Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board

I've seen many movies and this one of them. I love when jony. My fav part was when we found it after watching the first movie... the first movie got me to watch the second one. I stayed out of the swimming to watch this 3 star masterpiece. The only thing i recommend is to make a jony part 3. Overall this movie was a solid 3/3.

Johnny Kapahala, a young Vermont snowboarding champion, returns to Hawaii for the wedding of his grandfather, a surfing legend. But in addition to lending a hand to his grandfather in a business dispute, he ends up having to help his stepson adapt to his new family. Johnny Kapahala (Brandon Baker), a young champion snowboarder from Vermont, returns to Hawaii for the wedding of his grandfather, a surfing legend. But in addition to lending a hand to his grandfather in a business dispute, he ends up having to help his stepson adapt to his new family.

If the first one was a cliché, this one was twice as cliché, I have nothing against it, neither in favor, for a rainy and boring Saturday night it will do, but I have a soft spot for cute family movies... I like it...

I HATE Disney movies about Hawaii. The only exception to that was Lilo & Stitch, where our culture, people, and life were paid attention to with great detail.

My parents and I watched the entire movie, struggling to figure out where any of the locations were. And you know what? We hardly recognized ANYTHING. The North Shore (which is on Oahu) and its famous waves were nowhere to be found, and nothing even looked remotely close to the North Shore.

And another thing I loved was that most of the characters were white. I am not being racist or discriminatory or anything, but I didn't see more than 3 'local-looking' people at all. I also don't know of much people who dirtboard here, so I have no idea why it was such a big focus of the film.

I know I know, people don't watch Disney movies for accurate descriptions of lifestyles in places outside of California. It's just annoying how they continue to do it.

And by the way, we don't say 'brah' at the end of every sentence.

Erle Stanley Gardner found a formula that worked. He subsequently built what he called a "fiction factory," to manufacture copies based on that formula. It featured a sort of circular slide rule that in various spins could and did produce scores of books.

Disney's cable property does this now. The formula is simple: find yourself and at the same time (usually) reconcile some problem with a relationship with your parents.

The spin of the wheel this time has dirt skateboards and Hawaii. Nothing else differs from the formula.

It must be hell to have airtime to fill, and unrelenting obligation. Its yet another reason you won't find much worth watching on TeeVee.

This time the mom is a redhead, an artifact of a different Disney story factory.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

When a month ago I heard that the original Disney channel movie Johnny Tsunami(1998) was returning with a sequel, I was psyched. The original was one of my favorite movies as a kid, and to put it easily enough, I was excited to see an update.

Now, when the movie begins, we immediately reacquaint ourselves with Johnny Kapahala, now 17 and back in Hawaii to visit his famous virtuoso surfer Grandfather, whose getting married. Now at the start of the movie, I got a little confused at first. Johnny meets up with a friend who I had no clue was suppose to be Sam from the first Johnny Tsunami. Yeah, Lil' J replaces Lee Thompson Young from the first movie.

Now, in the first movie, Young played Sam Sterling, a snowboarder Johnny meets in Vermont, who shows him the ropes and what not. I thought he was the coolest character back then. Now 7 years later, his character seems to have faded, along with his look, which isn't Lee Thompson Young's fault. Lil' J doesn't look anything like Lee Thompson Young, and he doesn't even pull his character off good at all. I thought it was kind of funny how when Johnny and him meet up again, Johnny doesn't even try to make a good attempt at being overjoyed by seeing him again. It was like Bradon Baker was saying to himself, "Yeah, that's not Sam".

Simply enough, I think Young reprising his role would have definitely been better, and a note to any director or whatever making a sequel to a movie series: If you can't get the actor to play as the character from the previous movie, don't add the character in the script! Or at least find someone who looks like the guy! Thankfully, Sam's role is very small in the movie, so I don't care. The plot of the movie revolves around Johnny going back to Hawaii preparing for his Grandfather's wedding, and learning he has an uncle, whose 12. Yeah, the next annoying character in the movie is Chris, Johnny's 12-year old uncle. Chris is a misguided pre-teen generally getting into the wrong crowd, and Johnny's there to veer him away from that.

You'd think that since they're back in Hawaii, surfing would be the main sport in the movie. Whelp, it's not, it's dirt boarding, which is a welcome change, as it shows how interesting and fast-paced the sport can be.

All in all, Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board showed me my childhood is dying quickly, but is a decent sequel, even through it's shortcomings. 6/10