oo i love taxi videos this is so sick
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very special video between two great friends. i went to LA to visit abso a couple months after this, once in a lifetime experience. god i miss him.
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Review #2 - Play Dead by GFox and Lena
Stunts in Order:
Lena's Hill Ramp to Billboard Grind to Thread: 5/5 - This is the ultimate stunt you can pull off on his ramp hill with BMX, the distance to the billboard grind is nuts, and the thread at the end makes it a perfect stunt in my eyes. 360 backflips is hella steeze.
GFox's Sideride to Crank to Ammo Precision: 5/5 - I don't think I've seen a single BMX stunt in this location, but it's fair to say you landed the best combo you could,ve. Really sick combo all in all.
Lena's Ass Grind to Tree Thread to Garage Entry: 5/5 - Best stunt of the video. The exit out of the ass grind was too clean, basically a double thread as well with the trees and garage. Only parking garage entry stunt I'll ever enjoy.
GFox's Wheelie to Fleeca Prec: 4/5 - I had this spot as well, it's a neat one. I think this is cooler than crank to precision.
Lena's Triple Grind on Bridge - 2.5/5 - Weakest stunt of the bunch, wasn;t terrible, just nothing memorable. It wss clean at the very least.
Dual Stunt to Pier Precision: 4.5/5 - Lowkey wish there were more dual stunts but this is a daytage so I shouldn't expect that. Unqiue landing to implement this technique on.
Lena's Double Pole Bounce to Billboard Grind to Ledge Grind: 5/5 - This was a sick combo! I didn't think the stunt would keep going after the billboard grind, Idk, this is just a spot that most people wouldn't think of.
GFox Cog to Double Crank: 3.5/5 - Cool spot, grinds are on the unclean side my friend, therefore I must deduct 1.5 points.
Lena's Wigwam Thread: 3.5/5 - Neat thread but that's the only cool part of the stunt imo.
GFox's Billboard Grind to Gate Thread: 5/5 - Probs my favorite GFox stunt of the video. Love the run up and location.
Lena's Roof Cog to Windmill Precision: 4/5 - Sick lil spot.
GFox's Thread/Cog to Thread to Grind: 5/5 - The thread/cog at the start was prestine, I also think it's impressive how you jumped back into a grind after the second thread, looks super tight.
Total Score: 52/60 - 8.6/10
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Editing Review:
The one word I kept thinking about when watching this again was spontaneous. Not only due to the fact that this is a Daytage, but for the fact that everything about this edit embodies "going with the flow." I find that GFox really shines when there are limitations, whether its time or challenging themself to create a new asthetic in their videos. Play Dead is no exception, and remains one of my favorite edits by GFox to this day. If I had to compare this to a video of the past, I'd say Summit by Cryptic/Vengeance Stunting. I think what both videos do so well is keeping a high energy, there's not much filler, just killer. Music makes a huge impact in this video, it's fun, captivating, and creates a perfect pace for the stunts. This montage has a very distinctive look as well, it's kind of muddied down, almost looks like some lightly corrupted found footage you'd stumble across on the random corners of the internet. Angles can be a very subjective topic, but in this case, I don't think there's anything to critique. I think every shot serves a purpose, there's no dead time, which isn't a bad thing to have, but with the highly energetic vibe of this video, I think it was a good choice to mostly showcase the stunts to maintain the pace. I find it hard to explain what I like about an edit, but I think it's mostly just feels, what leaves the biggest impact on me when walking away from a video, and I think Liam always delivers on that front.
Editing Score: 5/5
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Last Thoughts and Final Score: There were so many amazing videos that came out in 2024, and it's really hard to pinpoint a favorite, but if I had to choose one, I think it would be Play Dead. It's a super fun and memorable watch. Daytages of the past, and lowkey some modern BMX videos have nothing on this. Lena personally had my favorite stunts overall, I just wouldn't have thought of any of those spots. GFox killed the edit as they always does. Amazing duo, amazing edit, amazing video.
I'm feeling a 9/10!
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I REALLY love this video, like a LOT!
