Entertaining

Rating: 7/10 (15 October 2005)

My first thought upon seeing the movie was that it was very entertaining. The skate shots are fun and the story moves quickly.
A more experienced actor certainly could have brought more depth to Jay's character. The real man seems to have a lot going on inside his head, it would have been great to show that to a mainstream audience.
The makers of the film made no bones about this being a fictionalized version of the DogTown and Z-Boys story. Anyone who criticizes the film for missing certain factual aspects should ask a friend about DogTown and ZBoys. It's in the documentary section.
I never felt as though the story was being manipulated to make one of the three main skate rats cooler or better or more in the right than the other. I think the flimmakers tried to show three different aspects of the skating lifestyle. Peralta is the commercial skater, Alva is the rock star, and Adams is the hardcore badass. If they explored the dichotomy between the three a bit more, it would have been great, but there was a lot of ground to cover in the film. To boot, real life is never that obvious.
Respect to the fact that the filmmakers showed Peralta being punked without trying to justify his lack of aggression.
All in all, definitely worth watching. A more experienced crew of actors and filmmakers could have brought more depth to the story.