Blue Crush (Full Screen Collector's Edition)

Blue Crush (Full Screen Collector's Edition)
by John Stockwell

Our Price: $10.39
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $0.06 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details

DVD details

DVD Reviews of Blue Crush (Full Screen Collector's Edition)

DVD Review: The best Hollywood has to offer?
Summary: 3 Stars

The surf cinematography in this film was top-notch. Simply gorgeous, whether shot from land, in the water, under water, a helicopter, or a camera board mount. Shots taken after a wipeout were blurry and confused, very effective. The sound was also fantastic. At the luau the night before the contest you can hear the surf pick up.

However, the editing of the surf footage was sloppy. Some of that can be expected. Close-up shots in flat water of someone paddling (or being towed) cutting to far-away shots of a big wave is pretty typical. But too many of the waves were edited together clumsily, and eventually the limited number of shots started to show through. Watching someone from underwater get sucked over the falls is one thing, but the third or fourth time you see that same shot, it loses some impact. Same for the shots of moves, or people dropping into waves, especially the digitally composited ones with stunt doubles' faces erased for the lead actress. There's a later helicopter shot of a peeling wave where a completely fake (digital) surfer is inserted, and it's awful! It looks faker than the XBox (or whatever) game the characters play.

Speaking of the characters, I liked them. Well-acted and not the conventional "surfer" stereotype (male or female). I felt like it gave me a good look at the difficulties of young surfers trying to scrap out a viable life on the north shore of Oahu. We see just about the dirtiest aspects of the tourist industry, and the flip-side, the locals who don't want the "haoles" around even though they implicitly depend on the tourists for their livelihood. Nothing is black-and-white; Drew is both an outwardly hostile local and yet he also tries to help Anne Marie (his ex) get some waves at Pipe to prepare for the contest. I thought Chris Toloa was very good as Drew. Keala Kenneley was also charismatic as "the" surf star, with the rest of the pantheon of world-class surfers that occupy the north shore of Oahu not present at all or shown in only a few shots (Layne Beachley and Rochelle Ballard in particular, who stunt-doubled for Kate Bosworth).

Overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend it. It's a step far above most of the dreck that Hollywood produces in the "surf" genre, which isn't hard to accomplish given that the current cream-of-the-crop are films like "Point Break," "North Shore," and "In Gods Hands." However, I'm still waiting for Hollywood to produce a surfing movie that "gets it," something I can point clueless friends and relatives to and say here, this is "why." For this film, too much of the "why" revolved around the dangers of surfing Pipeline and the desire for contests and sponsorships. All that was missing was shark attacks.

Yes, it was Anne Marie's (and her sister's) ticket out of a relatively bad situation, but ... why surfing? Why did she put up with any of it, why not just move away and get a decent job on the mainland? Those who don't know won't find the answer here... appropriate then that the best-represented member of surf industry in the film, Billabong, has as its motto "Only a surfer knows the feeling." Aside from a touching sequence of surfers as the credits roll, I don't think viewers of "Blue Crush" will be any closer to knowing for having watched the film.

Description of Blue Crush (Full Screen Collector's Edition)