Blue Crush (2002)
director: john stockwell
cast: kate bosworth, michelle rodriguez, matthew davis, sanoe lake, mika boorem, kala alexander, faizon love, chris taloa
Is
there anything cooler or crazier than someone riding a surfboard on top of a
mountain of churning water? That's the central question and strength of "Blue
Crush", a movie that can best be described as a "surfer-chick flick".
The story centers on Kate Bosworth as her character tries to face down the demons
that haunt her after a near fatal encounter with a monster wave on one of Hawaii's
jagged reef-ringed beaches. She wants to compete with the boyz but her tough
talk is being eclipsed by nagging fear as she relives her accident repeatedly
in her head. A competition is fast approaching and although Kate is physically
ready, mentally she's not. Instead of "riding the pipe", she bobs
in the surf like a cork letting each big wave pass, convinced that the next
one will be the one to wash away her doubt and magically turn her into a rich,
surf-riding goddess.
That's the good stuff in "Blue
Crush". The not so good involves a love-interest subplot with a NFL quarterback
that
derails the movie a bit. Kate and her friends (Michelle Rodriguez and Sanoe
Lake) have shit-jobs (literally) cleaning up rooms at an expensive hotel that
a football team is staying at. The jocks wind up paying the surfer chicks to
teach them how to ride some of the smaller waves. Predictably, a romance quickly
develops between the quarterback (Matthew Davis) and Kate. There's the suggestion
that Kate might prefer the life of a trophy wife to that of a fucked-in-the-head,
would-be surfer. Hey, the two of them have barely achieved "one night stand"
status, what's up with the major relationship drama? "Blue Crush"
is much better when it sticks to the surf and an athlete's quest to exceed the
limits she has set inside of herself. The film gets a little too earnest in
its pursuit of a feminist message and it comes off as being forced.
An article about the surfing scene
inspired "Blue Crush" and because of this I have some questions about
the depiction of the surfer-chick lifestyle. I admit that I know as much about
surfing as I do ice curling but are male 
surfers
really that antagonistic toward incredibly beautiful female surfers? It seems
implausible to me. Wouldn't they view these women as potentially perfect partners?
Don't they leave their competitiveness to competition, where it belongs? Also,
do men have any real advantage in surfing? Again, I don't claim to know the
sport but it seems to me that women would be better at it than men. Isn't it
all about balance? Some physical strength is necessary but a female athlete's
center of gravity is waist level and a male's is shoulder level. Wouldn't hip
level balance on a surfboard be more stable? What do I know?
Over all, the movie worked. It got me hooked on surfing. It also got me wondering how do those chicks keep those tiny bikinis from being torn off by the surf? Must be some of that old movie magic. "Blue Crush" is a fun summer flick that avoids tons of digital effects for something a little more real. Plus, once again, I get to sit for a couple hours staring like a mental patient at frickin' beautiful women. I'm not complaining. — Tom Graney
$5.50
© 2002 Hollywood Outsider™