Great summer movie

Rating: 8/10 (7 March 2005)

Do not let the poor reviews put you off, Blue Crush is a very enjoyable and touching tale with spectacular waves that will have you screaming at the screen for everyone to get the hell out of the water. They are clearly all crazy.
Anne Marie (Bosworth) is a talented surfer that hopes to compete in the male dominated Pipe Masters competition. She shares a ramshackle beach house with her two friends Eden (Rodriquez) and Lena (Lake) as well as her rebellious little sister Penny (Boorem). Her life is split between a gruelling Rocky style-training regime, surfing, and working with her house mates as maids in a high-class hotel in an attempt to pay the bills. That is until the hotel is taken over by American Footballers whose quarterback Matt (Davis) catches her eye.
It starts off badly, with a rather psychedelic flash back sequence that shows us the traumatic surfing experience that haunts Anne Marie and is the reason she has been out of the professional circuit for the last few years. But very soon the characters begin to win us over, primarily because it is impossible not to respect someone who regularly paddles out into over 20ft waves. Especially when they are just wearing bikinis. Boswoth gives a great performance and perfectly portrays the mixture of adrenaline, exhaustion, vulnerability and absolute terror that anyone facing mother natures at her most magnificent would feel. The waves are the most spectacular you will see on screen, with stunning camera work and sound that manages to pull you out into the water to feel the panic and fear, not just for the characters, but for yourself. The surf sequences are absolutely gripping and will have you clinging to your seat, breathlessly.
On land the film holds up just as well. Even though many ideas and sequences are lifted directly from a variety of other films (Pretty Woman, Maid in Manhattan and Point Break to name a few) they are handled in a fresh way, and have plenty of laugh out loud moments to keep you entertained. The support cast is uneven, from the two brilliant big and black American Footballers to the dubious use of real life surfers and locals. However this seems to add a realism that actually works well as these few scenes can feel like the link shots used between the action in real surfing videos.
It is hard to explain why this film is so good. The plot is not great, and is has been accused of being a mindless sports/action film that uses scantily clad girls for titillation. That's crap. The girls are in bikinis because they live on a beach, the camera is never lecherous and there is no nudity. This film is far less predictable than you would expect it to be and it is sincere and sentimental. It also deals with many themes that we can relate to, such as facing up to past demons, finding a sense of direction and identity, family responsibility, and how priorities change when we fall in love.
Go see this film on the big screen, it's a great Romeo and Juliet story that's fun for both girls and boys of all ages. It will have you leaving the cinema smiling, perhaps with a new determination to face your own fears, or at least to try and get fit and go to the beach. A great film to get you in the mood for summer.