Eye Candy, no more, no less

Rating: Null/10 (16 September 2003)

This movie is a cross between "Sport movie" and "Teen flick". Based on that sentence alone you can predict pretty much all elements in there: good looking people (well, mostly girls, to be fair), gross humour that isn't funny (used condoms, floaters in toilets, puke), a romance, a crisis in the romance, a sports contest, some "go out there and kick some butt" speeches, and, unfortunately, blaringly loud music in every second scene in order to push a soundtrack CD.
But all of that is excusable in this case for a single reason: The surf scenes, and the camerawork in these. As shallow as the movie may be, when it gets down to the surfing, they've been as serious, as meticulous and as visually brilliant as film makers can get. Well, and the waves did their best too, I'm sure. I'd love for this movie to be rereleased in DMR IMAX format.
Some people mention CGI, and sadly, the face replacement wasn't convincing in some scenes. But, and that is perhaps more important, there were no full CGI humans, no surfing James Bond, anywhere in sight. So you get a dodgy face replacement or two and near the end an embarrassing blue screen, but apart from that everything appeared to be authentic.
So in the end it boils down to this: If you want to watch some of the most amazing visuals ever shot, without wire-fu and big explosions, then this movie is worth your money. If you happen to like corny, predictable teen flicks crossed with sports movies, but without any laughs, then you will like it too. If you find teen flick casts unbearable, predictable stories lame, and the thought of watching a non-funny movie featuring both frightens you, you can either go for the visuals, or avoid the movie.
7/10 (visuals: 10/10, rest: 3/10)