortunately, these aspects are in short supply. The main focus is these three adventure junkies singing in their car and doing little of interest. A whole scene is dedicated to them failing to tightrope walk. I also hate how they try to make Sarah a character. She whines and has a tragic backstory and constantly hurts herself. I also feel that there was no direction here. The people jump from park to park at random and spend 2 minutes of screen time at each. The order of parks in clunky, the history parts are short and mostly not very interesting or informative. I also found some of the cinematography to be really bad. You could tell when a 360 camera was used and sometimes the aspect ratio was off. The graphics were not great either. That said, some of the scenery is beautiful. I love some of the places the people go to and wish more time was spent seeing them explore the deep and rich scenery and history instead of melodrama and humor. Imagine being a nature lover who wants to learn about Yellowstone and the first you see is people in a car singing. There are some benefits. Some history and scenery are great, their choice of parks is pretty good, and the ending felt very down-to-earth with guests visiting parks and many classic sites. If the whole thing was events like these that focus on parks more than adventure, it would have been good. I love documentaries, but they tend to have a normal, cohesive story or at least a certain goal to teach viewers in a sequence. This is not a movie or a story. It is a person telling a friend about their trip if they got the places mixed up in the wrong order. I don't recommend this. Watch any National Geographic documentary or the Ken Burns one instead,.
What was the title again?
wimgielenglas8 November 2020
Pointless effort to create something interesting. In the first minutes you hear tales about how Indians used to live in harmony with nature. The voice of Redford is as expected, very good.
And then is starts with popsongs, focusing on everything but the awesome nature.
It fails in every aspect from there on.
Just another waste of time.
Pretty buy exceptionally cringey
frasercurrie6 February 2019
Lots of beautiful hi-res footage of some amazing places. Makes me want to travel to the US. However, almost ruined by the cliché soundtrack and scripted scenes of the climbers. Conrad is an awesome guy who's done some exceptional stuff but this feels like a bit of a sell out.
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