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rather then a direct review of lunatic, i instead would like to open a discussion about the 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳-𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘱 of ability car stunting and the current ideological stance that old-generation car stunting innately has become an uninspired, outdated branch of car adjacent stunting in the grand theft auto five stunting community.
judgement of an original stunt is built up of four fundamental components: originality , creativity , appearance and difficulty. while each of these components inevitably intertwine, my analysis of old-generation car stunting is a lack of all four of those key components, and i'll now elaborate on each one.
- originality is what i deem most important in a stunt, this includes the location , the vehicle , the runup , the bumps and the landing. an intrinsic issue with old-gen car stunting, readily apparent in lunatic is the lack of originality to the core of each element. in lunatic every spot is an evolution of the past by a hundred meters or a rehash of an idea but just executed with a car, missing out on everything listed.
- creativity is the second runner for importance to a stunt, umbrellaing concepts such as the uniqueness of the spot , uniqueness of the vehicle and 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘺 the ways the stunt reaches beyond the box of what is expected. reaching beyond a decade of old-generation ability car stunting it is almost comical the sample size narrowed into stunts that aren't confined to a hill ramp to precision/building landing, compared to the percentage that are. and even more hilarious if you incorporate stunts landed with the truffade adder or the z-type.
- appearance is the third and most subjective element of a stunt. appearance encompasses vehicle choice , spectacle , viewing retention , readability contrasted with the environment and least notable the weather/time. appearance while not an inveterate cognitive factor plays a large mental role in the appreciation and the memorability of a stunt. while editing contributes a factor for this analysis right now it is being disregarded to later. ability car stunting intrinsically lacks majority of these points, further accentuated by the limitations of old-gen consoles that makes its car stunts all comparable to pc motorbike long glide stunts.
- difficulty is the final component that grades a stunt, most simply it is the total sum of each element of a stunts difficulty combined into an undefined grade. personally i would deem difficulty the least sufficient tool for the analysis-tic analysis of grading stunts, playing no major factor besides the appreciation for the time spent on the spot, rather than a palpable measurement of the stunt itself propelled even more concretely with the introduction of breakboosting that lamed any semblance of getting speed equating to a challenging skill.
while breakboosting has pushed the medium against the glass ceiling, to paint a distinction between the last-generation vs the current landscape of ability car stunting its natural to contrast the poster boy, blaze against the current lineup of pc stunters he falls short of. being critical of those four key components really highlights the two dimensionality of old-gen car stunting and beyond becomes an identifier of stunts i'd deem objectively mediocre or worse, and that "𝘰𝘭𝘥-𝘨𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘢𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘦𝘵" is so ingrained from the lack of possibility that it is even possible to coin blazes pc montage "buried" as such. this consistent trend of car stunting lends a large part to why the kaara series by masaboy was so instantly loved as the trilogy nails all four of the key components which is inherently lacking in every previous car stunting endeavour of the past decade. and the technicality that many pc stunters introduced to car stunting, from and built off the eleven teamtage by evolve stunting has proven the 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳-𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘱 the old-generation car stunting mindset has succum to.
it would make sense to share some insight on the lunatic video outside of just the stunting. while at the time of release it was hailed as the greatest montage, and obviously the highest form of car stunting, the shift in climate has been very unkind to the legend status this video once was bestowed. the editing harkens back to a classic sa/vc/iii style that while not noteworthy in any regard does a solid job communicating the tone and being in harmonic balance with the music, although while done well the recalling of previous styles does box itself into the same old thinking the stunts were also approached with leading to an overall depreciation of the project. the biggest gripes in lunatic instead stem from the length of the video, consisting of a 4 minute intro in which a minute is an unbearable flashing black and white sequence and that spends each shot revealing many of the landings in the video before they even happen. a simple cutting of repeat stunts such as maze bank arena ramp or the inferior YSC clips would've made repeat viewings of this video less of a chore then it is in reality.
in summary lunatic is the ideal example of how the standards of stunting has systemically shifted out of favor for the 𝘰𝘭𝘥-𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 mindset from both the editing, music and most significantly the stunting towards a structure that values in order; originality , creativity , appearance and difficulty instead of the difficulty , originality , scale and lastly the creativity of a stunt.
this review is open to a discussion and debate in the comments, where i'm happy to elaborate on the points above if you have rivaling opinions.
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