Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

mrp mrp This is an excellent documentary about the pioneering 1970s Zephyr skate boarding team. They were called the Z Boys and they came from Santa Monica, CA. The team totally revolutionized skate boarding and made it both a true sport and also an art. The film details the origins of the team. It also shows where their moves came from. I certainly agree with the Grammy nomination for best compilation soundtrack. Check out the great clip played during the credits. It sounds like a multi-instrumental homage to one of the great "surf guitarists," but it's not done by a group that you would expect ... you'll see. The film really draws you in. If you like documentaries you should see this film. Besides the Z Boys there is also commentary from Tony Hawk and Henry Rollins. What more could you want?

MySportsComplex A dozen bored surfers, mostly kids in Venice, California, not only reinvent the skateboard but remake a once-forgotten-about suburban fad from the 1950s into an action sports revolution.Narrarated by Sean Penn, Dogtown depicts life in the more rundown "Locals Only" beach communities circa 1974, which consisted of mostly of surfing in the early morning tides and loitering. The Zephyr Team (or Z-boys as they are called) spend one summer combating the boredom by building their own boards with the help of a local who owns a surf shop. After they enter re-emerging skateboarding competitions in SoCal, they transfigure it all into their own scene; one that rouses a generation of skateboarders consisting of greats like Tony Hawk, Shaun White and the creators of the of X-Games.Dogtown puts chronological perspective into skateboarding, and the up-from-the-bootstraps history you never knew it had.from Andy Frye at MySportsComplex.blogspot.com

gw rogers Right there. Good, entertaining and accurate era-feel to most scenes. Enough personality variations to cover the real people around those days without story distractions from the exceptions. The credits show Peralta from Mar Vista, California.. up the hill from Venice and south of Malibu. I lived there in the Heartbreak Hotel days, pre-Beachboys, next to that surfer kid Bob Cooper up on Wasatch Avenue, where the alley was used to burn surfboards that didn't work. Old skatekey skatewheels were used on plywood cutouts to roll down sidewalk waves. Things were different in each succeeding decade as the cool innocence of the fifties broke into the Warmth of the Sun whitewater freedom and exhilaration of the electric sixties and then into the assertively innovative playtime and inventive evolutionary madness of the weird seventies. The movie gives you a piece of that kind of magic moment in time; in a place where the imaginary wave was real.. the source of culturally significant influences. And BTW, there's another movie that has a similarly American street edginess to it, and has the same genuinely unique goodness with laid back realness that helps refine that elusively eternal sense of cool.. "Two Lane Blacktop" (with one of the best examples of freesouldoit attitude in West Coast California history.. Dennis Wilson). Like Monte Hellman did with that one, thanks, SP, for being right there with this one. GWR

hankhanks12345 This is a pretty good documentary. I'm not a skateboarder, I don't particularly like skateboarding or skateboard culture. But somehow for about 2 hours this movie made me interested in the subject.I wouldn't call it the most intriguing film of all time, but for some reason when those guys were talking about how they started their skateboard clubs and were skating in those empty Southern California pools, I was interested.I should also add that the music in this film was pretty good too. I don't sit around yearning to hear more 70s rock bands, but it seemed appropriate for what they were talking about.