Death of a Documentary and a pre-porn Nikki Reed

Rating: 10/10 (14 August 2006)

That sums up the two things I took from this movie: 1. It ruined one of the best documentaries of all time (Dogtown and Z-Boys); and 2. Nikki Reed, now 18, could become the biggest porn star of all time if she chooses to go that route.
Unfortunately, #1 can't be undone, and #2 probably never will be done. That leaves very few positives from a movie that would have been tolerable without the documentary, but anyone who saw the precursor to this film would have a difficult time appreciating the good points of the story, and there were actually a few.
The real story of this film is how a group of brash, young skaters from Dogtown turned the world upside down by adapting surf moves to the pavement, giving birth to what would become extreme sports and the x-games. This is definitely a story worth telling, as it's not the only time a "pod" has yielded several individuals (in this case, Peralta, Alva and company) who take over an industry. It's happened before (such as with the British invasion in music in the 1960s), and it's happened since (such as with rap from the Bronx in the 1970s, or grunge rock from Seattle in the early 1990s). Whenever a "pod" explodes, it's noteworthy and historically relevant. The Z-boys were one such pod.
That said, the movie absolutely, positively, sucked. Which one was Heath Ledger? Oh yeah, Skip, the shop guru. None of the actors really stand out, the skating scenes sucked (I did better tricks on my "Hang Ten" skateboard as a kid than what I saw in the film), and Nikki Reed looking like she struck oil whenever she meets one of these badboys is about the only genuine performance, given the grown-up wild-child's penchant for sexual adventure. She definitely scorches the camera in this one, and according to IMDb.com, the "thirteen" star is now a barely-legal eighteen, though she was seventeen when this came out and probably sixteen when it was made.
If there's one story the film did tell, it's what it feels like to be normal among your friends and a total revolutionary to anyone watching you. Having experienced this somewhat myself (I was in a "pod" that changed a different world not long ago), I can relate to the main characters in the film, guys who just did what they loved doing, who never really cared about doing anything other than what they loved to do, but who in the process became a social phenomenon of historical importance. It's not like these kids thought they were doing anything other than skating in some empty pools, feeding off the wealthy like the parasites they were, on the fringes of the law, but living a life far more interesting than money could ever buy.
Memo to Nikki Reed: do porn. It's your calling.