Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator

Documentary about the skateboarding trend in the 1980's and Mark "Gator" Rogowski who is in jail for murder.

I think you would only be interested in this movie if you skated or were interested in skating at one point in your life. I loved the little skater boys when I was in sixth grade through junior high (1985-1988 ) so I vaguely knew some stuff that was mentioned in this documentary.

It isn't the most exciting thing to watch though. It slowly built up Gator through interviews with people way back when and now, plus showing various clips of him throughout the 80's and 90's. The decline felt kind of rushed to me and then suddenly he killed someone and it was over. I guess there was no real explanation for it, but it still seemed like it just kind of ended.

What I got out of it was that Tony Hawk was the only smart person out of all the skating guys. They used to be all about doing tricks on half pipes in the 80's. Then street skating became big and a lot of skaters couldn't do the street tricks, like Gator. They sucked at it. They couldn't adapt. Tony Hawk seems to be the only one adapting to each new trend, and then sponsoring those up and coming skaters so his name is always out there and now he's just rolling in the dough.

Rating: B-

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