Matrixston
Wow! Such a good movie.
MoPoshy
Absolutely brilliant
Portia Hilton
Blistering performances.
SnoopyStyle
Anne Marie Chadwick (Kate Bosworth) is a local surfer girl with best friends Eden (Michelle Rodriguez) and Lena (Sanoe Lake) aiming to surf the Pipe in competition. Her little sister Penny (Mika Boorem) is getting more rebellious especially when their mother leaves town. She struggles against testosterone driven surf culture, and her disgusting job as a hotel maid. However the arrival of pro football quarterback Matt Tollman (Matthew Davis) may distract her away from her goal.On the surface, this movie has beautiful babes in beautiful exotic locales. Beneath the surface, there is a compelling underdog story. It has emotions. She has to overcome her fears. Kate Bosworth is good as a girl unsure of herself. Rodriguez is the girl with attitude to spare. It's more than a simple exploitation film.
Wuchak
Released in 2002, "Blue Crush" tells the story of three young female surfers in Hawaii who support their lifestyle as maids at a high-class hotel. Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth) has dreams of going professional, but she has to get over her past failures and her family's breakup to succeed. In the meantime a vacationing NFL quarterback (Matthew Davis) romances her and she has to determine if their relationship is real or just a fling (for him, that is). Michelle Rodriguez and Sanoe Lake co-star as Anne Marie's surfing friends.As you can see, "Blue Crush" is a 'sports film' in the manner of "Karate Kid" and a host of others. Although some of these movies go the comedy route -- e.g. "Cloud 9" and "Bad News Bears" -- "Crush" is a serious drama with fun flashes.Filmed on the beaches/resorts of O'ahu, Hawaii, this is a beautiful and exhilarating film to watch, the perfect remedy if the weather in your area has been dreary.There's no profanity, raunch or t&a exploitation but, to be expected, the film features some good-looking women in swimwear throughout its 104-minute runtime (dudes too, if you're a woman). By "good-looking" I mean realistically so, not like "Baywatch" which normally featured masses of ultra-hot babes swarming the beaches.For the first hour the film was pretty much what I expected it to be, nothing great but moderately entertaining for this type of flick, and then something happened at the the 58-minute mark that struck a chord with me. Anne Marie hits the waves with her friend (Rodriquez) to prepare for the Pipeline Masters as we hear the song "Youth of the Nation" by P.O.D. This sequence touched me for some reason. The music & lyrics are emotionally potent and effectively set the tone for the remainder of the film."Youth of the Nation" exemplifies the zeitgeist of the new millennium just as "My Generation" perfectly represents the mid-60s and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" typifies the 90s (I was gonna say "and just as 'Muskrat Love' typifies the 70s" as a joke but decided not to, lol). Anyway, everyone's heard the song by now but if you're not sure go to youtube and listen to it with lyrics; it's an incredible piece, to say the least, and dig those heartrending lyrics! It's reality, my friend.For me, the film's just compelling enough to give a marginal thumbs up. Fans of surfing and Bosworth (or any of the other actors) will appreciate "Blue Crush" more than me. But I was moved by the above musical interlude and one other thing...What affected me most with the story is the picture of the three maids, impoverished and disdained by the snobs but full of youthful zeal and hope. It strangely reminded me of something I experienced on my last trip to Southern California. I was leaving the last showing of a theater late at night and spied the janitorial crew coming in to clean with their mops & buckets. They were Mexicans, mostly young, and possibly illegal aliens. Everyone walked by them as if they were invisible, like they were the scum of society or something. But I made a point to acknowledge them and smile. I don't feel I deserve a medal for this or anything; it's just that I made a decision long ago that, no matter how far I go in life, I'm not going to look down on or ignore those in a more modest position. Why? I don't know, maybe because I'M scum.The film runs 104 minutes.GRADE: B-
ptb-8
Good looking but ultimately routine surfing drama with 3 girl lead actors instead of guys.... offers more than it delivers mainly because there isn't a lot the producers can do with the material that hasn't been seen already in IN GODS HANDS or BIG Wednesday or even NORTH SHORE or Brit silliness BLUE JUICE or Australian travesties like LIQUID BRIDGE. In between great looking surf footage is the usual suburban TV level scenes in semi squalor, wild parties and teen arguments... or silly scenes in the workplace (hotel chambermaid scenes that are disgusting and just plain ugly....toilet bowls and condoms....ugh, yawn etc). Aimed squarely at teen audiences... primarily girls, and with the added butch aggro in the usual cranky performance by Michelle Rodriguez, there is absolutely nothing in this film for adults... sadly even those young adults in their 20s.
dust-7
The rather cute story of some surfer chick/bums, perpetually broke, living the dream in Hawaii. One of them is a former competitor and champion. But she hit bottom, literally, and can't get on the bike again. So that's the plot. Get her back in competitive women's surfing.She and her two friends work as maids in one of the hotels. She has a younger sister who goes to a local school, and generally acts up. But she's a cutie, too. They all are, basically. So it's around February, and the NFL Pro Bowlers come to town. There's the QB and his lineman, presumably from his own team. The QB sort of looks the part, because QBs generally are not that built. They're not all Terry Bradshaw. And the offensive lineman sometimes can have a belly and still be all-Pro - think Larry Allen. So I found the casting just barely believable in that. And she and the QB sort of hit it off. And eventually she offers, with the help of her friends, to teach them how to surf.It's a comic scene after scene as they learn to surf. But the point is to make the payoff. She goes to his hotel room, and he practically propositions her with a wad of bills. But she takes it home, pays the rent, etc, and we're on to the competition. Of course, she starts having sex with the QB, too. But it's for love, not the money. Certainly not any suggestion of actual marriage.The heart of the story is the competition. She has to get over her fear. She has to brave a number of waves. And of course - she wins in the end, gets the sponsorship deals, etc. That is success.The film really, that is, didn't have much of a story to tell. The story really was surfing itself, a sort of lifestyle, and that people would devote time to this, and to the competitions. The Pro Bowl backstory, while providing the 'love interest' only served to show their interest in this thing called - surfing.Despite surfers complaining that it wasn't just one big wave ride after another in this film, the film, nonetheless, is all about surfing - because it really is not about anything else. It's light-hearted. The actresses are almost always smiling, which is attractive. It's just a film with a lot of cute scenes, and at least one 'gross-out' scene. And when they do hit the water, there are some clever following shots right into the water showing the 'washing machine' that grabs the surfers who fall.I suppose the actresses have other commitments. I suppose Rodriquez will be about done with, Lost (which looks on the verge of getting cancelled). And I'm sure many would wonder, even though 'Penny' is now much older and very different, if the three other actresses are looking to reprise a Blue Crush II?
