WORDS: BOB K

Somewhere near the beginning of this film, Tony Magnussen compares Steve Rocco to Adolf Hitler. That's pretty harsh, but it's not exactly shocking that he'd make such a ridiculous comparison; one because Steve has kindof already made it himself (see the Shiloh Greathouse graphic turned movie box cover on the left) and two because when you've been as succesful as Steve has, especially in the way that he has, there are bound to be more than a couple of haters who just might be a tiny bit jealous of how well you've done pretty much on your own terms.

This much-anticipated documentary tells Steve's personal story and, along with it, the story of how World Industries virtually took complete control over the skateboard market in the 1990's, and then what want wrong, and then what went right again, and the hows and whys of it all. Hopefully I don't need to worry about spoiling it by telling you what you already know: from Steve borrowing money from a loan shark to start the company to sponsoring a checklist of most of the influential street skaters who came up in the 90's to more than half of them quitting and fucking over his business to him bringing it back and then finally selling it for millions of dollars - and everything inbetween - if you skated during what some call The World Era you're definitely going to be stoked to be reminded of the history you already know and also to get some answers to questions you might have always asked. Like was Sal Rocco actually as fucked as he came across in Big Brother? Where did the Bong Olympics come from? What's the whole story about Girl Skateboards starting and what does their VP, Mike Carroll, have to say about it? And how does today's industry (collectively interviewed throughout the film) remember the World Industries story?