Blue Crush

I remember seeing this movie several years ago and thinking nothing of it, I felt it was gonna be another cheesy teen movie with inane dialog and cliché moments of romance and humor. But low and behold, I was proved wrong. It may not have an award winning screenplay, but the dialog and plot along with some acting performances are decent enough to make the film entertaining than it actually is. What won me over was the cinematography and many will point out that the sound is one of the film's best assets. It was a treat to see this film back in the cinemas so I have no doubt in my mind that that same feeling can be had in the comfort of your own home. While watching this film, you almost feel as if you're in it itself and that's a feat that "Blue Crush" accomplishes because of it's superb atmosphere. It may have some cliché moments but "Blue Crush" is a nice movie to kick back to and enjoy. Not a classic by any means, it's entertaining for a nice little, hot summer afternoon.

Critic Ebert has a very complete and accurate review, and I will not repeat any of it here. I bought "Blue Crush" as a used rental DVD, real cheap, and it is a perfect disk. The basic story has been told many times, but it is done here better than many. However, there is one thing that moves it from the "ordinary" to "outstanding - the cimematography and the sound.

After most of the first hour of the film sets up the characters and the situations, we are treated to surfing the Hawaii "pipeline" by surfers. One DVD extra shows how they do "face replacement" so that the pro surfer appears to be star Kate Bosworth. With many cameras in the waves, and sometimes under them, we get a unique perspective of being on top of a giant wave, or being inside the wave as it is breaking. All the while a very aggressive sound mix makes you feel like you are there also. This is definitely a good DVD to have for demonstrating the quality of your digital 5.1 surround sound system with good powered subwoofer.

I suspect anyone who saw "Blue Crush" at home, on VHS or DVD, with sound fed into the TV speakers has seen a different movie. That's because the sound track plays such a key role. This isn't a great movie, but a very good one. I believe its most realistic IMDb rating is somewhere around "7" or "8".

The best we should reasonably expect from a movie like `Blue Crush' is that we will be treated to some stunning footage of surfers riding the world's greatest waves (along Hawaii's Pipeline, natch) to personal fame and glory. We certainly get that in abundance - but what we have less right to expect, perhaps, is that the film will offer anything else of any real quality. After all, we've been to these kinds of movies before, harking all the way back to those halcyon Bleach Blanket Bingo days when Gidget, Moondoggie and the rest of those addle-brained, teeny-bopper cut-ups aspired to nothing higher than a life of eternal youth spent wallowing in the bleach-white sands of Santa Monica or Malibu. In the case of `Blue Crush,' therefore, I am happy to report that the screenplay - by Lizzy Weiss (based on a magazine article by Susan Orlean) -provides just enough touches of realism to keep this new film both life-sized and interesting. And the majority of the credit goes to the film's protagonist, Anne Marie Chadwick who, much to our surprise, engages our sympathies from first moment to last.

Anne Marie is no bubble-headed, bleached-blond bimbo with nothing on her mind but winning the big Pipeline competition. Although that is, indeed, part of her life's plan, Anne Marie is, also, an intelligent, pragmatic young woman, fully aware of both her strengths and weaknesses and just trying the best she knows how to make her life work for her, the young sister in her charge and the two surf buddy girlfriends she lives and works with. Anne Marie is also riddled with insecurities, as she struggles to overcome the fear instilled in her by a near-fatal accident in that very same spot a few years earlier. Meanwhile, she and her pals work hard trying to eke out a living as maids at a posh hotel, earning just enough money to keep a roof over their heads and pay some of their bills so they will be free to head to the coast at the first sign of prime `Surf's Up' conditions.

The acting in the film is really quite impressive. As Anne Marie, Kate Bosworth lights up the screen with her subtly nuanced, poised and dignified performance. She knows how to use understated facial expressions to convey the thoughts and feelings of the character she is portraying. Equally compelling are Michelle Rodriguez and Sanoe Lake as her fun-loving buddies, Mika Boorem as her little sister, and Matthew Davis as the professional football quarterback who becomes her love interest. Director John Stockwell, to his credit, manages to keep the majority of the scenes intimate in tone and realistic in nature, rarely allowing the narrative to wander into overwrought melodrama or teen-movie farce. Even the obligatory fight scene is kept restrained and believable.

There are occasional weaknesses in the film – a gaggle of snooty football wives and groupies who snub Anne Marie for being too lower class for their tastes are the primary offenders – but, on the whole, `Blue Crush' turns out to be a much better film than its subject matter would ever lead us to expect. That comes as a particularly pleasant and un-looked-for surprise here in the shank of the summer movie going season.

From the thoroughly mediocre school of filmmaking, here comes director John Stockwell's 'Blue Crush'. Its graduates...uh, actors include Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez, and a bunch of other pretty people you've never heard of. Bosworth is Anne Marie, the super-talented surfer with a confidence problem. Before the movie is half over, she's in love with a pro quarterback and struggling to gumption up for the big all-girls surf championship. It's your standard 1980's Tom Cruise picture.

If a movie with such modest ambitions is supposed to make you want to go out and take up surfing, I say, hand me my 'Point Break' DVD instead. Sure, 'Blue Crush' is professionally made and the camerawork is fine, but how hard is it to pretty up shots of the Hawaiian ocean when it's in the form of gorgeous, humungoid waves? That's a natural beauty that speaks for itself and doesn't need Hollywood to flaunt it. As for the screenplay by Lizzy Weiss & Stockwell, well, they're proficient with the surfing lingo. They're also absentminded enough to bury their various hanging plot threads in an undertow. The flick is not trying to be a deep meditation on the entire wave-lovin' experience, but that's no excuse for staggering along with such a sub-par story.

As unremarkable as they may be, the female leads are about the best thing in the film. They all look smart in bathing suits---the words "woo hoo" come to mind---and they're fairly natural. Plus, these likable babes don't grate with too many, "you go, girl" comments. Rodriguez even smiled once or twice, which confirms that she DOES have more facial expressions than just snarling and pouting. But despite the physical beauty of the waves and the girls, the film they're in is generic goop. Parents will be happy that all the sex is kiss-kiss-fadeout, there's nary a drug, and only a handful of cuss words. All the same, I'm certainly not happy with the content of 'Blue Crush'. It's just not tubular, dude.

I don't understandn the reviews people are giving that sound like they expected so much more from this movie. Pretention, I'm guessing. The cast was great. Plenty of laughs. Stunning shots in and out of the water and a happy ending. It certainly isn't the most profound movie, but I'm pretty sure they werent going for that anyways. I like it for a feel good movie. I've watched at least ten times and I still enjoy it for what it is. If i want a riveting storyline I'll watch something other than a surfing movie, duh.